New RAM disrupting my Wireless Card Options

[trumpormonkey]

Hello atomic,

I just put a pair of G Skill PI 1066mhz 2x2gb sticks in my PC, I upgraded from some OCZ System Elite 667mhz 2x1gb sticks. I turned on my PC after blowing out some of the dust out with compressed air. My computer was working, it was showing I have 3.5gbs because I'm running 32bit so it's reading the memory fine.

The only problem is my was my Wireless card wasn't working, I went into Device Management and it told me that my Wireless card wasn't functioning properly. I went to pull the new RAM out and put the old modules in, turned on the PC, the wireless card is now working properly.

What could be the cause guys?

All help is much appreciated

[Master_Scythe]

you bumped the wireless card or blew some dust into\onto a part of it.

ram will not be interfering. Hell ram doesnt even use an IRQ, there is literally nothing (assuming the ram WORKS) that I could think of that would do this thats ram related.

edit: could be windows messing something up becaue you're maxing out its memory allocation.... though once again, logic has no reason for this to be happening. But since when has logic and windows gone hand in hand.

This post has been edited by Master_Scythe: May 3 2009, 03:26 PM

[aliali]

I can't see how the ram would mess with the wireless card either, except perhaps something to do with memory mapping, as I assume the wireless card would have some sort of memory on it no matter how small. Try with one stick of Gskill, and if that works swap them over. If still no problem but it returns after fitting all 4 Gb then reseat the wireless card and it the problem still continues it is to do with the total amount of ram you have in which case you could see if the bios allows for memory hole remapping or 'memory hoisting".
http://www.dansdata.com/askdan00015.htm

[trumpormonkey]

I can't see how the ram would mess with the wireless card either, except perhaps something to do with memory mapping, as I assume the wireless card would have some sort of memory on it no matter how small. Try with one stick of Gskill, and if that works swap them over. If still no problem but it returns after fitting all 4 Gb then reseat the wireless card and it the problem still continues it is to do with the total amount of ram you have in which case you could see if the bios allows for memory hole remapping or 'memory hoisting".
http://www.dansdata.com/askdan00015.htm

I just tried both gskill sticks on their own, one of the sticks by itself made my screen have no signal. but my computer didn't stop or shut down. with the other piece my computer works perfectly, wireless is working, screen signal working etc. I think the other piece of ram is a dud.

but I still don't see why this piece of ram is interfering.

edit: disregard what I last said just tried the 'dud' one again and it works exactly the same as the other piece. i'm going to try to run the pair in different slots now and see if it works

I have just done everything you have said for me to do aliali, I've reseated the wireless card, still doesn't work under 4gb's, placed them in different slots as dual channel.

Now all that's left for me to do is the memory hole remapping or memory hoisting but I'm having trouble finding that in my BIOS.

This post has been edited by trumpormonkey: May 3 2009, 08:34 PM

[strifus]

Just a thought but could it be power related??

[trumpormonkey]

Just a thought but could it be power related??

That's one thing I thought, but I'm definitely not using more power than my PSU can handle right at start up which is when I noticed my Wireless card wasn't working and PSU's only use the wattage they need at one time depending on load.

Can anyone help me find out how to memory hoist or do that memory hole remapping on a Gigabyte P35-DS3R?

This post has been edited by trumpormonkey: May 3 2009, 08:41 PM

[aliali]

May be under the M.I.T section if it exists. As you have a Gigabyte board when at the main bios screen hit ctrl + F1 and the screen should flicker then change a bit. This should give you access to any of the hidden advanced bios settings.

Will try to remember to check my GA-p35 ds3r later tonight and see if I can find any such settings.
Ok decided to do the check now before I forgot. Nope can't seem to find any option for that myself so it seems to not be available in these bioses, however looking did remind me of something. As you have XP make damn sure HPET is disabled in the power management section. This is on by default and tends to screw up XP as it is not supported by that OS.
May also be worth trying the F11 bios (I would avoid the F13D as it is a beta).


