Random Crashes On EVERY Game

[xzeox]

I have a Geforce NX6600 Graphics card and 512mb ram. I just got 256mb ram (which made my system have 512) and the graphics card a few days ago. But now, no matter which game I play, (BF2, HL2, The Sims 2, Farcry) It crashes about 4 or 5 minutes into the game. Exactly the same every time I play any of them. Its always 4 or 5 minutes no matter where i am in the game. I got different drivers and it still did the same thing. Could someone help?

 

[Beerdude26]

Sounds like you've got bad RAM. Maybe the RAM is corrupted or it is running at different speeds (like 200Mhz one stick and 333Mhz the other)

 

[xzeox]

Sounds like you've got bad RAM. Maybe the RAM is corrupted or it is running at different speeds (like 200Mhz one stick and 333Mhz the other)

is there a way that you can tell what speed your ram sticks are? because it didnt say when i bought it.

 

[Beerdude26]

Yes, you can see it by going into your BIOS (hold F8 or Delete button while booting) and you should come in the BIOS. Now look around a bit and don't change anything. Look for 'FSB' and/or 'Speed Multiplier' and tell us what it is. Also, normally there is a sticker on your RAM stick that holds a lot of information about it. If your RAM sticks have a sticker, copy that info too.

 

[xzeox]

Well the sticker on the ram doesnt say anything but I will try that thing when you boot up. Is it F8? I thought it was F1. Well, I will try both.

 

[Beerdude26]

Well the sticker on the ram doesnt say anything

Just copy what's on it.

 

[xzeox]

Theres Nothing On It!

what am I supposed to copy? And also I looked at my BIOS and it didnt tell me the speed of the ram. It just said "Total memory: 512mb". But also, I looked at my video settings and it was on 64mb. My graphics card is 256mb. Should I change the video settings to 256mb? Or should I leave it how it is?

 

[xzeox]

anyways, my complete system specs are--

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) (2600.xpclnt_qfe.010827-1803)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Computer Corporation
System Model: DIM4500
BIOS: BIOS Date: 07/18/02 13:31:28 Ver: 08.00.00
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.00GHz, ~2.0GHz
Memory: 510MB RAM
Page File: 218MB used, 1031MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.0001.0904 32bit Unicode

 

[Beerdude26]

Could you tell me where you got the other 256MB RAM stick?
I just read the technical specifications (found here) and discovered your motherboard only supports AGP 4X. That sometimes causes problems because the graphic card you have is AGP 8X (probably, because almost no graphic card with 256MB is AGP 4X.) . Now, because of this, the card has to switch back to a slower 4X speed. Sometimes it'll give errors or even nasty crashes. This also might explain why it is happening in every game. I'd buy a new motherboard, but the other Dell components might not want that very much and may not work too well with the new motherboard.