Going from 4GB to 8GB

[buji]

I currently have 4GB in my PC (2x2GB DDR2) and have 2 more DDR2 slots that I can use. So, I purchased the exact same ram, and installed them. When I rebooted, my PC runs a lot slower, and when I get into Vista I notice that all 4 cores on my CPU are going nuts. I checked the BIOS but I don't see anything that would need changing when going from 4 to 8. Any ideas?

 

[ProfessorKaos64]

Are you running Vista X64? Does the BIOS show all RAM isntalled, and in Dual Channel? Try install the new RAM only, instead of your old RAM and see what happens. Then try adding RAM one by one, starting with the old memory then the new. You can also test with Memtest 86+ to see if any are bad. Be sure you are running x64 , to access all of this RAM.

 

[buji]

Yes, I swapped my old RAM with the new RAM and it works fine. I will have to check Dual Channel in the BIOS (I'm pretty sure it's set though). I'll try the one at a time method and see if that works, too.

 

[cbliss1000]

Also, always boot into memtest first when trying new RAM and new configurations. Booting into windows first with bad RAM or problematic configurations can corrupt system files.

 

[Violator]

I currently have 4GB in my PC (2x2GB DDR2) and have 2 more DDR2 slots that I can use. So, I purchased the exact same ram, and installed them. When I rebooted, my PC runs a lot slower, and when I get into Vista I notice that all 4 cores on my CPU are going nuts. I checked the BIOS but I don't see anything that would need changing when going from 4 to 8. Any ideas?

Are you sure it isn't simply utilising the extra memory now to fill up SuperFetch? my system takes a few minutes to fully load the 7GB cache, which is why I usually sleep it instead of powering off.