Too Much Memory

ianrfaulkner · **Too Much Memory -** 08-12-2002, 05:13 PM

Can anybody tell me why I cannot run MOHAA using 512mb memory. Yet if i drop it down to 256mb it runs perfectly. This happens regardless of which PC i use and find it unacceptable having to shut my system down, and remove memory just to play a game i enjoy.

Captain Lennerd · 08-13-2002, 12:50 AM

Is the brand of one stick of RAM different than the other ? See if one works, but the other doesn't.

Vega · 08-13-2002, 10:28 AM

I have 512megs if SDRAM in my system and I run MOH fine.

Maybe its your motherboard.. unfortunately I'm not at home right now to tell you what mine is.. I forget. It's an Abit, that's all I can remember.

ianrfaulkner · 08-13-2002, 01:12 PM

I'm sorry it's 512 ddr

same brand
different brand I've tried it all.
all I get is the grey flickering screen when i start up.

I've thought it might be the motherboard and purchased a new on with an AMD1600XP
and still can't play with 2x 256mb ram sticks.

tried it with the wife pc too and get the same.

AHHHHHHHHHHH
help...

Captain Lennerd · 08-13-2002, 05:00 PM

Both 256 meg sticks are the same brand ? Have you tried one then the other, to see if perhaps one is faulty ? Are they the same brand, but one has different specs (is one older than the other ?) ?

ianrfaulkner · 08-17-2002, 11:59 AM

Firstly. They're both the same brand, age and size DDR.
I've tried one without the other and they both work fine individually but not together.
I've tried them in another machine and evan built a new amd 1600xp system with new ddr and still get the same problem! I would live with less memory to play the game but need 512mb for other programs.
It's so inconvienient to have to open the case and remove a stick just to play a game! Oh why Oh why Oh why?

I know i'm not thick hehehe
but this little bugger has got me. I thought that maybe it's a power problem and tried alternatives cuz I've come across games that when demanding heavy ram use the power supply cam fluctuate....
But no I still got the problem. If it's a setting within the game i could not start it to change it.

So until this is sorted I can't play as i need the 512 for work. hake:

Hollywood · 08-17-2002, 01:45 PM

Do you know for sure that when you are using the OTHER programs, that they are actually using that memory. The memory could be the same brand, but one might have a faster bus speed, seek time. etc... maybe (this is a guess) it's screwing up the clock speed. This is a possibility.

DogMeat · 08-17-2002, 05:44 PM

First thing to do is make sure you can run other programs that do the same thing MoHAA does and see how they work. This means trying out Quake 3 Arena, Unreal Tournament, 3D Benchmark, etc. It may just be something specific to MoHAA or it might be effecting you systemwide, this will help find out.

You also may want to try clearing your BIOS with the 512 in there, and then only make minimal changes to it, leave everything else default.

Aside from that, video card drivers are always a good thing to check, for brands that include a "full uninstall" program or procedure use it and first try an earlier "stable" release of their drivers and gradually move up to trying the latest, including beta drivers if need be.

Good luck, hope some of this helps.

midget killer · 08-19-2002, 03:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ianrfaulkner

Firstly. They're both the same brand, age and size DDR.
I've tried one without the other and they both work fine individually but not together.
I've tried them in another machine and evan built a new amd 1600xp system with new ddr and still get the same problem! I would live with less memory to play the game but need 512mb for other programs.
It's so inconvienient to have to open the case and remove a stick just to play a game! Oh why Oh why Oh why?

I know i'm not thick hehehe
but this little bugger has got me. I thought that maybe it's a power problem and tried alternatives cuz I've come across games that when demanding heavy ram use the power supply cam fluctuate....
But no I still got the problem. If it's a setting within the game i could not start it to change it.

So until this is sorted I can't play as i need the 512 for work. hake:

Make sure your 512MB is showing up - right click your My Computer icon and select properties. It'll show you how much ram your PC is discovered.

***Run the configure application in your MOHAA directory. It'll reset your MOHAA settings to your current PC specs.***

If that doesn't work:

Try adjusting your BIOS settings to auto set the speed and timing acording to the SPD on the ram. Also, turn on interleaving 2 way. Turn off spread spectrum. And make sure the FSB is set at 266Mhz if your CPU can handle it.

Also check to see if your BIOS needs to be updated.

MOHAA works fine with 512MB of PC2100 DDR... that's what I gots!

If none of this works, I'll bet one of those sticks is bad just because your PC posts and boots with it doesn't mean they're 100% functional.

rudedog · 08-19-2002, 09:38 PM

I might have over looked this but what OS are you running?

Win9x can't handle more then 256M

midget killer · 08-19-2002, 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rudedog

I might have over looked this but what OS are you running?

Win9x can't handle more then 256M

IIRC from A+ class...
95 and 98 1st ed. max out at 256MB
98se maxes out at 512MB
Win2k Pro and XP Home/Pro 2GB
Win2k Server 4GB
Win2k Adv Server 8GB

Vega · 08-20-2002, 11:06 AM

From what I understand.. those numbers are just what the OS itself can handle (what it will actually use). But applications themselves running on the OS can use as much as they want.

Silverback · 08-20-2002, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vega

From what I understand.. those numbers are just what the OS itself can handle (what it will actually use). But applications themselves running on the OS can use as much as they want.

Not quite true, at least with Win 9X. Windows addresses physical RAM, expansion cards etc through something called vtable. The size of the vtable (roughly) is physical memory, plus AGP multiplier X graphics card memory.

Win 9X cannot exceed 768Mb total vtable, cos it wraps around at that point. Then, depending on exactly what the OS and apps try to do, you get anything from it not booting, to blue screening randomly, resets and so on.

There is an ini file hack on the microsoft site for 9X that restricts the amount of memory that 9X can actually see, so if you run a dual boot configuration ie one for work and one for games, then that solves the problem of having to yank the stick every 5 minutes.

The applications cannot use more memory than the OS can address, cos the OS is the provider. If apps were allowed to directly address the RAM, like they did in the bad old days, then you can get one app killing another - used to happen a lot on Win3, and anything 16 bit used to do this cos it ran in the same address space.

Now windows provides "sort of" protected memory space for each 32 bit app.