Hi All

few weeks ago I bought two DDR (not DDR2 i have old motherboard and i don't feel i need to update it) 256Mb RAM while I had just one 256 Mb RAM. now from time to time computer crashes, showing blue screen and it says it's dumping memory in physical memory or something like that. (also the other typical massage that if you recently installed a hardware disconnect it and ... )

my friend told me it happens because i bought different brand of RAM than I had before so the old one is not compatible with new one and i have to exchange the old one and get one from the new brand.

now I'm in a dilemma should change the old one ? or the new ones could be defected and they should be changed.

It does sound like you have an incompatability problem there. I would carefully check the RAM specs are correct and then change them (if possible) to the original make or a take another chance with a different brand which could work.

I doubt the RAM you bought is defective since it half works, just ends up with a crash every now and then. Another thing is it could be your OS, what are you running? updates?

my OS is win xp service pack 2. it has few problems as well like java is not working on it. i can't update it and i can't run it (i get funny massages).

could possibly changes in RAM slat sort the problem?
and how can i check RAM specs? where is it?

thnx

Ram is definitely influential in a computer systems performance. If you run a stability test with cheap ram it will most likely not last long and crash your computer. In the case where the computer ram is not compatible (verify that its the correct type, I recommend you google an all about ram search to learn about the types of ram there is) try searching if it is the correct or recommended type of ram. What brand / type / specs does the old ram have?

You will have to look and match these values of your RAM modules... Ram speed, that will be along the line 333MHz 400MHz, and something like that, for DDR modules... It coudl be written as DDR333, or PC-333, PC-2100 and similar... Second thing you need to pay attention to, is latency... It owuld be written as 2-3-4, 3-4-3, and something liek that... Make sure that all three modules you have installed, are compatible with each other... Also, try running memtest, to make sure your RAM works...

I feel its the latency problem .. as Gahalad suggested, run memtest and see if its running properly .. one at a time..
and then, I think you should get three same rams if they are different..

The brand of the RAM shouldn't matter. Quite possibly it's some sort of incompatibility as others have said, that is worth checking. My suggestion would be to load Memtest86+ onto a cd and check to make sure your RAM isn't bad. If you bought cheap RAM (this is the only area where brand might come into play) it's a bit more likely to be defective. I was having a large amount of problems with an old computer, and when I found out my new 256mb RAM chip was defective and removed it the problems were fixed (sortof, the computer didn't run so well with only 128mb of RAM).