2 different speed ram sticks cause possiable problems?

[Computerfreak14]

Well i have my computer that is recently acting weird and i need some help to go about it. I have a
AMD Athlon XP 2800+
2.08 GHz, 960 MB of RAM
120GB Hard drive

Well it has been working fine for a while, up until i installed another stick of memory and then a newer sound card. Well i had only a stick 512mb memory for a while and it was fine but i then picked up another stick when it was on sale, thinking i wold get a gain from adding the stick, i guess i was wrong. First i noticed my music lag, i guess i would say. While im listening to music in itunes, browsing the web, my music skips and gets choppy,even when im typing a im/or this thread. The sound card previous was a Creative sound blaster live, i just got a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy SE card. I honestly am not exactly sure why its doing this. I think i have two different speeds on the memory sticks and there reduced. Is that possible?
I was thinking of pulling the newer stick out and seeing how it performs, if there is music lag still. Well if anyone has tip/suggestions please let me know.

Steve

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

It will run at the lower of the two. Say you have a PC2100 stick and a PC3200 stick in the same PC (3200 supporting motherboard). It would run at 2100 speed because both sticks must run at the same speed. That is how it is in my Sempron PC, but it runs fine (1GB 3200 and 512MB 2200, runs at 2200 I think).

 

[Computerfreak14]

okay thanks for the info, should i try and take a stick out and she if it helps?

 

[Nitestick]

yeah that is how it works, it should run at the lower speed. however i would verify this, check that it is running at the lower speed. if it is running at the speed of the faster stick the memory may be unstable and causing issues.

that said i don't think this is a memory issue. you would have to be running very low memory speeds to bottleneck what you are doing. in my humble opinion the first thing you have to look at is the sound card. the only problem you say has manifested is a sound issue after all, with a new sound card.

 

[Computerfreak14]

well it also happened with the old sound card creative SB live too thats why i wasn't to sure

 

[Computerfreak14]

well i havent had a chance to reply, but i think im goin to take a stick of 512mb out and leave the fastest speed stick in..ill let you know of my results