"Bad" ram is extremely RARE!
It is a lot more likely there is someother reason for your problem.
1. Check whether you have the RIGHT ram FIRST:
Trying ram in this mboard that works in another mboard , or trying any ram you buy or have lying around, may not work properly - it has to be compatible with the mboard and it's chipset.
See response 5 in this for some info about ram compatibilty, and some places where you can find out what will work in your mboard for sure:
http://www.computing.net/hardware/w...
Correction to that:
Mushkin www.mushkin.com
2. If you run a memory test, do the following BEFORE you run the test, or any bad results will probably be FALSE! :
3. A common thing that can happen with ram that worked fine previously, or in rare cases with new ram, is the ram has developed a poor connection in it's slot(s).
This usually happens a long time after the ram was installed, but it can happen after moving the computer case from one place to another, and I've had even new modules that needed to have their contacts cleaned.
See response 2 in this - try cleaning the contacts on the ram modules, and making sure the modules are properly seated:
http://www.computing.net/hardware/w...
4. Make sure you have the ram in the right slot(s) - see your mboard manual - e.g. matched pairs of ram capable of running in dual channel mode must be installed in specific slots, often ones of the same color.
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If the ram is compatible, and you have done all of the above and nothing helps with this:
"The computer runs fine untill I try to run a game. Usually about 2 minutes after the game starts running the PC crashes."
Games don't work on all computers!
Games tend to be leading edge software, they often stress your computer and video hardware a lot more than most programs do, and often have more bugs in their programming, and it is well known games will not work properly on every system they can be installed on.
If it is ONLY this game, or ONLY games, you are crashing with, there's probably nothing wrong with your system!
Things to try:
- change the default settings in the game to something lesser - it may work fine.
- check the web site of the game maker for mentions of your problem for that game, and whether they have t-shooting suggestions, or a software patch for the game.
- check the web site of the maker of your video hardware for mentions of the game - they may have t-shooting suggestions, or an alternate drivers download that works with the game.
You could also try loading the latest video drivers, but that often doesn't help.
- search forums about the game, or post on them, to see if they have a suggestion or solution.
If none of that helps, your system is probably one of the many that game doesn't work properly on - sell the game.
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Bioses in mboards similar to yours normally set the voltage to what the ram wants automatically, if set to the default settings that read the SPD settings chip on the ram module - the only reason you have the manual setting is for overclocking, in which case you might want to set it a bit lower or higher. ALL the ram you have installed must support the voltage you manually set.
E.g. I recently installed Crucial ram that requires 2.8 v on an Asus M2N-E SLI- it was set that way automatically with default bios settings - look around in the bios Setup pages to confirm that (after settings have been saved).
