PC Locking Up

[Bodes]

Hi - I have a oldish HP desktop and installed extra SDRAM - the system has recognised this new SDRAM but since I installed it the machine keeps on locking up after a bit of usage - when I say locking up - the mouse or keyboard just don't work - you have to power off the PC and restart to get it going again.

Since this has only happened since I installed the RAM I suspect this will be the reason - but I need the RAM (increased it 100% from 256 to 512).

Does anyone have any ideas why the PC is locking up?

[Jen]

Try removing the new RAM and see if the problem continues first.

[Morgenmuffel]

remove the ram and test the machine without it, yes it will be slower but if the ram is faulty you can't fix it

If the problem keeps happening with the new stick of ram removed then there is probably nothing wrong with that stick of ram (murphys law says your existing stick will have gone faulty from jealousy)

You could try running memtest86? on the ram, someone else here will probably explain that better than i can

[apsattv]

You need to load a util like CpuZ to compare timings of both sticks. Ram using different timings can cause problems.

You may need to go into the bios and disable the ram SPD and manually set it to the timing of the slower ram.