Hiya guys,

i have had problems with my computer crashing tonight i checked system info and it appeared half my memory wasnt registering (256mb. I took each stick in and out and rebooted and moved them around and rebooted and both work independantly. When i put them both in together again all 512mb were registering in the system info.

Do think think that this could have been the reason for my computer crashing (it was freezing after around 10-20 minutes of playing games).

any ideas on why this happened...is it the memory's fault or the motherboard (if so i have 2 weeks of manufactures warranty left on my motherboard)

thanks very much...

Run memtest386 from a command prompt. If the memory checks OK, RMA the MB.

Yeah the memtest checks ok...and the computer is still crashing...definately the mb?

Not definate but do you feel like playing with it more? Did you install a new video card with this build? I don't like the idea that a 2 week old board can't find memory. If you want to try troublshooting a little more, yank one stick of ram out and run with one. If it still crashes switch the sticks and try again. The odds of two sticks of ram going bad at the same time are slim so this would basically eliminate the ram. Are you monitoring the temps? If not, you should. Install motherboard monitor and run it in the tray. Just realised what you said in your first post. Have you had problems since you played musical chairs with the ram? If not, maybe you didn't have one stick seated properly. Take a good look at the contacts in the memory slots. Look for dull or out of alignment contacts. Play hard for awile and see if system is now OK.

Thanks for getting back to me!

The problem started happening around 6 months after getting the computer (it was sold to me by a computer company) but i think the motherboard only has two weeks of warranty left.

I have just tested the ram by playing one of the games the computer was crashing on, and it is still crashing but...instead of a frozen screen there is now a blank screen!

My computer is still registering 512mb of memory. One interesting thing about the musical chairs is when i put the memory in slots next to each other i got an error tone upon startup and the computer failed to start??

p.s. i ran a memory test with all 512mb in the computer and no errors were found...

p.p.s. if i do find that i need to return the motherboard i am a virgin computer builder...how difficult is the process of removing the whole mb and installing a new one?

I thought that you had built athe system yourself. The folks that sold you that system aren't going to just send you another MB on your say so. Download and run aida32. This utility will tell you all about your hardware. After you do that post back with all you specs. Find aida32 at aida32.hu

Thanks for this!!

Which bits in particular need to be looked at?
heres the motherboard...

nvidia n-force-6a61bmcc-00
msi k7n2 delta-L (MS-657OG)

bus
type - dec alpha ev6
width - 64
real clock - 167 mhz
effective - 333mhz
bandwidth - 2666mb/s

chipset bu properties

type - hypertransport v1.0
width - 8-bit

Thanks for your help othehill...i have to go to bed now though (im english) Any chance of more investigations another day?

heres some general specs

amd athlon xp 2500+ (barton core) 333 fbu cpu
msi nforce 2 motherboard k7n2-l
512mb pc2700 ddr 333 memory
80gb 7,200 hard drive
64mb geforce4 ti 4200

aida gives a memory spec of 511mb...the used is jumping between 176 and 178mb

the motherboard bios is phoenix award v 6.0

memory read - 2346 mb/s
write - 927 mb/s