Better understanding RAM

[jdjacobs]

Hey guys, I was planning to increase the RAM in my PC, and decided to figure out the basics before I start ordering anything. I opened up my PC, and looked at the RAM currently in it. I have 12 GB in total, 4 on one stick and 8 on the other. Now, when I looked at the two sticks, I noticed that one has 1333mhz on it, and the other has 1600mhz. I wanted to know if those two being different would cause any problems, AND if it would effect what I order in the future. I've heard the difference between the various speeds in RAM are negligible, but I want to know if have RAM that works at two different speeds like that could cause any trouble. I also looked at my BIOS while trying to understand RAM better and saw it was set to 1333mhz. Does that mean that the stick that says 1600mhz is also set to 1333mhz? I want to be able to have a strong, working understanding of RAM, so any advice or tutorials you could point me to that would answers my questions would be much appreciated.

 

[Tradesman1]

Yep, both are at 1333, mixing sticks isn't really recommended as there are no guarantees that mixed will play nice, best to get the full amount you want/need in a single package, more on this in particular in my FAQs and Fiction article (Fiction items 2 and 6) along with other info on DRAM here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2741495/ddr3-faqs-fiction.html

 

[CountMike]

If it's working like that you may as leave it so but some 1333MHz RAM can work att 1600 if you raise their voltage. I had some Kingston HyperX 1333MHz rated and at 1.5V run perfectly at 1600 and 1.65v. Not that difference can be seen with naked eye but benchmarks showed some improvement.

 

[jdjacobs]

I think that it may have stopped working so well together. This morning I booted up my PC, and it froze twice shortly after I accessed Chrome. I don't have any definitive proof, but the RAM is the only thing I've altered recently, so I removed the smaller stick, and it seems to be working fine again. Oh and a follow-up question: When shopping on newegg, I kept seeing another number associated with RAM. It was a 5 digit number like 12800, but I'm not entirely sure what that number is supposed to mean. I haven't looked at the guide yet, but I will once I get home from work, but I wanted to make sure I understood that number as well, so I could avoid any mistakes. Thanks a lot for your help so far guys.

 

[jdjacobs]

UPDATE: This morning, I seem to have encountered 3 separate BSODs. I left my computer on last night and this morning I woke up to "Unexpected_Kernel_Mode_Trap" I restarted and shortly after, I got "IRQL_Not_Less_Or_Equal". Then I got "Memory_Management" Based on what I've read, either my RAM is corrupted, or I'm having a driver error. So far I've run the Windows Memory Diagnostic, but it didn't appear to find any errors. What is my next step in resolving this issue?

 

[CountMike]

Try this tester: http://www.memtest86.com/

 

[jdjacobs]

I tried memtest, and it came back with no errors.

 

[Tradesman1]

I'd check and make sure you have all the latest mobo drivers (and possibly even download clean copies and install) could also try adding + 0.05 to the DRAM voltage (perfectly safe )

 

[jdjacobs]

Yeah, I was going to ask what the best way of checking all of my drivers would be. Is there some program that would check all the drivers on my computer, or do I need to manually reinstall each driver? Also, what does changing the DRAM voltage do?

 

[Tradesman1]

While it's probably driver related, the DRAM might be having some issues playing nice since they are mixed sticks, the extra bit of voltage might stabilize things

 

[jdjacobs]

Ok I've adjusted the voltage, and will be downloading the mobo drivers once I get home from work. So far it's been fine, but I've noticed that the BSODs only seem to happen during idle times. anytime I'm actively using the computer, like gaming, it works just fine.

 

[Tradesman1]

Keep us updated

 

[jdjacobs]

Ok so, my computer froze for the first time while gaming, and somehow as soon as I restarted it, it froze on me again at the login screen. I went to update my mobo drivers, and I couldn't find the option for Windows 10 drivers on the site. My mobo is a Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 (Rev 4.1). What do I do?

 

[Tradesman1]

May have to try a variety, get the latest Win 8.1 drivers (probably only a couple, then get the latest for Win 8 and whatever not there get Win 7

 

[jdjacobs]

Ok, I downloaded six drivers ranging from Win 8.1 to Win 7. The Realtek Ethernet driver installed properly, the RAID driver didn't seem to have an install, just a readme, and a couple of other files, so I didn't do anything with it, the Etron USB3.0 driver installed properly, the chipset-win7 driver gave me a BSOD my first try that was "system_service_exception acpi.sys" The second time I tried, I used a different application in the file to try and install it, and it worked fine. The last two both told me that I was trying to install them on an incompatible version, and it wouldn't let me, even after I tried to circumvent it with compatibility mode. So, I got the majority of these drivers installed, and now I will wait to see what happens, and update you if my computer continues to freeze.

 

[Tradesman1]

AM in and out daily, will keep an eye out

 

[jdjacobs]

Well I'm back to square one. Everything has run so well since the last post until this morning. I received two BSODs as of this post, "Kernel_Thread_Priority_Floor_Violation" and "Memory_Management" again. No changes have been made since the last post, so I guess it is again driver related, but I'm not sure what to do.

 

[Tradesman1]

Might just download the latest mobo drivers and reinstall all

 

[jdjacobs]

I came home today to take a look at it, and I've noticed anytime that it's been idle a long time, or I shut it down, the moment I start using it, it will frequently freeze on me. Today I think it got worse, but I think it may point to what the issue is. Earlier when it froze, I noticed it was taking longer and longer for the monitor, keyboard, and mouse to respond when the PC first turns on. The last time it happened, I turned on the PC, and the fans started, and the lights came on on the tower, but the monitor, keyboard, and mouse never came on. After about 5 minutes of waiting, I turned it off, waited an hour and turned it back on again. It turned on like everything was normal that time. So, I think that it's been some kind of hardware problem all along, I just don't know where to start.

 

[Tradesman1]

Do you have or can you borrow a different PSU?

 

[jdjacobs]

Well, I took my computer apart, cleaned it thoroughly, and made sure everything was well connected and well seated. I noticed a couple of cords connected to my PSU were not fully hooked in, and since I did that I haven't encountered any problems. Mind you, it took two days last time I thought I had fixed it before it started happening again, but I am hopeful. I have an older computer that still is fully functional, so if it comes down to it, I can put the PSU from that one in to test things out.

 

[Tradesman1]

Keep us updated

 

[jdjacobs]

Well I've given it several days to see how it would react to everything I did. It still occasionally freezes on me, but the rate at which it freezes has went down quite a bit. It's only happened a couple of times since my last post, so the problem hasn't been solved but it is more manageable. I do have a question though. The couple of times it's frozen on me have been in the middle of gaming, which never really happened before, and then I would just press the reset button on the tower to start it back up. My question is, what would keep the initial screen from coming up when I press the reset button? I've noticed this a couple of times now that sometimes when I press the reset button, the tower will restart, but it will take a noticeably longer period of time before the monitor comes on, and my mouse/keyboard. It's like it never gets to that very beginning screen where it tells you how to access BIOS or change your boot sequence. So, when that happens I just turn it off and wait a bit and turn it back on, and it seems to function normally.