Adding Memory?

[u4ic_fln]

I have a computer that is about 2.5 years old. I play World of Warcraft and since the expansion came out, have been getting more and more game crashes. I was wondering if a lack of memory might be the issues. This is my current set up:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego
MB: Asus A8N-SLI Premium
Video Card: NVidia GeForce 7800 GT
Memory: 1G Corsair PC3200 (512 x 2)
OS: Windows XP

Also, its been a while since I built a PC, and I don't remember if memory is just as simple as plugging it into the open memory slots. I have 4 total memory slots and only 2 are taken, so if i just plug in the new memory, will there be any conflict with the current memory I have?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[cloud]

i think 1GB is plenty for wow, does it crash completely or just start locking up? have u checked your temps?

 

[u4ic_fln]

sometimes it crashes completely... but mostly i lose the ground texture after zoning into an instance or shrinking the game down for a few minutes to check my email or something... once the ground textures disappears, my frame rate drops to about 2fps (down from what the 60fps i usually run) and i have to reload the game (and sometimes my computer.)

I have not checked my temps. How would i go about doing that?

 

[aetherh4cker]

You could run the free Memtest 86 on your memory to make sure your current memory isn't bad, but I played WoW for a long time on my 1GB machine and it ran great.

Another thing I would do is make sure nothing is wrong with your computer spyware / adware / virus wise. Make sure Windows is all the way up to date.

 

[Ste]

You could run the free Memtest 86 on your memory to make sure your current memory isn't bad, but I played WoW for a long time on my 1GB machine and it ran great.

For a Minimum of 6 hours.. 4 If you want even less, but thats Absolute mins of minimums..

 

[u4ic_fln]

ok i downloaded the "Pre-Compiled Memtest86 v3.3 installable from Windows and DOS" from the website... and when i start the install folder, it requires a floppy disk... and asks for the target diskette drive... i dont have the old school floppy drives in my computer, only CD-Roms... and when i type in the F drive (for my CD-R) the program just closes without anything being written to the CD...

what am i doing wrong?

as far as viruses/spyware/adaware... i think my computer is pretty clean... i run spybot every week or so... Trend Micro PC-Cillin is always on and regularly scans for viruses and windows updates... so i think i should be good with that right?

 

[Ste]

You need to locate a .iso of the program so you can burn it to a CD-R.

 

[u4ic_fln]

any idea where i might get such a thing... and if so... how to use it? never worked with .iso files before...

Edit: Nevermind the first part... i found the ISO file... its on the memtest website (imagine that)... how to i use it though?

 

[Ste]

You need to use Nero or some other burning program to burn it onto a blank disk..
Though I have always used DVD decrypter to burn ISO files, never had a porblem with it, free program

 

[u4ic_fln]

Ok... i got it burned down... and the program is running on the computer (my other computer obviously)... i will post again when it is done scanning the memory...

one quick question... when i look at memtest... where is says "Chipset: nVidia nForce4 (ECC : Disabled)" what does that means and should it be disabled?

again thanks for all your help and patience...