Additional RAM causes lockup

I have an older P3 550MHz system. Motherboard is Tyan Tiger 133 (S1834). OS is Windows 2000 Pro

Was originally configured with 128MB RAM. Several years ago I added another 128MB (Kingston brand). Now I want to add another 2 x 128MB sticks.

Motherboard has 4 DIMM slots. Just so there is no conflict with the old RAM, I bought 3 Kingston 128 sticks to add to the one I already have. The system boots ok, recognizes the memory, but after only a few minutes will freeze up.

I removed 1 stick from slot 4, so I'm now running on 384MB, and works perfect. I put back the 4th stick (raising it to 512MB), and the freezing starts up again.

I've run memtest on the 512MB and it checks out ok. Only when I get Windows going do I have the problem.

Any ideas???

Thanks.

 

If you don't have the motherboard manual, do a websearch for it. Read about memory in the manual, some have restrictions when all the RAM slots are filled.

 

Thanks for the replies.

Evan - I have been moving the sticks in the different slots, but have kind of lost track of what went where!! So I will try more of that. But also, I have run the Windows Memory Diagnostic on all 4 sticks of RAM, and no problems. Only seems to be a problem when Windows is running.

Mattman - I do have the manual for the motherboard. Says there is no restrictions on using all 4 slots with PC100 RAM, which is what I have.

Anyone know of any Win 2000 settings that could possibly cause this kind of problem?

 

I'm not familiar with your particular motherboard but generally speaking, Tyan made great boards. Based on your description, there could be a BIOS setting that needs some massaging. Going from 1 or 2 sticks to 4 should change your timings from T1 to T2 automatically but I would look further in specific memory timings and changes that can be made manually. That chipset should also be able to run PC133 SDRAM so it sounds like you are running asynchronous and may need to do some tweaking.

I'm not going to attempt to provide specific guidance in this forum format but will suggest you consult your manual and look for any board specific FAQ's that may be available through TYAN.

Keep us posted on your efforts.

 

Thanks for the reply Rockster.

Just so you know, I am now getting out of my comfort zone when you start talking about changing bios settings!! But I'm game if I can convince myself that it's for the right reason. And I can appreciate that it's nearly impossible to deal with that kind of detail here.

But here's hopefully a simple question. If I put all 4 sticks of ram in and Windows Memory Diagnostic runs ok, does that tell me the bios is correctly configured for the memory? I've run the diagnostic for a short time and it checks out. I plan to run it overnight soon and see.

Assuming that it's ok there, but freezes when Win 2000 gets going, what does that tell me?

Thanks again.

 

An update on what I've tried lately:

Rearranged the ram sticks in slots 1,2,3 and all works fine. So I don's suspect the memory.

Put ram in all 4 slots and ran Windows Memory Diagnostic for over 6 hours. No errors. So i started up Windows 2000. Booted up fine. I logged in and just let it run for a half hour or so untouched. Screen saver kicked in as it should. Finally I started to use the keyboard/mouse. System froze up in less than 2 minutes.

So I removed the ram from slot 4, and now running fine.

Any thoughts/ideas about that?

 

Very difficult to make a determination but there are a couple of things that give rise to curiousity.

Since you had just one stick before and are now populating slots that have been empty, it is possible that some dirt or oxidation has built up on the contacts in #4 DIMM slot. With power off and I'd even say unplugged, you can try some contact cleaner. It will be tough to visually inspect and get the kind of magnification needed with the board in the machine but take a look if you have some kind of good magnifying glass. I/d also say you can put the module in and take it out a few times to "scratch" the contacts and hopefully, get a better connection. The fact that all sticks are recognized tends to blow holes in the above theory but its worth a try.

Second thought focuses on DIMM voltage. If the board permits a slight increase (in BIOS) you might want to try boosting this just a bit. As a general rule of thumb, anything in the 5% - 7.5% range is quite safe but increases beyond that are going to require some knowledge.

You can also see if DRAM Bank interleaving is enabled or is auto adjusted depending on sticks in use. You may find settings for none, 2X and 4X. Simple explanation - this permits machine to read from different combination of banks on multiple sticks simultaneously. You can try playing around with different settings. None is slowest but should also be the most foolproof and 4X is the fastest if your memory and your board can handle it.

May sound odd, but this problem could also be caused by a dropoff in power to the CPU. I'm not going to try to explain this but you can also attempt a slight increase in core voltage to compensate for a possible power shorfall under load. Again, a small incremental bump isn't going to cause any problem but radical adjustments are out of the question for our purposes here.

You can try the above for starters but this is a tough issue to resolve via a forum. Use common sense to guide you through various trial and error approaches and don't try more than one thing at any one time. Use a small notebook to record your adjustments and results - it may help over the long pull.

Good Luck & regards,

 

Rockster - thanks a lot for your detailed reply. I just checked and my bios does not allow changes to voltage. In terms of DRAM bank interleaving, I'm not so sure and will have to check further.

But here's an unexpected bit of good luck. Last night a friend said he was getting rid of an old computer. I had a look inside and it had 2 sticks of ram. One was 128MB and the other 256MB. Both are PC133. I was thinking what IF I put the 256MB in my system in place of one of the 128's, and that would give me 512MB in total.

I did some browsing looking for any info on mixing PC100 with PC133 ram, mixing 128MB with 256MB. Seems like it all depends on the motherboard and what it will accept. The PC133 ram would just default to the slower PC100 speed.

Anyway, I put the 256MB stick in the third slot and I'm running just fine at the moment. If this doesn't cause any grief, I just might stick with this configuration and leave slot 4 empty.

Questions:
- Any downside to what I've done? I'm assume it's one of those situations where it either works or it doesn't?
- Does it make any difference in what order I put the ram in terms of speed? At the moment, slots 1 thru 3 are: 128MB PC100, 128MB PC100, 256MB PC133.

Thanks again for all your help.

 

Not a problem - if it works, it works. I'd leave well enough alone and monitor the situation for a few days. If all goes well, stick a fork in it and call it done.