New computer, having some trouble

[guarrasi24]

specs are
evga nforce 750i sli ftw mobo
intel core 2 qaud q6600
2x 2gb(4g) ocz fatality ddr2 1066mhz
2x xfx geforce 9800gt
500 watt ps
vista 64 bit ultimate

I had a friends dad build this for me. first off he told me couldnt get my ram to run at 1066.He told me to change clock settings etc,which i dont know enough about. Second, im experiencing crashing when playing games ( Warhammer Online), and now im noticing freezing as well even when not playing games.since adding my other 2gb of ram( since vista can initially only accept 2g). Do i possibly need larger power supply? and any help how to get my ram up to 1066 would be greatly appreciated.My mobo does say it can run ram at 1066.Again, im a little new at this any help would be great.

 

[xthekidx]

Should have come here before you built it, we would have steered you away from many of those parts.

Those motherboards are notorious for having stability issues. Since you didn't get the ram stable, it is possible that your crashes and freezing is due to that. Run Memtest86+ and see if it comes up with errors. You probably wont be able to get that ram up to 1066mhz because of the CPU you chose, you should have just gone with cheaper DDR2-800, but you can run the ram you have now at 800.

It is also possible your PSU isn't enough for your system, but that depends on the Brand. Either way though, it wouldn't cause the issues your experiencing right now unless it was currently failing and sending spikes to your components, in which case you have a fairly serious problem.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

Is this your RAM?

OCZ Fatal1ty Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227364

If it is, you need to make sure the RAM timings and voltage are set to the manufacturers specs in the BIOS. That would be 7-7-7-20 @ 2.0v for that RAM. If you don't feel comfortable making those changes, I would have your friends dad do it. It sounds like he didn't set up the RAM correctly, which would explain your crashes and freezes. It's also possible that the RAM is faulty. That's why xthekidx suggested testing the RAM with memtest86+.

 

[guarrasi24]

Thanks for the help guys. And yes shortstuff that is my ram. I know enough that i feel comfortable changing settings in the bios, what does 7-7-7-20 refer to? I have settings such as tcl, trcd, trp, tras, command per clock (cmp) etc... Are those the settings id change? Based on what the kid said, im not sure i can even get my ram working at 1066, but ill give changing those ram timings and voltages a shot.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

I'd be willing to bet your friends dad couldn't get the RAM to run at 1066 just because he was using AUTO settings instead of manually setting the timings/voltage. If the RAM won't run at its rated speed/timings at the recommended voltage, I'd consider it faulty and return it. What do the RAM timings currently show? 7-7-7-20 will usually be the first four values listed.

 

[guarrasi24]

Ya he definately did leave these settings on auto. It was 5-6-6-17, i changed it to 6-7-7-20. I'm not exactly sure where to change the voltage setting. Im currently running my ram at 933, going to try it at 1066 with the changed settings and see what happens.

 

[guarrasi24]

Okay, up'd it to 1066 with the new settings, seems to be running so far. Should i run memtest86+ to see if it is running stable or not? I guess if I experience some crashes or freezing that's a clear sign I should turn the ram back down. I've also read that I may have to raise FSB on my processor if there's problems running the ram at 1066? Thanks again for all the help.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

It would be a very good idea to run memtest86+ overnight to test for RAM errors.

So did you find the RAM voltage setting in the BIOS?

 

[guarrasi24]

I'll do that then. And yes I found the voltage settings, it was set to 1.9 and i changed it to 2.0 as you said to do. I'll update again if I have any problems. Thanks for the quick and helpful responses shortstuff

 

[shortstuff_mt]

Any time. Good luck!