From Single channel mode, to Dual channel mode, and windows issues

[Scott_90]

First my setup:

Gigabyte P35 DS3L
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz
G.Skill DDR2 800 2 gigs of ram (two 1 gig sticks)
Sound Blaster Audigy 4
Western Digital 320 gigabytes of space
Two IDE CD drives:
1 CD-RW
1 DVD-R

Using correct system drivers
I do not overclock

My hardware is compatable, i've had no problems for months till now.
----

I've had my ram run in singe channel mode. I had no clue why it ran in single channel mode for months. I wanted to allow it to run in dual channel mode, the ram DOES allow dual channel mode.

My motherboard has 4 ram slots:
one red slot, right next to the red slot is a yellow slot
an inch or less space away, is another red slot, and next to that is a yellow slot


I had one ram stick in a red slot, and another stick in a yellow slot.

Till yesterday or so, I turned my computer off, I removed the ram stick from the yellow slot, to the other red slot. According to my manual, I was suppost to do this in the first place.

So I turned the computer on and post showed my ram did run in dual channel mode.


The next day, I tried playing one of my games which requres a CD to run, when loading a level, it crashed right away.

I tried rebooting. Again, same problem.

I tried another game with a cd, same problem! And another game with a cd, again same outcome.

I tried a game from steampowered, it does not require a cd to run. The game ran fine.

So I decided to reinstall my game, I did it properly. When I attempted to install the game, I got a CRC Error as shown:
http://is82.com/e107_plugins/greygallery/content/2008_01_11_1200095353_1262.jpg


I attempted to instal the game from my second IDE drive, same thing.


I then decided to do a fresh install of windows XP. I booted off of my windows XP CD, I had an error in which I don't remember what it said aparently.

So I unplugged my slave drive (my DVD-R), booted off my windows XP cd again, deleted my partition, created a new one, and formatted using NFTS system.

Eventually windows XP gets installed, I have windows xp service pack 2 on a cd, I tried installing service pack 2 from the cd, it said corrupt file. I know its not corrupt because it works on the other computers.

I tried doing windows update from microsoft.com, several of the updates failed to install and I had windows update needs to close error.

So I tried doing ANOTHER install of windows XP.

Again, the service pack 2 cd wont work. Instead I got a different error : I believe it was ASN1 unexpected file

So what the heck, I decided to install my game to see if it works, This time I did not get the CRC error, but I got a different error.


I try windows update from microsoft.com, try installing the updates, service pack 2 wont instal now!

So now I am stumped, I have no clue what to do. And it may be the cause of the ram switch.

Anything, please help!

 

[eagles453809]

try putting it back in single channel mode, see if that fixes your issues. intels dont really suffer a performance hit from single channel. Why it would work fine in single channel and not in dual channel is beyond me. I'm sure someone else here would be able to clarify that one for you.

 

[Scott_90]

I moved my ram back to single channel mode (original slots) and my error continues.

So far I can't install service pack 2

 

[homerdog]

You should run memtest to see if it really is your RAM that is causing the problem.

If you don't have a floppy to run memtest the Windows built in memory tester under the advanced boot options is a good alternative. Press F8 while your computer is booting, and the windows boot menu should appear. Then I think you press Tab to access the more advanced options. Actually I think that's how you do it in Vista, but if you get to the boot menu I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out.

Anyhow run the memory diagnostic and see if there are any errors.

 

[Scott_90]

I do not have a floppy drive.

I created a bootable .iso on a cd I burned. my comp would not boot from it. So I am clueless on that part.

currently, servicepack2 will not install, it creates an error each time it 'saves a restore point'

II've been told my ram could be faulty. But I believe it's the hard drive not properly 'aquiring the information'.

 

[homerdog]

I do not have a floppy drive.

Neither do I. That's why I suggested Windows memory checker. Follow the instructions in my above post. I will edit it for clarity.

 

[eagles453809]

run prime95 and see if you get errors. do small fft first, to test cpu. let us know if you get errors with that.

 

[Scott_90]

upon pressing F8, pressing tab does nothing, where else could I find windows memory tester?

I will check out prime5

 

[Scott_90]

I"m constantly getting blue screen of death's


maybe it's the hard drive and not the ram

tomorow, I will grab a neighboor's floppy drive and install it, and try memtest

 

[homerdog]

upon pressing F8, pressing tab does nothing, where else could I find windows memory tester?

I will check out prime5

Sorry, I think I gave you instructions on how to do it in Vista. Try just going to "Boot Windows Normally" and then press tab. If that doesn't work then maybe someone else can better tell you how to do it in XP.

Prime95 is probably the best way to test for stability. You probably need to figure out how to stop getting the BSOD before you try Prime though...

It could be your HDD. Try running chkdsk on it. Here's a good guide:
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1583&page=5

 

[eagles453809]

did you get errors with prime95? also try a different hard drive.

 

[Scott_90]

I'm unable to get into windows now aparently.

i'm sure it's my hard drive now

 

[homerdog]

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully you will be able to retrieve your important data from it. Good luck.

 

[Scott_90]

Hello.

I bought a new sata hard drive.

I installed windows xp, then service pack 2. Had an issue with the sp2 CD installer. (I ran the installer from the cd in the cd drive)

I moved the sp2 installer to my desktop. it installed fine.

Installed a few updates.

I then decided to plug in my DVD drive at this point to install a cd that came with my motherboard

Tried to do more updates, some windows updates failed

trying to do it over again, windows update crashed when I went to the website.

after installing updates somehow, I decided to installo a game of mine. The CRC error showed up again.

tried doing a system restore to after the sp2 instalation.

Now all sorts of errors are here, windows explorer crashes, internet explorer crashes, I cant do anything.

what could be wrong?