Identical DDR2 800(5) 2GX16 sticks (ADATA) not working together

[Violeta]

Hi all! My husband and I have identical machines. I've been having no problems, but he has has memory related issues. World of Warcraft was not installing properly and it was also crashing a lot. After looking up similar problems online, we narrowed it down to memory issues, and indeed, that's what it is. With ONE stick in, the game installed without a problem. With ONE stick in, WoW works great without crashing. Putting both sticks in causes crashes. Anyway, the sticks are identical, at least as they LOOK on the outside. What is printed on one is printed on the other, and that is: DDR2 800(5) 2GX16. It doesn't matter what slot he puts each in or which stick he puts in, if it's by itself it works. If they are both in, it doesn't work. So, any clue as to what to do? We don't want to order more RAM because it doesn't seem like either stick is bad... they just don't work together. Looking up solutions online only helps as far as trying to get two sticks that don't quite match to work, but these are identical. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

 

[Violeta]

anybody??

Please, does anybody know what this could be? Anybody...?

 

[Duxx]

Is this a new computer and the problem came with it or did it previously work and then all of a sudden start acting up?

 

[Violeta]

Thank you!

Thanks for replying!!

Here is how it's played out:

We ordered the PC's from a company in Phoenix and they were identical. The problem started when he tried installing things. From the beginning, the operating system (then xp) and World of Warcraft would crash at install. WoW would crash when installing the long .mpq files. I immediately suspected memory issues because the problem wasn't consistent - it would hang at different times, and sometimes it would install all the way.

Since we both play, we have two separate copies of the game, so the same thing would happen if he used my discs. The thing is, all other games installed just fine and aside from World of Warcraft having problems and crashing occasionally, everything worked fine. We also installed another CD/DVD player and the same thing would happen if he tried to install it from the new drive. Also, we replaced the hard drive and the same problem... then we installed Vista on both PC's (the 32-bit version unfortunately) and the same thing... so that is what told me finally that it must be memory. Sure enough he took one stick out and all worked well. BUT either stick works equally well in either slot!! So we're not seeing a problem with a memory stick, it's just them together. So... I'm not sure what to do about it.

The only thing we did NOT try yet is open up MY pc and swap out my memory for his and try different combinations, but I suspect that there is nothing wrong with his memory sticks, and in fact it may be some sort of bios setting that is different in his PC than mine, but that's where my expertise ends.

Meanwhile today, MY WoW crashed under Vista (which we installed two days ago) and this never happened to me before under XP. I read (http://www.maximumpc.com/article/bi...ista_run_dont_walk_to_get_the_hotfix_you_need) and am starting to even wonder about Vista and 4GB ram in the first place. The article at the bottom states: "It's not adding more RAM to your 32-bit system (unless you're running less than 2GB now). Because of motherboard design limitations and the 2GB virtual memory memory address limit, 2GB is the best memory size for 32-bit Windows today." So, should we just keep him with 2GB RAM or will it do any good to try to get back to 4? Of course, I have four and it's always worked okay with me from the beginning... except that crash today with WoW under Vista but that may not be memory related.

I'm attaching our DxDiag files; his is DanielDxDiag and mine is CarmenDxDiag. Thanks!

 

[Evo85]

You simply got a bad stick of memory. It happens. Happened to me with some ADATA memory awhile back. (Was causing me the same problems in WOW)

Wow highly stresses memory. Even more so now after the graphics engine upgrade. If it has ANY weakness, it will eventually find it, and you will get a 132 or 134 error.

 

[Evo85]

Can you post your WoW error logs?

 

[Violeta]

sure

Here are the error logs.

Also, if it's a BAD stick of memory, how come when he uses ONE stick it works fine, regardless of which stick it is. Individually they work fine, so even if it was a bad one, how do we know which one to replace??

 

[Evo85]

Ah, the ambiguous 134 error. Which is a generic error WoW throws whenever something goes wrong it cant categorize....

Have you tried stress testing the sticks with Memtest86?

 

[Violeta]

no

No because I do not know anything about testing memory. Is it an intuitive program? I remember downloading a program a while back to test the memory but I had no clue what it was telling me or how to use it well.

 

[Evo85]

This is the easiest stress test I have found: http://www.ocbase.com/perestroika_en/
Download it, run, and set the test to RAM. Let it run AT LEAST 8 hours.

This is also an excellent program: http://www.memtest86.com/
But is a little more involved, and has to be run in DOS.

If these find nothing, PM me. There is a "cure all" fix but it is very long "time wise" and alot of work.

 

[Violeta]

I will do that

Thank you! I will try those links.

Should he test ONE 2gb stick at a time, or with BOTH of them in?

Thanks!

 

[Evo85]

Thank you! I will try those links.

Should he test ONE 2gb stick at a time, or with BOTH of them in?

Thanks!

I have always believed in testing one stick at a time.