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I just upgraded my PC this morning with another 1gb of memory (I had
1gb PC3200 DDR 400 memory). I have noticed that my temps in ATiTool
0.24 have went up about 5 degrees since the memory installation. I
realize that the ATiTool is measuring GPU temps, but should new memory
add to the temps inside my case at all?

I have excellent ventilation happening inside my case and a Zalman fan
on my PowerColor X800XL PCI-E video card which dropped my temps by 9
degrees a month or so ago when I bought it. Now my temps seem to be
creeping back up there since the memory install this morning.

Also, went to play GTA:San Adreas to test it out with the new memory
and it restarted my computer twice; I mean complete reboot. The only
adjustment I made in the settings was from 800x600x32 to 1024x768x32
screen resolution.

Could it be bad memory or something?

Mike wrote:
> I just upgraded my PC this morning with another 1gb of memory (I had
> 1gb PC3200 DDR 400 memory). I have noticed that my temps in ATiTool
> 0.24 have went up about 5 degrees since the memory installation. I
> realize that the ATiTool is measuring GPU temps, but should new memory
> add to the temps inside my case at all?
>
> I have excellent ventilation happening inside my case and a Zalman fan
> on my PowerColor X800XL PCI-E video card which dropped my temps by 9
> degrees a month or so ago when I bought it. Now my temps seem to be
> creeping back up there since the memory install this morning.
>
> Also, went to play GTA:San Adreas to test it out with the new memory
> and it restarted my computer twice; I mean complete reboot. The only
> adjustment I made in the settings was from 800x600x32 to 1024x768x32
> screen resolution.
>
> Could it be bad memory or something?
>

Change your settings back to 800x600 and check temperatures again. You
have just complicated things and assumed the addition of the extra RAM
has caused the increase in temperature. I think it reasonable to
assume the increase in resolution makes the card work harder.....

--
Cheers
Oldus Fartus

On 2006-03-11, Mike <> wrote:
> I just upgraded my PC this morning with another 1gb of memory (I had
> 1gb PC3200 DDR 400 memory). I have noticed that my temps in ATiTool
> 0.24 have went up about 5 degrees since the memory installation. I
> realize that the ATiTool is measuring GPU temps, but should new memory
> add to the temps inside my case at all?
>
> I have excellent ventilation happening inside my case and a Zalman fan
> on my PowerColor X800XL PCI-E video card which dropped my temps by 9
> degrees a month or so ago when I bought it. Now my temps seem to be
> creeping back up there since the memory install this morning.
>
> Also, went to play GTA:San Adreas to test it out with the new memory
> and it restarted my computer twice; I mean complete reboot. The only
> adjustment I made in the settings was from 800x600x32 to 1024x768x32
> screen resolution.
>
> Could it be bad memory or something?

I agree with Oldus Fartus; only change one thing at a time, otherwise you
can't easily work out which change is having what effect.

RAM chips certainly do generate heat - that's why some memory cards
incorporate heat sinks. Adding more things to your system will also change
the flow of the air inside the case - and make the power-supply work
harder.

As for the crashing: yes, you may have faulty RAM, or a faulty connector,
or the power supply may be straining to keep up, or the CPU may be
overheating. Eliminate one thing at a time.

Presumably your OS and motherboard can actually handle all the RAM you
have installed, and all the RAM is compatible with all the other RAM, and
so on.

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~

Changed my settings back in the game itself as this is where I made the
change originally. Just tried it again and the game still crashes 5 or
so seconds in. It never did that before I added the new RAM. When the
computer restarts, I quickly load the ATiTool and the temp is up around
45-47 and it takes a few minutes for it to drop again. Before, it would
drop rather quickly back to around 41 in a matter of seconds when I
would get out of a game.

Like I said, nothing changed except for the addition of the new memory
this morning.

Thanks again,
Mike

The power supply is a Dual +12V 550w one, so I assume it should be
powerful enough to handle my system.

I did forget to mention that I changed my paging file system size to an
initial size of 2048mb and max size of 3045mb in the virtual memory. I
read somewhere this morning that those were acceptable settings for a
computer with 2gb of RAM.

The RAM I added is Corsair ValueSelect DDR modules while the RAM that
was already installed is a lesser name RAM I believe. Maybe they don't
get along or something.

Running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2002 Edition with all the
updates, P4 3.0ghz system with 2mb of cache and hyper-threading. 550
watt dual 12v power supply and a PowerColor x800lx PCI-E video card
with a Zalman fan on it.

Thanks,
Mike

Try this

1) Remove old RAM
2) Put New RAM where Old Ram was
3) Try to play game. Does it bomb out?
if yes memory is bad
if no
4) Put old ram in where new ram was
5) Try to play game. Does it bomb out?
if yes memory is incompatable

I followed what you said and the new RAM worked perfect on its own as
1024mb. So I put the old RAM back in its original slots (1,2) and put
the new RAM in slots 3,4 and GTA San Andreas loaded perfect and I
played it for over an hour without any problems.

Am going to try it again in the morning with my FEAR (which also cut
out after 15mins or so yesterday) and see if it plays okay without
rebooting.

Could it be that the original memory must be in slots 1,2 for a reason
or is it just wishful thinking on my part? By older I mean that it was
the original memory that came with the system when I bought it (2 -
512mb Nanya PC 3200 400mhz).

Thanks again,
Mike

On 2006-03-12, Mike <> wrote:
> I followed what you said and the new RAM worked perfect on its own as
> 1024mb. So I put the old RAM back in its original slots (1,2) and put
> the new RAM in slots 3,4 and GTA San Andreas loaded perfect and I
> played it for over an hour without any problems.
>
> Am going to try it again in the morning with my FEAR (which also cut
> out after 15mins or so yesterday) and see if it plays okay without
> rebooting.
>
> Could it be that the original memory must be in slots 1,2 for a reason
> or is it just wishful thinking on my part? By older I mean that it was
> the original memory that came with the system when I bought it (2 -
> 512mb Nanya PC 3200 400mhz).
>
> Thanks again,
> Mike

The original RAM probably runs slower than the new; putting the slower RAM
in slot 1 usually forces all the RAM to run at the slower speed, which
should work OK. Putting fast RAM in slot 1 and slow RAM in a 'higher'
slot, will try to force the slow RAM to run too fast, which it may not
like.

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~

Both RAM were supposed to be 512 DDR PC3200 400 mhz, but I am not sure
of the latency and timing and all that crap.

Mike