This post has been edited by aliali: May 3 2009, 10:29 PM

[trumpormonkey]

May be under the M.I.T section if it exists. As you have a Gigabyte board when at the main bios screen hit ctrl + F1 and the screen should flicker then change a bit. This should give you access to any of the hidden advanced bios settings.

Will try to remember to check my GA-p35 ds3r later tonight and see if I can find any such settings.
Ok decided to do the check now before I forgot. Nope can't seem to find any option for that myself so it seems to not be available in these bioses, however looking did remind me of something. As you have XP make damn sure HPET is disabled in the power management section. This is on by default and tends to screw up XP as it is not supported by that OS.
May also be worth trying the F11 bios (I would avoid the F13D as it is a beta).

I have Windows Vista 32bit, at the moment I'm just using a single stick of 2gb's. It seems there is no way of fixing this problem. I don't really wanna risk flashing my bios or anything, I don't think I can exchange these modules for 2x1gb's of the same type since one of the modules has been in my computer since later yesterday. If I can't maybe I'll just give the other one to a mate or something, I don't think there is too much of a loss either way, I wonder how 667mhz dual channel competes to a single channel 1066mhz stick.. edit: Apparently having a single 2gb stick of 1066MHz is worse than DDR2-667mhz in dual channel. This is really annoying me. I pretty much downgraded

Thank so much for the help everyone!

This post has been edited by trumpormonkey: May 4 2009, 10:11 PM

[aliali]

Depending on how long you keep your computers perhaps hold on to the second stick of ram till Windows 7 is available and then get the 64 bit version. Or get the 64 bit version of Vista now. If you have Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, or Business as a retail, packaged product then you can get a 64 bit disk from Microsoft. If you have Vista Ultimate then the 64 bit version is included on the disk.
If you have the OEM version of basic, premium or business then you will need to buy the 64 bit version.
Changing to 64 bit will require a fresh install though.

[eckythump]

Yes, a 64-bit OS should solve this problem.

It'd be interesting to see if the problem presents itself under linux or another non-Windows 32-bit OS.

And for future reference, unless your RAM is holding you back when it comes to overclocking, upgrading it (for speed, rather than additional capacity) is just pissing money against a wall.

You could always try another wireless card. You might have more success with a USB wifi device.

Good luck.

[trumpormonkey]

Depending on how long you keep your computers perhaps hold on to the second stick of ram till Windows 7 is available and then get the 64 bit version. Or get the 64 bit version of Vista now. If you have Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, or Business as a retail, packaged product then you can get a 64 bit disk from Microsoft. If you have Vista Ultimate then the 64 bit version is included on the disk.
If you have the OEM version of basic, premium or business then you will need to buy the 64 bit version.
Changing to 64 bit will require a fresh install though.

Yeah, it's not logical to upgrade my computer just yet to only fix some issues with my ram, especially since my computer is still fairly recent: Q6600, P35-DS3R, GTX 260, 2gbs of DDR2. It's not like I'm overclocking or anything just yet, maybe I'll bump it up to 3.2ghz or so like I did last winter because of the weather (Can really get it past that because it's an early model B3 Q6600). I can just use this stick for my mums new PC though and sell the 667's to my friend.

This has been a good lesson for me I guess, I didn't think when I bought these ram sticks, I forgot all about the limit with 32 bit. It's also a lesson for me so my next computer will NOT be 32bit!!!!!

Thanks for the help guys.

[cleadge]

Is your Mum's new PC using a 64bit OS? you could try the wireless card with the ram in her PC also.
IMO i doubt that the RAM its self or the use of a 32bit OS is the culprit, it may well be a Motherboard incompatibility with the RAM.

[trumpormonkey]

Is your Mum's new PC using a 64bit OS? you could try the wireless card with the ram in her PC also.
IMO i doubt that the RAM its self or the use of a 32bit OS is the culprit, it may well be a Motherboard incompatibility with the RAM.

We haven't even got it yet, she thought it was a good idea to get a new PC though. But it's an on and off decision for her I guess.

This post has been edited by trumpormonkey: May 5 2009, 07:33 PM