Problems after RAM upgrade + help playing HD content?

[Subsonic Chronic]

So I made a small RAM upgrade, took out 2 x 256MB and replaced it with 1 x 1GB RAM (it's a 5+ year old PC and it would NOT work with all 3 sticks in there). Since then I've had some wacky problems, and I'm worried that the only way to fix this will be to reinstall Windows, and I don't feel like doing all that. The easier solution might be to put the old RAM back in because the performance upgrades have been marginal, or I might just fuck it all and upgrade the whole PC since it's long overdue, only I don't have any spare money to spend on that right now.

The reason that I had upgraded the RAM in the first place is because I was getting a lot of stuttering when streaming high def content to my TV, and it hasn't fixed that at all.

One of the problems I'm having is web browsers crashing on me all the time. Mozilla might crash every 10 minutes, so I installed Google Chrome, which is better since it doesn't crash the whole app but I'll sometimes get errors and have to reload the page. Still a pain but not as big a pain.

On top of that, Winamp crashes sometimes, and sometimes my PC will randomly reboot with no warning or error message.

Any ideas? I'm running an AMD Athlon 1700, my video card is a GeForce 6200 (AGP slot), which does the job but is not top-of-the-line either. Aside from playing downloaded content on my TV, I don't use my PC for anything too demanding.

Am I expecting too much from this old rig by hoping it'll play HD content in a satisfactory quality? I see these tiny little media players that seem to do it no problem, and I'm wondering what I need to do to make my PC better at that? I'm actually considering one of those media players + an external HDD for when we move into a new place if I don't want to have the PC in the living room, but if I can make my rig perform better, I can save a few hundred dollars.

 

[workdowntown]

I think the problem could well be your video card.
I'd suggest an upgrade to that alone, minimum.

In all honesty though, if the machine itself is on the way to obsolescence you might be better to buy something new and work from there.

 

[praktik]

Dude to me this is screaming: reformat!

Random crashes of programs and the system usually points to a degraded Windows condition.

Whens the last time you reformatted??

Might still stutter streaming HD but you'll at least get rid of the random crashing.

 

[Subsonic Chronic]

It's been a few years at least since the last reformat, and since this is so old I don't think that will improve streaming quality.

I think workdowntown is right in that I'm looking at a fairly complete upgrade (motherboard + chip, RAM, video card, power supply) if I want to make this better at streaming HD content.

Either that, or buy a media player + external HHD, which will end up running me about the same. Maybe I'll hold off until the move is complete, and then decide based on whether the PC-in-the-living-room works or not.

In the meantime, I'm probably better off throwing the old RAM back in there just to prevent the random crashes I've been getting, it just sucks that I wasted $50 on RAM that probably won't work in an upgraded system.

 

[JayIsBored]

if you don't want a computer in your living room just buy a laptop with an hdmi out...and the external hdrive to keep all those HD programs you so lovingly downloaded. works for me!

 

[SubMissioN]

Believe it or not the geforce 6200 card is good card for the AGP series....everythings PCIE now and i found that their new cards were problematic. Anyhow what kind of ram is it? SD DDR DDR2? If your computer is older your motherboard may not support DDR or DDR2 and you can't mix them together like SD with DDR or DDR with DDR2. If your graphics card worked before there should be no reason for it not working now. Its also possible that you need to download new codecs for your media player or update your directx drivers. As far as watching high def. it should be no problem its just a resolution setting and most computers can set higher resolutions then high def. You may have to go into your graphics card display properties and set the high def resolution. Right click on your desktop go to properties go to settings then go to advanced. Your card properties window will come up and go to your screen resolution option and to ADD and type it in. Hit apply and ok.

 

[workdowntown]

If you want a cheap and functional alternative in the meantime there's always

The Eee box

My buddy uses it as his media center and so far his only complaint is that it only stores 80GB. With portable storage that limitation is debatable though.

Plus at under $350, it's a steal

 

[SubMissioN]

It may be possible that if you have an old monitor that its not capable of displaying high resolution settings. Keep that in mind.

 

[silver1]

One of the problems I'm having is web browsers crashing on me all the time. Mozilla might crash every 10 minutes, so I installed Google Chrome, which is better since it doesn't crash the whole app but I'll sometimes get errors and have to reload the page. Still a pain but not as big a pain.

On top of that, Winamp crashes sometimes, and sometimes my PC will randomly reboot with no warning or error message.

Did you just finish reading the thread I started?

