Added ram, sluggish

failurbydesign

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I added a stick of pc2700 512mb ram from crucial, and sometimes my pc gets sooo sluggish i have to restart...but when i was just at 512mb, it was never sluggish..any ideas?
 
is it two different speeds/brands of RAM? maybe the motherboard you're using doesn't support the brand of the new stick of ram you got? (i know some motherboards are quite picky with their RAM). hard to say really.
 
Could be a bad stick of ram. Take out your original 512 and run just the new one for awhile and see if still gets sluggish. If it doesn't, your mobo may not like the combination of the two sticks (if they're different brands, etc.).

vivid
 
What MB and what are the ratings of the two sticks. You can use use CPUz to get the info if you don't know it.

Make sure your FSB did not automatically get reduced to deal with a slower ram stick. Some MBs have the FSB and RAM clock linked.

Check your before and after (new stick) FSB, cpu, ram clock and ram timings. You may need to set the ram and FSB independently in the bios.
 
Ya, i believe it needs to be the same cas latency on both chips, definately the same speed...
 
Ok, i ran CPUz, and CRAP!!! My pc came with pc3200 and i put in a pc2700.....CRAP CRAP CRAP....even crucial says

Crucial recommends this 184-pin DIMM DDR PC2700 module guaranteed to be compatible with your system and deliver the performance you need.


****!!!!!!!!


http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=95930
 
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failurbydesign said:
I added a stick of pc2700 512mb ram from crucial, and sometimes my pc gets sooo sluggish i have to restart...but when i was just at 512mb, it was never sluggish..any ideas?


Reconfigure your swap/page file.

Let windows do it for you.
 
failurbydesign said:
how doi do that?

Right click my computer from desktop.

Click advanced then settings.

Click advanced. At bottom it says virtual memory, click change.

Click on the drive that has your swap/page file on it, check 'system managed size', click o.k. and reboot.

You say you have 512mb, if you set it yourself do 768 (minimum) 1536 (maximum).

There you go pretty straight forward.
 

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That's not going to help his ram stick being 2700 instead of 3200. The MB will default both sticks to 2700. You need need to replace the 2700 with a 3200.

Whoa! I just clicked the link. Here's the big problem:

RAM Freq : 106.7 MHz

It should be 166mhz for PC 2700 or 200 Mhx for PC3200.

The MB isn't auto selecting the RAM speed correctly. It's probably that RAM ratio setting. 5:4 AT 106 gives you the 133 FSB the processor needs.

It could be a bios setting or a MB clock controller limitation. I'll go download the manual.

Update:
Your MB does not support PC3200 RAM when running a 533 Mhz FSB CPU. So the PC2700 is not a limitation until you upgrade the CPU.

The problem is in the bios settings. The MB manual has no details on setting the memory speed so I can't help. you'll have to open the main tab and look around.

The chipset does appear to support dual channel operation so you really want to have a matched set of ram sticks.

Quick fix?
Try swapping the memory sticks. If the slow one is in the first slot the auto speed detect may work right.

Update 2:
I found out why there were no menu instructions. Everything is pretty much auto set on that MB. There are no RAM speed options. Hope the stick swap works, if not you will probably have to replace the 2700 with a 3200 matched to what you have and I can't swear that will work.
 
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Nothing will go wrong, you could run PC2100 if need be, but your PC3200 ram will decrease it's speed to be the same as PC2100 which is limiting it.
 
No, it's just with the ram clock at 106mhz it is going to be awful slow. It's like running PC1800 ram. You need to get it to run the ram at 166 MHZ (PC2700) which is the best the MB will allow with the 533 FSB CPU chip.

I can't find any way to do that with the bios on your MB. Most MBs allow you to change the RAM speed all by itself or at least select the multiplier. You need a 2:1 (266 mhz, PC 2100), or 10:3 (~333 mhz, PC2700), but your MB is set at 5:4 (200 mhz, PC1800).

Try just the original memory stick and see what cpuz says.

Then try the new stick in the first slot and the old stick in the second slot and see what cpuz says.

Post the ram frequency and the ram multiplier from CPUz for the above two setups.
 
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Ok, but there arethree sticks, 2x 256 pc3200 and one 512 pc2700...so how should i do that?
 
Oh, I missed that part. You're screwed. The way you have them now is probably as good as it will get. The MB supports dual channel RAM which runs pairs of ram sticks at double speed. With 1 or 3 sticks the dual channel does not work so you loose a lot of your speed.

Take out the new 512 stick, run cpuz and click on the Memory tab. See if it says "dual" next to channel # on the upper right.

If it does you really need to have 2x512 of PC 2700 (or 3200) of the same type if you want the full ram speed performance. Staying at 2x256 is the only other performance option. And remember that as long as you have a 533 FSB CPU you won't be able to run at PC 3200 RAM speeds.
 
Shoot, are u serious?
with three ram sticks dual channel doesnt work?
I just bought 512 more for mine, boosting it to 2.5gb, should i get another stick to make it go faster?
 
Well if you think about it, dual channel can't run with only one stick now can it? :eek:

The RAM will obviously still run, but you will lose dual channel capabilities. If you purchase RAM with the idea of running in dual channel, and let it run outside of that mode, it's like trying to play catch with one hand tied behind your back. Which would have to be done by catching with one hand, drop the glove on the ground, pick the ball up with the same hand and throw it back.
 
But i have three...
Does that mean two will run it, or does it mean what i think it does and none will run it.
If i get another, to make it four, will it be dual channel again?
 
Depending on the motherboard there are situations were 3 sticks does run in dual channel you need to know about SS vs DS example. Slot one ss 512 slot 2 ds 1024 and slot 3 ss 512 will work as dual channel 2 gigs you really need to look at the configuration from your mobo maker to see what they say runs in dual channel because ram works on banks not slots.
 
Most will not run the ram dual channel. Some will run the 2x256 in dual channel but not the three. I have never seen a MB manual that will run a mixed bag of 2x256 and a 512 in dual channel regardless of single sided vs dual sided sticks. Most of the manuals I've checked won't even let you run a SS with an equal size DS.

All you need to do to find out is run cpuz and check the memory tab.

Just try different combinations and check whether cpuz reports it as dual or single channel.

PS DS means ram chips on both sides of the stick SS means ram chips on only one side.
 

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