No Sound/Slow Performance After Upgrading RAM

irishguy

irishguy

irishguy

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Hi Guys, I'd appreciate it if anyone could offer some help here. Recently I bought the following RAM from crucial.com:

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=72C83ABCA5CA7304

It was reccommended by crucial.com for my particular system(Dell XPS 600), which has the following specs:

Dell XPS 600, Pentium D 3.2Ghz Processor
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit OS
4GB(2x2) Dual Channel DDR2 667MHz RAM(after crucial upgrade)
3.5" Floppy Drive
250GB SATA(7200rpm) Hard Drive
16x DVD+/-RW and 16x DVD
nVidia GeForce 7800GTX 256MB Dual graphics card
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme music card

But after taking out my old RAM and installing the new RAM, my sound went very crackly until after a few minutes it just disappeared altogether. Before installing the new crucial RAM, I had 2GB(1x1), CL4, PC 4200, 233Mhz, and the sound worked perfectly.

Also after installing the new RAM my performance actually went down. I don't understand this, the specs are all higher than my old RAM, so why is it giving me less performance?

I have been on to crucial about this but they just told me to run MemTest to see if there were any errors in the RAM. I did this for several hours and no errors turned up. They also said try put in 1 module at a time to see if the sound problem still occurs, and both modules work fine when put in separately, but when put in together they don't.

Anyone ever had this problem, or have any advice on how to fix it?

Cheers,

James
 
it may be that the motherboard doesnt support the higher speed ram, or just doesnt like the new RAM, with it being an OEM board. Look on dell support to see if theres a BIOs update.

also, have you put it in the right slots?
 
thingemajib said:
it may be that the motherboard doesnt support the higher speed ram, or just doesnt like the new RAM, with it being an OEM board. Look on dell support to see if theres a BIOs update.

also, have you put it in the right slots?
Click to expand...

Its definitely not the speed of the RAM as 667Mhz is supported by my motherboard. I put the RAM in slots 1 and 3, and tried 2 and 4, and both times I had the same problem. There is a bios update available, but when I try to install it I get an error message saying that Windows requires the file to have a digital signature or something, and it won't let me install it. Is there any way around this?
 
How are you flashing the BIOS?
Also, if you try your old RAM, is the sound back or still gone?
What do you mean by slow performance?
Clearing the CMOS might help...
 
Orcvader said:
How are you flashing the BIOS?
Click to expand...

Not really sure what you mean. I'm just running the BIOS update from the desktop. Before I was getting an error about the file not having a digital signature. Not I'm getting the following error:

Code: 
Windows Configuration Error

An error was encountered trying to configure Windows to allow flashing, please reboot and try again. If this error re-occurs, please contact technical help.

Rebooted, and tried to run it again but no luck.

Orcvader said:
Also, if you try your old RAM, is the sound back or still gone?
Click to expand...

Yeh the sound works grand with my old RAM. And theres no sound issue either if I put the new RAM modules in separately, its only when I put them in together I get the sound problems.

Orcvader said:
What do you mean by slow performance?
Click to expand...

As in the computer actually runs a bit slower with the new 2x2GB modules in, than with the old 1x1GB modules in. I don't understand this is the RAM capacity has increased, the speed of the new RAM is higher, and the new RAM is PC5300 whereas the old RAM was PC4200.

Orcvader said:
Clearing the CMOS might help...
Click to expand...

How would this effect the BIOS settings of Dell computers? As yeh can't edit a lot of the settings in the BIOS. Would they be erased by clearing the CMOS, or would they be unaffected?
 
Last edited:
Try slots 1 & 2 together, and slots 3 & 4 together.
The settings might still be set to the old RAM, so clearing the CMOS will reset it to default, hopefully allowing it to adjust to the new RAM correctly. Since you can't edit it, nothing major will be changed.
Reading from the DELL site:
Run the BIOS update utility from Windows environment

1.Double click the Icon on your desktop labeled M1330A12.EXE.
The Dell BIOS Flash window appears
2.Click the Continue button.
The message Pressing OK will close all applications, shut down Windows, Flash the BIOS, then reboot. appears.
3.Click the OK button.
The system will restart and the BIOS Flash will be completed.

Run the BIOS update utility from DOS environment (Non-Windows users)

NOTE: You will need to provide a bootable DOS diskette. This executable file does not create the DOS system files.
1.Copy the file M1330A12.EXE to a bootable floppy.
2.Boot from the floppy to the DOS prompt.

3.Run the file by typing Y:\M1330A12.EXE (where y is the drive letter where the executable is located).
Click to expand...
 
I followed all the instructions but no luck. I've tried doing it via the command prompt, and no luck there either.

Could it be that the BIOS update was designed for XP/Vista, and just won't work on W7?
 
Last edited:
The memory you have bought is CL5 whereas your old memory was CL4. May be worth checking RAM timings in the BIOS to make sure it has been slackened off correctly.
 
HangTime said:
The memory you have bought is CL5 whereas your old memory was CL4. May be worth checking RAM timings in the BIOS to make sure it has been slackened off correctly.
Click to expand...

It doesn't show the RAM timings in the BIOS. Crucial actually suggested I try change the timings, but you can't do that with a Dell computer anyway.

What I'm trying to do now is creating a new partition to install XP onto, so that I can run the BIOS update from there, and then I can remove that partition and have the update installed. So far I've gotten as far as resizing my C: drive, and creating a new partition to install XP onto. However when I reboot to install XP, I agree to the T&C's etc by pressing F8, but then it doesn't detect the new partition I created, or the one Windows 7 is currently installed onto. This is the only option:

3095 MB Disk on disk [MBR] C: Partition1 [FAT32]

When I press Enter, I get the following error:

Your computer startup program cannot gain access to the disk containing the partition or free space you chose.....

Anyone any idea whats going wrong here? Am I even going about this the right way?
 
Got another reply from Crucial who directed me to a similar problem on the Dell forum - http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3513/p/19300878/19575552.aspx

It seems my particular soundcard is whats causing the problem as it can't take more than 3GB of RAM.

I've decided to return the RAM anyway as I wasn't happy with the performance from it.

So what I'm considering doing is just getting 2GB more RAM on top of the 2GB of old RAM that I had to begin with, to bring me to 4GB altogether. The RAM thats in my system atm is PC2-4300, and the one I was looking at getting is PC2-4200. Otherwise they're both the same clock speed and frequency, so should there be no problem here or could having two different PC2-XXXX cause conflict?
 
Sorry this is way too late but I'd just post for reference.

There are compatibility issues with X-Fis and 4GB+ RAM in some combinations. It's a bit of a lottery but the same soundcard will be perfect with 4GB RAM in one system and won't work in another.

I've encountered the problem a couple of times. In one case I got complete silence when 4GB RAM was installed. In another I just got a snap-crackle-pop fest when 4GB RAM was installed.

Only tips I can offer are try modded drivers or a different model of soundcard.
 
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