Acer 6930G - after adding +1Gig Ram Video drivers Crashing.

Hello guys.

I have Acer Aspire 6930G. Specs - T5800 2ghz dual, nvidia 9300m gs 256ram, Bios phoenix 0.3238 (DXDIAG - ZK2 v0.3238 3B38)
And I had 3 GB of ram factory fitted on Vista home 32bit

I have upgraded my ram to 4 gb of ram with a 2 GB stick Specs - ( Komputerbay 2GB 200 Pin 667MHz PC2 5400/PC2 5300 DDR2 SODIMM Memory Module ) which is 100 % compatible with the factory stick on board. it has 2 gb 5300 ddr2fitted.

Problem that I am facing after instaling it is that my Graphics card has started crashing saying NVIDIA drivers stopped working and recovered and so on.

I have reinstalled windows and installed W7 ulti 64 bit, Updated graphic drivers to the latest and tried Phoenix WindPlashe 6930g_Bios-3238-modified flashing on windows in hope that it might reset RAM currency settings with new setings for two 2gb sticks.

But so far nothing hellped the drivers are continua-sly crashing when i run multiple graphics such as vlc abdo flash and so on, LOL crashes even when on stand alone bases.

I have read that it might be do to voltage settings on rams since there is more of it and now its not compatible with graphics. Solution as i understand would be accessing Bios in unlocked status to alter the voltages. Unfortunately I have not found a lagitament Bios version that would unlock these settings to download.

Any thouts on this matter guys ?

 

So I ran Memtest86 for a night and it came with 8 passed results so supposedly rams are not faulty. I have tried swaping 2 GB rams in slot places and it did not help. Now I have reverted back to 3 GB setup and placed back my Old 1 GB ram and system works stable again... anybody can explain me why?

 

Check the memory timings supported by the 1GB and both 2GB sticks (use something like HWiNFO). The 1+2GB option would never have run in dual channel mode, but the 2+2GB configuration can do so and this laptop supports that. The bios should automatically detect a matching pair and switch to dual-channel, but they do need to have at least one set of matching memory timings in common for that to work:

Spoiler: DDR timings and dual channel

It's possible that the settings that are present in both modules is simply asking too much of one of the sticks or the system itself. Best option would be to set more lenient timings in the bios and try if those are stable. Of course, that's only of use if you can actually access those settings in this particular bios, which is not a given with every system.

 

Hello, Bios features are locked, When i placed 2 sticks of 2 GB they had matching curences of 1.8v and cycles were matching I checked on sandra light and some other software to make sure that cycles are right. I am all so thinking that its all about currency usage, and so far i had no luck finding a way to adjust it since phoenix bios is locked and as I understand its not one of the easy ones to break. I am so bummed already that I am considering returning rams back saying that its not compatible with my system . It was suppose be easy upgrade Will just revert back to 32 bit system.

 

@Richardas does each memory module have 16 memory chips total, i.e. 8 on each side? Memtest is unreliable, might be bad memory stick or incompatibility. Try Prime95, if it reports errors right away it's definitely the memory problem. Another possibility is that video card is dying. If you want to reset BIOS settings, stop reflashing it - remove CMOS battery for couple minutes or use cmospwd instead.

It's a C2D system, which supports asynchronous dual-channel mode like all the newer ones - so it was running 2GB dual channel and 1GB single.

 

@Starlight5 Hello. I downloaded Prime95 and will try running it when I swap back rams to 2x2GB , as for Rams you are right the old 2GB ram has R2x8 and the new one I have is just R2 so old one has 16 chips and the new one has only 8 in total. Does that make them not compatible? And if so if I would buy second new one R2 then they would work properly together?

I add pictures.

old
new

 

@Richardas the problem usually occurs with 4GB 8-chip sticks, but the symptoms you describe (crashing drivers) are pointing to it. Remember, high density (less chips) RAM is never a good idea, it's made with the sole purpose of cutting manufacturing costs. Also, their prices are simply ridiculous! Compare.

When you put old RAM, does video driver crash? Did you try using old 2GB module together with each of the new ones? And yes, if you get low density (16 chips) 2GB stick, it should work - unless your GPU is the culprit, that is. Don't bother matching frequency, higher rated RAM (e.g. PC6400) will do just fine and might be cheaper/easier to get.

 

@Starlight5 Hi again , I only got one stick for the new ones the 8 chip one and I though since it was compatible by all standards on paper it will work now I noticed that even in amazon picture it is shown with 16 chips but the one was sent to me is 8 chip one... any how I can send it back to amazon requesting same as on picture or money back since its not compatible with my system, I could as well buy elpina with 16 chips u shared from hon kong but that takes ages to ship and I can get 8 chip stick again.

Video card works fine now when I am on old setup 2GB 16 chip and 1GB 8 chip. Drivers do not crash. I will try swamping stick in amazon if not, then I will return it and buy different one.

Thanks for the advice's and I will update how it goes later.

 

@Richardas good luck!

 

Hy guys, i'm new here and i have read this forum for a long time, but i did not write anything. I just create the account to answer Richard. I have own 3 of these Acer 6930g in the same time in different configurations, the maximum upgrade that i did with one of them was :

Core2Duo P9700 2.8Ghz with 6MB cache
Nvidia 9600M GS 512MB MXM
4GB RAM
120GB SSD

From my own experiende, i would say the problem is either related to your RAM or your graphic card is dying. If you run Dual Channel memory with different Mhz frequency, the BIOS shoud downgrade auto the frequency that is higher, this way that it will function properly with the other stick of RAM at the same frequency.

Also, some latest updates when it comes to Nvidia Mobile, some user has reported sistem crash ( aparentlly works good with old drivers ) but i dont have these laptops anymore to test.

I would say it's either RAM , Graphic Driver or probably your GPU is dying. I have switch 2 of them while i was still having these computers .

Did you try to test your GPU with Furmark ? Does it have errors ?

Also, try to buy 2x2GB RAM sticks from the same manufacturer, same timings, same frequency.