Problem with dual channel ram

[Bolgan]

My PC (eMachines H2865) had a bad stick of RAM and since my
motherboard supports dual channel RAM, that's what I bought.

Although the documents that came with my PC didn't say anthing about it supporting dual channel RAM, I know it does because it has a nForce2 chipset, plus I also checked the motherboards manufacturer site (http://www.fic.com.tw/product/motherboa ... nf18g.aspx).

Anyway I install the memory [Corsair Value Select Dual Channel 1024MB PC2700 DDR 333MHz Memory (2 x 512MB)] today and everything worked fine.

A couple hours later I tried to play some games, but when the game loads the graphics full of glitches and after a few seconds the PC crashes. The same thing happens with 3D screensavers, but everthing else works fine.

If I use only one stick of dual channel ram the PC becomes unstable (random crashes) and even my desktop has small graphic gliches (small discolored lines an inch or two across).Still can't play games.

I put the bad stick of ram back in and everthing works fine (not problem loading games, etc.)

I used DocMemory to test the ram and it passed all the tests.

Is dual channel controlled by the BIOS?
I know the motherboard supports dual channel, but mabe eMachines removed the feature from the BIOS?

My video card is an integrated GPU and uses 64MB of the system RAM.
Could that be causing problems?

Update:
I forgot to mention that when I load a game or screensaver and the PC crashes and reboot, that when I send the error report it says the it was caused by a device driver.I was running the latest video drivers, but now I'm running the drivers that came with my system and it doesn't make any difference.

[AmadeusZull]

question one: did you try to over clock?
two: how did you seat them for dual channel?
three: maybe the 2 memory modules are just outta sync with each other, rma it.

[Bolgan]

question one: did you try to over clock?

No.
I could even if I wanted to, the BIOS doesn't have the option.
There's no options to change the FSB or CAS timing.

two: how did you seat them for dual channel?

I put them in like I would single channel RAM.
Does dual channel RAM have to be install a different way?

three: maybe the 2 memory modules are just outta sync with each other, rma it.

It does it even if only one stick is installed, actually it's worse.Or does dual channel ram have to run in pairs?I know it does to be run in dual channel, but I thought you could use one stick of it the same as single channel ram.

Just a sec, I'll re-install the dual channel ram and check the rma...

[Bolgan]

How do I check the rma?

[AmadeusZull]

rma is the return policy for bad parts from where ever u bought ur memory. hopefully u bought from newegg?

dual memory channel only works if u put the memory modules in 2 different color memory slots (like my board i have 2 black slots and one blue slot. i have 2x254 xms corsair one in the black and other in the blue to run them in dual channel). but still something is fishy.

[Bolgan]

rma is the return policy for bad parts from where ever u bought ur memory

I thought it had something to do with checking if the ram was in sync.

[Bolgan]

dual memory channel only works if u put the memory modules in 2 different color memory slots

I only have two memory slots.

[Bolgan]

Update:

I flashed the bios.
The bios is almost the same as the default bios (eMachines) except it's the one from the motherboard manufacturer (FIC).

It didn't fix the problem, but the stick of single channel RAM benchmarks higher.

Old BIOS:_________________New BIOS:
read - 1793MB/s____________1965MB/s
write - 723MB/s_____________774MB/s

Like I said in an earlier post, the onboard video used 64MB of system ram.
But if I set it to 8MB from the bios, the problem gets a little better.

The 3D screensaver now works, the games I tested it with (doom collection) still crash the system, but can play a little longer and there's not as many glitches.