Will adding more ram stop my computer from crashing?

Question

I just added a new 1g video card and a 750w power supply and my computer crashes when i run games like mass effect2 and sometimes mw2 my computer has 3g of ram already and it didnt crash before the upgrade. the last card i had was 512mb. ive updated all the drivers and it still crashes. would more ram help or is there something else i can do?

Answer 1

When you bought the power supply did you check to make sure the 12v rail supplies enough Amps for the video card? while i think a 750w SHOULD supply it, make sure you check the output of the PS first and the requirements of your video card. Also exactly how is your computer crashing? Direct turn off, lockup, Blue screen of death...?



Towards additional Details: Direct powering off sounds to me like that game/video card is causing your system to draw too much power from the 12v rail. You might have a faulty power supply.

Also did you make sure to connect the extra power cable to the video card?

If those aren't the problems, i would try the old vid card with the new power supply (since you said it didn't crash before).

lastly, I would definitely uninstall all video drivers and reinstall them. also if the card isn't made my ATI directly and came with drivers from the manufacturer, then uninstall those drivers and try the ones directly from ati

Answer 2

It depends. If your computer is low on resources (lets say RAM) then yes, but if its a software issue, like viruses, corrupt files, and so forth then no, the only way to COMPLETELY fix this is to reformat and reinstall windows. Even if you get rid of your viruses and fix your corrupt files and registry, the damage is still done...



Note: Adding some more RAM is ALWAYS a good thing to do, so you should add more if you can anyway...

Answer 3

Take the ram out and put it back in. The ram could be bad, but a lack of ram usually doesn't cause a system to crash.

Answer 4

More ram wouldn't help unless a piece of ram is faulty, post the rest of your computer's specs and the exact type of your PSU / video card

Answer 5

Did you uninstall the old video card's drivers before adding the new card?



Sometimes those leftover driver bits conflict with the new card and cause this type of instability.

Answer 6

Adding more RAM don't seem to solve the problem.



Seems like something unstable, it could be hardware (faulty parts, overheat) or software (driver, OS).

Take out the newly added RAM and test.



Please also describe the "crash" to get better answer.

(BSOD, freeze, restart, shut down...)