Almost exact same problems as you're having.

 

[Subsonic Chronic]

No, didn't see that thread until now, but that's exactly what I'm getting too. Unfortunately I don't know of any good diagnostic tools.

The only recent change is a RAM upgrade and all the problems started after that. The type or RAM I have in there now is the same type as before - DDR 400MHz, only difference is that it's one 1GB stick instead of the previous 2 x 256MB.

I have a feeling that formatting and reinstalling Windows would help, but that's several hours I don't want to spend backing everything up, reinstalling Windows, and then reinstalling all the apps one by one.

I think it will be easier for me to put the old RAM back in and see if that undoes the problems. We'll see...

 

[SubMissioN]

No, didn't see that thread until now, but that's exactly what I'm getting too. Unfortunately I don't know of any good diagnostic tools.

The only recent change is a RAM upgrade and all the problems started after that. The type or RAM I have in there now is the same type as before - DDR 400MHz, only difference is that it's one 1GB stick instead of the previous 2 x 256MB.

I have a feeling that formatting and reinstalling Windows would help, but that's several hours I don't want to spend backing everything up, reinstalling Windows, and then reinstalling all the apps one by one.

I think it will be easier for me to put the old RAM back in and see if that undoes the problems. We'll see...

Shit ok i think i know the problem. Some mother boards "for some reason" only work if you use your ram in pairs. Don't ask me why they did this? Anyhow you can't have one stick 1G because its shared ram which means you have to have 2 1G sticks for it to work or 2 512 sticks. Pairs...you see what I'm saying?

 

[workdowntown]

Shit ok i think i know the problem. Some mother boards "for some reason" only work if you use your ram in pairs. Don't ask me why they did this? Anyhow you can't have one stick 1G because its shared ram which means you have to have 2 1G sticks for it to work or 2 512 sticks. Pairs...you see what I'm saying?

this is actually a good and oft overlooked point. this could be the issue.

 

[Subsonic Chronic]

pairs eh? That might do it, but do I want to spend another $50 on RAM on a basically obsolete machine?

I remember from my helpdesk days that having different sized RAM in the same machine is generally a no-no, but had forgotten about the pairs thing.

 

[SubMissioN]

I wouldn't. I'd just buy a new motherboard.

 

[SubMissioN]

You can get a good one for $80 just make sure it has slots for both ddr1 drr2, mind you they have ddr3 now. Anyway and you'll have to find one that still supports AGP if you want to keep that graphics card. Otherwise you'll have to buy one of those to because their all PCIE slots now.

 

[urbanriot]

If you had none of these problems prior to installing new RAM then you probably have either a) a flaky stick or b) incompatible pairs c) wrong timings.

For a) and b), you can try and run some memory diagnostics from here http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp or off a Vista CD. Run it in thorough mode and if it fails you can diagnose them individually to see if one is flaky or incompatible with the other.

For c) Check the SPD setting somewhere in your motherboard BIOS (maybe under Chipset area) and see if it's set to auto or manual. If it's set to manual, maybe that's your problem.

What motherboard do you have?

 

[SubMissioN]

If you had none of these problems prior to installing new RAM then you probably have either a) a flaky stick or b) incompatible pairs c) wrong timings.

For a) and b), you can try and run some memory diagnostics from here http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp or off a Vista CD. Run it in thorough mode and if it fails you can diagnose them individually to see if one is flaky or incompatible with the other.

For c) Check the SPD setting somewhere in your motherboard BIOS (maybe under Chipset area) and see if it's set to auto or manual. If it's set to manual, maybe that's your problem.

What motherboard do you have?

Yeah that would work but he doesn't have a pair of 1gig sticks he only has one. So theres no use in doing this just return the stick and exchange it for 2 512 sticks and make sure their the same.

 

[SubMissioN]

If you had none of these problems prior to installing new RAM then you probably have either a) a flaky stick or b) incompatible pairs c) wrong timings.

For a) and b), you can try and run some memory diagnostics from here http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp or off a Vista CD. Run it in thorough mode and if it fails you can diagnose them individually to see if one is flaky or incompatible with the other.

For c) Check the SPD setting somewhere in your motherboard BIOS (maybe under Chipset area) and see if it's set to auto or manual. If it's set to manual, maybe that's your problem.

What motherboard do you have?

