Memory Errors With Two Cards

[jonathanthumbnet]

I have been having a problem with a computer, where it's been randomly switching to a blue screen and restarting under a MEMORY_MANAGEMENT error. I was told by the person who uses that computer that it has always had this problem since shortly after it was first purchased.

I discovered while running the program Memtest86 for a few hours that there are some memory errors in the computer. I've been trying to determine which of the two RAM cards is the one containing the errors, but I'm seeing the strangest thing. The memory errors only exist while both cards are present.

In trying to determine which card needs replacing, I have been popping them out one at a time, and testing the machine with only one card present. I've tried each card independently several times now for long periods of time with no errors. However, when I plug the second one back in and try the errors return. I know the problem isn't the slots themselves because in doing these test, I've been using both slots independently. The problem only exists when both cards are used, or both slot are used.

The cards in use are DDR3 1333MHZ PC3 240 PIN DIMM Cards. One has a size of 1 Gigabyte and the other is smaller. The mother board supports a maximum 4 Gigabytes of RAM.

So I'm at a loss right now. I don't want to buy two new RAM cards if the problem isn't the RAM cards themselves. Has anyone encountered any issues like this? Any ideas what may be the cause?

[Belatucadrus]

Ram module mismatches are fortunately rare and usually when the modules have different speeds, but yours are both 1333MHZ so that doesn't appear to be the issue here.

I think you've done pretty much all you can. If you want to keep the expenditure down try and find an exact match for the larger module and if it works sell the smaller one, If you're less worried about the cash take the opportunity to upgrade and max out the RAM perhaps with a single 4GB module thus eliminating the chance of any additional clashes.