RAM Upgrade = Unstable OS?

Yevrag35

Pushing Daisies on Saturn
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I work in the IT Department at my company, and we are in the process of upgrading all of our older desktops to 4GB of RAM (sounds simple, right?). The problem is when the memory hits 4GB the OS becomes suddenly unstable (i.e. programs crashing, graphics issues (particularly with IE9), and overall slow, sluggish performance). These computers are Lenovo Think Centre's and the models are A57 9851-A7U's. The Motherboard IS compatible with 4GB according to various sources.
Here's what we've done so far with troubleshooting...
The first thought was that the problem was the two GPU's in the PC (all of these computers have the integrated Intel GPU AND a separate Nvidia GeForce 6200 card). So we've gone the route of disabling the integrated intel gpu, but the problem persists. Next, we figured the BIOS probably needs an update, so we flashed to the most current verison of the BIOS from Lenovo's website (still the problem persists).

*Extra Info:
- The RAM we are putting in is DDR2 PC2-5300 (667MHz 2x2GB Unbuffered)
- You can stop IE9 from crashing by choosing, in internet options under the advanced tab, to use "software rendering instead of GPU rendering*".
- When we downgrade the RAM amount back to 3GB, the issues stop.
 
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Is this system x86or x64. If it is x86 just use the three gigs of ram cause x86 will only recognize a little over three gigs anyway. I see the speeds are correct. Is this happening on several units? Is the ram your using ecc. Your system should run only non ecc .
 
sPlAtOiD said:
Is this system x86or x64.

Sorry, that probably would've been nice to know. The pc's were originally designed for 32bit, but we've loaded only Win7 x64 Enterprise on these computers.

sPlAtOiD said:
Is this happening on several units? Is the ram your using ecc. Your system should run only non ecc .

Yes it's happening on every single one of the pc's. All of the RAM modules being used are non-ecc. Originally, one of the guys that I work with suggested that the RAM we were working with was too fast, because it was PC2-6300 (800MHz). We returned those and got PC2-5300's instead, but no difference at all. It seems like it's the amount that makes it unstable.
 
If you can, increase the RAM voltage. Just an FYI, the CPU is capable of DDR2 or DDR3, but the motherboard is limited to 667MHz DDR2 (5300). So you know a bit of info about your computer.

Did you do a fresh install on each PC when you upgraded to 7 x64? Not simply install over but format each drive? Also, try upping the RAM dedicated to the IGP. I know it sounds stupid but it could work.
 
PP Mguire said:
Also, try upping the RAM dedicated to the IGP. I know it sounds stupid but it could work.

I honestly don't know how to do that. I, actually, am just an intern, but I'm trying to impress the higher-ups by helping solve this problem. That's the reason I'm not asking them to help me with it (and also they're busy with other stuff as well :p). I tried looking up how to do that, but I got nothing. Is a bios setting or in windows? Also, the BIOS doesn't let you adjust voltage. Is there some other way?

PP Mguire said:
Did you do a fresh install on each PC when you upgraded to 7 x64? Not simply install over but format each drive?

When we deploy Win7 to the desktops the hard drives are formatted during the process, so yes.
 
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If auto setting isn't enough voltage and you can't supply more that could be a problem. Does it tell you in the hardware monitor in the bios (if it has one) how many volts it's giving the RAM?

Yes IGP dedicated RAM will have a setting in the bios for how much RAM you want to dedicate to it.
 
I see where in the bios i can change the amount of memory.
Unfortunately, of all three options it gives me (128MB, 256MB, or Maximum), neither one of them made a difference in the performance of the computer.
No, the BIOS gives 0 information about the voltage levels (to anything).
 
Figured out what the issue is, but still don't know how to fix it.

The problem is with the Nvidia GeForce 6200 drivers interacting with newly mounted 4gb of RAM. The computer runs perfectly fine without the video card (using the onboard VGA port. It looks as though these cards have a real difficulty with the 64-bit OS
 
The problem is not the Os or ram or whatsoever.the real problem is the powersuply,when you put that ram it had higher voltage and the psu depending on the size of your psu(in watts).could not supply enough power to it.Same applies to the gpu.So in conclusion just upgrade your psu and all will be fine
 
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