I am extremely confused. My computer has been disagnosed and evrything and they say everything checks out perfect. The thing is when i work on it it freezes randomly, sometimes without even using it. I have 3 128 mb ram cards. 1 is crucial and the other 2 are different. We thought the two newer ones went bad which are the ones that are not crucial, but best buy supposably checked them and they said they were completely okay. Well the thing is without them my computer works fine but when thery are in it always freezes. I don't know what to do. I have checked the ram with programs and they always check out okay but the computer doesn't work with them in.

I have windows xp, an amd athlon 1.1 gig. proccessor, nvidia geforce fx 5200 graphics card, and a 1st mainboard motherboard.


I need as much help as possible. Thank you.

Simplest and most fool proof way to check this out is to install one stick of ram at a time and test the system with each stick. Try all sticks in the #1 slot or #0 which ever is first on your mobo. If the system posts and runs fine on each stick then test your dimm slots. Take one stick of ram and try it in each dimm slot. Booting and running the system with this one stick in each dimm slot. It is more than likely a bad stick or a bad dimm slot.

ok i did the proccess of elimination and i came to find that it was the third dimm slot that had went bad. For now i can onl have a mximum with what i have of 256 md of ram. I think i may get one or two 256 cars so i can either have 384 or 512. My only other option is to get a new motherboard. Please tell me if you have any suggestions.

2 x 256 or
2 x 512 or
1 x 256 / 1x 512
I would personally opt for 2 x 512 if you have the money.

If i install say a 512 card and then just use one of my 128 cards then i should be okay. But somewhere i saw said that i could'nt exceed 512 mb of ram, and i don't know if this is true or not. I think it was pc pitstop. It said maximum memory cache allowed or available or something. Should i only run 512? And also im not sure about anything now because recently the computer ran for like 4 days and it froze once today. It scares me that if im wrong i can end up spending uneeded money. Any suggestions? Also tell me what to do to make my computer compatible with more ram. Thank you.

Most mother boards have a ram limit. I think mine is somewhere around 2 gigs. Check your mother board documentation.

How old is your computer? It may just be time to upgrade.

For one i know it is a first mainboard, and i don't know what the limit is because when i put the cd in it says "os not supported". On the cd it just says 1st mainboard cd pro. I don't have the manual because someone else built the computer for me that i have not been able to get a hold of. Im sorry for the inconvenience. I do know one thing now. Recently i did some more testing. The computer will run with any card in any of the slots. But it won't run with two. It either freezes randomly when i use things or just freezes. I am extremely confused. I'm just thinking at this point a new motherboard but i do not know how to set up the bios and i don't want to spend a load of money having someone do it for me. Please give me your opinion. Thanks for all your help so far.