Is it the 3200 ram or XP?

[myoda]

I have a MSI KT4V with an AMD 2800 (Barton) ATI 9700 Pro and two sticks of CMX512-3200C2 Corsair ram running XPHome.
During normal operation there seems to be zero problems. I use Adobe 7 and process graphics. All is well. However, when I am online or just doing stand alone gaming the computer will just act like it is unwinding like a spring. The game slows down (Ghost Recon with addon mods) until the game dumps and I get dropped to desktop.
I have gone into the BIOS and did several combo setups without resolving this "crash" thing. Finally I just took out one stick of ram and now it will game fine. HA! Whee, now I can game.
Question: Is there a way to limit the ram during gaming without having to take some out? This seems a most un-geeky way of doing things. thankyou


there are no stupid questions, only problems that need to be addressed..

[Darknyt]

I think either that RAM stick might have been faulty, or the slot may be faulty. Try using another stick of the same brand and type in the same slot that was emptied. If the game doesnt slow down, then its the RAM, if the game does slow down, its the DIMM slot itself. Dont quote me on this though.

[myoda]

Darknyt,
Funny, after paying big bucks for big performance it never occured to me that it might be the ram. I don't have another stick to put in but I can swap them out and see if that will help. Then use the 1 and 3 slot if nothing else happens.
Thank you for your quick post. myoda

[RamonGTP]

Are you running the ram in sync with the CPU (166MHz)? Or are you running the ram at 200 and the CPU at 166??? Running async can lead to issues. Also, what timings are you using?

[myoda]

Thank you for the quick replys, both.. One stick is bad, one is good. I did the test and one will not run alone. I thought it might be an "issue" with the new 3200 ram. Yes, the settings are well within specs. No overclocking. I will get the that piece replaced and will again have a half-ton working for me. later, myoda