My dad recently upgraded to two 512 ram chips and gave me his two 256 chips out of his computer, replacing the single 128 I had in mine.

I goto install both chips and the computer boots runs fine(alot faster), but after awhile, it freezes(say 1-3 minute after boot is complete). So I take it out, put in the old 128 and it works fine, then I just put in one 256 into the 2nd slot and it does the same thing, freezes after awhile. So I take out both, and just put in one 256 into the single slot...and it works fine.

Seems like if I put in two ram chips it freezes, but if I have only one, it doesn't. I don't know if this makes a difference but both slots are black, indicating maybe it's only single channel(???)...my dad computer has 2 white slots and two black slots, and when he had in all 4 chips, his did the same, so now he only has them in his 2 white expansion slots. He says it's cause it's a dual channel board...but both f my slots are the same color....

Anybody know what the issue is?

What mobo is it, exactly, and what type of RAM?

It sounds like one of the 256MB sticks is causing the problem - if it did the same in yours and your dad's machine. Try testing both 256 sticks individually. If one of them is screwed then I gues you can use the good 256 stick and your original 128...

Hope this helps!

Hi,
Looks like you might have some bad memory. Does it happen under Windows? You might try running memtest86. Most Linux install CDs have memtest86, but maybe SuSE doesn't... I say checking your memory.

HTH, Taj

Well, I tried both 256 sticks, and putting the 128 in the other slot and it does the same thing. Like you can have memory only in one slot.

I'm thinkin maybe I need dual channel memory???? Although, if it's dual channel, aren't the slots two different colors for input/output?

slow down your memory settings in the bios.

What should I slow it down to? Currently it's at 133/133 as the current 256 and 128 were PC 133's..........maybe one of the chips was a 100 without me knowing it? I'll look again when I get off.....

But will that do the trick if it's a 100 chipset?

i meant changing the wait states and timings. hopefully, your cmos setup has ram setttings in there, and you can change them. change everything to the highest settings there, and slow down your ram to 100 if you can. if it doesn't work like that, it's not going to, so you can quit messing with it. turn off memory interleave and other similar settings too, if you have them.
raise sdram cycle length. your motherboard manual hopefully has explanations of the settings. if you don't have the manual, you might can find it on the web.

maybe your second slot has too much dust in it?

For dual channel memory chipsets to be reliable, you need the same memory brand and memory model. The PC133 is not a real spec at all. The real spec is the access speed like 2.5 ns (nanosecond) which translates into 400 MHz using the formula below. Increasing the memory capacity will make it unreliable, so you have to use ECC to get close to the maximum capacity the motherboard can handle. Like someone said change the memory settings so they are not very agressive. To do this easily, go into the BIOS and select Fail Safe settings.

You still have not post your brand and model of your motherboard.

f = t^-1

f = Frequency in Hertz
t = time in seconds