is it possible for a motherboard (argueably, older and mildly damaged once) to reject RAM? I believe it is, but if this is the case, upgrading my machine would mean a complete overhaul. And really, I don't feel like spending $500 in one shot just to upgrade my computer.

I bought two sticks of 1 GB KingMAX DDR RAM for my computer on Friday. tried them out on Friday night and the machine kept crashing on me. So today (Saturday) I returned them to the store and received two sticks of 1 GB Kingston DDR RAM. I have had the computer crash on me once so far, but that has happened previously with the older two 512 MB sticks of DDR RAM (while running NeverWinter Nights). If this happens two more times within the next few days, I am going to return THIS DDR RAM set and purchase myself a new graphics card or motherboard for the NEXT machine. This computer was working fine with the 1 GB total worth of DDR RAM within it, so I can live with that. If it is the case of my computer just rejecting the new RAM because it is aging, then I'll just start slowly purchasing items towards the next level machine.

(2 GB DDR RAM, better graphics card with PCI-E, faster AMD Athlon processor (939 series), probably a dozen fans within the case itself...)

Moz, how old is the motherboard? What RAM were you running before -- I know it is DDR but what DDR?

What is your current processor? What make is your mobo?

You better check your system properties, and see how much of the ram is showing up. In Windows, you can right click on the My Computer icon, and the first page that shows up should show you your general system information. I know my motherboard is only rated for 1 gig of ram. If you exceed the limit, it won't read all of the memory.

Edit: Oops, you have to right click, and select properties...

[ 06-17-2006, 08:52 PM: Message edited by: robertthebard ]

Short answer... yes.

Your motherboard is probably compatible with a particular type of ram -- PC2700, PC3200, and so on. If you use a different kind of RAM, it can easily fail.

Look up your mobo user guide to see what RAM type it needs, and get some of that.

If you've already done that, ignore this message... ;)

Don't know the kind of DDR it is supposed to use. Didn't look it up. As it stands now, I removed the SECOND batch of RAM I got from the store. I will have to go to them and return it, explaining the first two sticks of DDR RAM were probably just fine and NOT defective. Seems like I am stuck with 1024 MB worth of RAM until I upgrade everything.

http://tw2005.giga-byte.com/Motherbo..._GA-7VT600.htm
That is the motherboard there. A nice piece of work when it was new. Now... broken, but still working. Current processor is a Athlon Sempron 2600+ (fastest I could afford then).

From CPU-Z
AMD Athlon MP (Thoroughbred) Socket A chip.
Core Speed: 1752.7 MHz
Mainboard: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-7VT600 1394 (latest BIOS was 04/08/2004 by Award Software International, Inc.)
Memory 2 x 512 MBytes (frequency 200.3Mhz) PC3200

The PC number is very important. Somewhere in the MoBo docs should be the max supported ram as well. While it would be nice, upgrading to the latest PC# won't work for you, unless your mobo supports it.

I may try it one more time this morning. I installed a few new drivers which may or may not have some effect. The motherboard, however, natively supports PC3200 stock DDR RAM. I think it is just the fact I have bad karma with my own computer which is doing this number on me. Probably happened when I managed to cut something on the motherboard's surface itself, limiting me to two out of the three available ports for RAM. (Yes, this computer should be able to handle 3 GB worth of DDR RAM.) If I find a number to call on the website (which is open on the weekends, which I doubt) I will attempt to dial them up and see what they have to say. If not (which is far more likely) I will just return the RAM and get my money back for the time being. All I wanted it for was faster response times in NeverWinter Nights. And as it seems to me, there wasn't that much of a different between 1 GB of RAM and 2 GB of RAM within the game itself while my processor is still sitting at Athlon 2600+.

You didn't buy DDR2 RAM did you? The PC number is not important btw Robert...as if you buy RAM with a higher PC number it simply runs at the slower speeds.