Yeah that would work but he doesn't have a pair of 1gig sticks he only has one. So theres no use in doing this just return the stick and exchange it for 2 512 sticks and make sure their the same. If you wanted more ram then that then you have to go buy another one of the same 1G stick. If you don't want to pay that much for an old computer you spend a little more and get a new motherboard and use the existing memory.

 

[urbanriot]

Yeah that would work but he doesn't have a pair of 1gig sticks he only has one. So theres no use in doing this just return the stick and exchange it for 2 512 sticks and make sure their the same.

ah, I misread. Tired eyes, tired brain from a late night

 

[lobo]

Have you gone into your bios yet to check things out in there? Since you did a memory upgrade, I would suggest reseting your bios to its default settings. If you had dual channel memory enabled, it would not be working anymore since you only have one stick now.

The suggestions of paired memory sticks might be a good one too but I can understand why you wouldn't want to sink more money into an older system. Personally I'd go with a brand new system since then you'd be able to play the HD content a lot smoother.

Lobo

 

[Stan]

Dual Channel memory requires a matched pair of RAM sticks in order to work optimally. This was introduced about 5 years ago so your motherboard most likely has it. If you have four RAM slots on your motherboard, usually they will be colour coded in matched pairs (either alternating or together) so you would want to put your RAM in the slots that are matching in colour. 1&3, 2&4 or 1&2, 3&4.

 

[oddmyth]

Before doing anything check the documentation for your mobo and see if you indeed do need to use RAM pairs.

HD stuttering would usually indicate a bottleneck in your system. Its a rather old machine so I am assuming your hard drive is not SATA/SAS. A good test would be to use a USB2.0 external and try to stream from there. If that works without stutter then you can nix your video card off the list of possible stutter sources.

Overall bus speeds inside the machine (that is to say interconnect paths between devices) have become MUCH faster since you bought that machine. It is quite possible that the speed of the components and busses inside your machine simply aren't up to snuff to stream HD proper.

 

[Subsonic Chronic]

Ok, since the initial post I haven't really done anything except put the old RAM back in. Since then, one little thing that I've noticed is that I can play HD content perfectly fine if it's larger files, but it's the smaller files that stutter/hickup.

For example, I can watch Transformers or Incredible Hulk in 720p and it looks and sounds fantastic, but when I try a 1-hour episode of Battlestar or Ultimate Fighter, or a half-hour episode of Flight of the Conchords, that's when I get the most problems. Looking at the few files I have in 720p, the problems seems more prominent with avi and mkv than with mp4 or wmv, but I don't really have a large enough library to confirm whether this is the case across the board.

Is this likely a codec issue then? What are the codecs du jour? I'm running VLC for almost all my video and I can't find much info in the program itself.

 

[KodiaK]

Shit ok i think i know the problem. Some mother boards "for some reason" only work if you use your ram in pairs. Don't ask me why they did this? Anyhow you can't have one stick 1G because its shared ram which means you have to have 2 1G sticks for it to work or 2 512 sticks. Pairs...you see what I'm saying?

yea if your mainboard is dual channel or some shit you need a pair of the same stuff to get the little extra speed boost out of it.

if it's an athlon system (around the same age as mine), chances are this could be a problem, but i dont think it is. Because those mainboards from back then would just automatically enable it when you had two of the same brands/specs of ram in it.

could be a bum piece of ram, can go download a program like memtest or some shit and let it run for a while to see if the ram is pootched.

 

[KodiaK]

Ok, since the initial post I haven't really done anything except put the old RAM back in. Since then, one little thing that I've noticed is that I can play HD content perfectly fine if it's larger files, but it's the smaller files that stutter/hickup.

For example, I can watch Transformers or Incredible Hulk in 720p and it looks and sounds fantastic, but when I try a 1-hour episode of Battlestar or Ultimate Fighter, or a half-hour episode of Flight of the Conchords, that's when I get the most problems. Looking at the few files I have in 720p, the problems seems more prominent with avi and mkv than with mp4 or wmv, but I don't really have a large enough library to confirm whether this is the case across the board.

Is this likely a codec issue then? What are the codecs du jour? I'm running VLC for almost all my video and I can't find much info in the program itself.

could be a codec thing. could be a player thing. Could be a lot of things. My system bogs down like a motherfucker just by webpages that use a lot of flash on them, or even flash sites like youtube. Those tend to bog down.

but personally i have no problem playing HD content. My system is an amd 2500 (i underclocked it from 3200 speeds), so it's kinda similar to yours.

the bottleneck could honestly be cpu driven......