Computer freezes after memory upgrade!?!

[trojan800]

I have a sony vaio notebook that consistently freezes/locks up. It boots up fine everytime and seems to work wonderfully until for no apparent reason the system freezes and I have to do a hard shut down. This appears to happen at random, when I am a running various different programs or if I simply leave the computer on with nothing but the screen saver running. This problem came about after I upgraded the memory from 128 to 256MB (I am using a memory card recommended by sony from crucial.com). I have run MEMTEST86 on the memory to make sure the memory was ok and not faulty and in turn it found no errors. My notebook has the following specs:

model: PCGFX210
OS: XP Home Ed. 5.1 build 2600 (recently upgraded from Win ME w/ no problems)
CPU: AMD Duron, MX, 3DNOW, 800Mhz
BIOS: PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0
Memory: 256MB (just upgraded from 128MB)
All windows updates are installed.

By the way when I take out the new memory and leave the original 128 in the computer runs without any problems. Please help! Any suggestions or ideas are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
-Rory

 

[Rhombus65]

Did you try removing the old Ram and putting in the new Ram alone to see if the computer works ok?

The two sticks may not be compatible with each other.

Jim: A+, MCP W2k, Master Electrician

"The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing..."
-Albert Einstein

 

[micker377]

when I take out the new memory and leave the original 128"

Does this mean that the "new" memory is an addition to the "old" mem (384), or a replacement for the old stick?

 

[trojan800]

Rhombus65: I just switched the cards into eachothers slots to see if this has any effect... I am currently waiting for it to lock-up. If or rather when it locks up I will take the old one out and leave in the new one as you suggested. I will post my results after the next couple of freezes.

Micker377, there was originally only 128 (old one) and I bought and installed another 128.

Thanks -Rory

 

[BadBigBen]

The possibility that your new RAM is bad is very high...

reasoning, you yourself already said that with the new stick in place it locks up and that with the old it runs great...

explanation - once the RAM hits operating temperature it locks up, happened to me and all the memtests (memtest86, AMI-DIAG, and Linux) told me it was GOOD after I exchanged it for another brand it worked without any freezing...

disregard the above if your testing reveals that there is an incompatibility problem as mentioned by Rhombus65...

Ben

 

[trojan800]

Ok, here is the latest...I took the old stick out and left the new one in which resulted in the computer running perfect all night with no lock-ups. So this leaves me to believe that the new memory is in fact ok. I now installed the new memory in slot 2 only (the pre-upgrade, previously unused slot) leaving slot 1 empty, just to make sure all parts are working independently as they should. I do however however expect slot 2 to work. Which leaves me to believe that the problem may in fact be a incombatibility between the two memories sticks as Rhombus65 suggested. This would leave me with the only option to buy two new sticks, as this current NEW one is in fact the third different brand of RAM I tried to no effect.
Thanks for all the suggestions so far... and I welcome any more that you may have. -Rory

 

[IloveCheese]

The problem is likely due to the 2 Sticks interacting with each other.

Either they don't go well together, or, by using 2 Sticks, you are consuming more Power than your PSU can supply (2x256MB takes twice as much Power as 1x512MB Stick...it's not the size, but how many you have and what Speed they are...)...