Guest drblow Posted January 21, 2004 Report Posted January 21, 2004 I recently bought a new PC (budget stuff, you know) with an AMD Athlon XP 2200+ processor, and a Mercury mainboard (Sis 740 chipset). It came with 256 DDRAM 333. Now, yesterday, I bought another 256 DDRAM 333 - exactly the same product from the same shop. Stuck it in & within 5 minutes, blue screen crash, msg about memory management. I tried rebooting with only the new DDRAM in, & blue screen crash, this time msg about NTFS. Replaced original RAM - system works fine! :? Reckon it was just faulty RAM. So, I had a look at the manual & stuff, and discovered that it says the mainboard runs at FBS 266mhz, & supports UP TO 266mhz DDRAM. I also discovered that my system information inXPhome was telling me the CPU was only 1500+ 1,35GB, however, the AMD website recommends changing the BIOS FSB to 133mhz, which gives me a reading of 2200+ 1.8 GB. So the questions are ... 1) will the DDRAM 333mhz damage/affect my system badly? 2) will changing the FSB bios setting "overclock" my system? 3) am I being ripped off/lied to by the shop engineer, who can't give me an adequate reason as to ahy, when the manual says max 266 RAM, he gave me 333 RAM?? :x Thanks for any techie help here!
Guest Taoski Posted January 22, 2004 Report Posted January 22, 2004 Well..... Well... well... 1. In theory - faster memory will not damage your system - it should just not work full stop! As far as i am concerned - the existing memory should not operate correctly at the faster speed - maybe they did give you 266mhz RAM and changed the sticker. The memory will only ever run at 266mhz as this is the speed of your FSB - so go back and ask them for the correct RAM. 2. You can increase the FSB to increase the speed of systems - it should already be on the highest setting and you should have a CPU and memory matched to that speed. You don't want to turn it down though - this will just make things slower.... 3. Lied to? Possibly - maybe he just don't know for sure. Ask for the correct speed memory (266) and all should be ok. If they cannot give a proper answer then they should not be trusted anyway!
Guest ClintEastman Posted January 22, 2004 Report Posted January 22, 2004 In theory - faster memory will not damage your system - it should just not work full stop! 333MHz memory will run anything UP TO 333MHz, so you could run it at 100MHz if you wanted, oh and memory doesn't have to run at the same speed as your front side bus. :wink:
Guest drblow Posted January 23, 2004 Report Posted January 23, 2004 Cheers fellas! After a little research of my own, it saeems most people reckon there is no harm done by running RAM that is meant to be faster than FSB, it will just run at a lower speed than its capable of. I think the problem with the shop is porbably the same problem that exists in a lot of computer shops, which is, if the dunce behind the desk gets the impression you DO know what you're talking about, they instantly start to spout code numbers and technical jargon in a desperate attempt to a) seem as if they know what you mean, but also try to sound like they know more than you and :D dodge having to give you a real answer by confusing you with jargon Bloody shop techies. Why do they all have that stupid long hair with a middle parting? :lol: P.S. Anybody got any tips for good PC maintenance? Just like good housekeeping tips? Like, how often should you defragment/diskcheck? How often should you change hardware like RAM? Are there any really good system diagnostic tools that can idnetify problems? You know! :wink:
Guest mcwarre Posted January 24, 2004 Report Posted January 24, 2004 A top tip. Get a hard drive cooler. It's a fan which sits underneath the hard drive and continually cools it. Only costs about £5 here and it increases speed (and life) of your hard drive. :wink: :wink:
Guest Matt Kirby Posted January 24, 2004 Report Posted January 24, 2004 Another tip - get a copy of Diskeeper. It defrags your hard disk in the background as you work, or you can set it to defrag when the screen saver is on. Saves the hassle of remembering to defrag! One tip though - you need to get the Pro version for XP Pro - and annnoyingly it costs more.
Guest drblow Posted January 24, 2004 Report Posted January 24, 2004 mmm ... cheers lads! What about diagnostics?? Is there actually any way of scanning a PC for problems, that can be remedied? Like, actually before the PC blows up and needs replaced!?
Guest Matt Kirby Posted January 24, 2004 Report Posted January 24, 2004 Norton SystemWorks aint bad, although a bit pricey (unless you can buy an OEM version - check computer fairs etc). It's got a "One Button Checkup" program that scans the Registry, checks that essential program files are in place and fixes any problems it finds. With system works you also get Norton Utils, AV, CleanSweep (un-installer) and possibly Ghost and / or GoBack depending on the version of Works you get. Good bundle, better if you can bag an OEM copy.
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