How to make a unstable (RAM) System stable?

[MasterPhW]

I had bought a new mainboard & a 512 DDR (400) memory bank (no name... shame on me, but it was the cheapest one and I "only" had to buy 120€!) nearly 2 years ago.
Now the prize for the DDR memory is very low and I bought a great kingston 512 DDR (400) memory bank, but now my system is unstable, means sometimes theres suddenly a restart and such things...
Any way to make it stable again? I know, the ram banks seem that they will not work together, but I've heard probably a Windows reinstalll will help? Someone know more?

 

[CF2]

I had this exact problem a little while ago. Look into your BIOS settings. You should try changing how the BIOS sets memory timings (or you could edit them manually, but I don't suggest that). On my system, I had two 256s, but one of them sucked. The system wouldn't boot when I set it to "By SPD" (SPDs are chips on the RAM that contain data like memory timings). Instead, I had to set it to "optimal". The system redetected the RAM as dual-channel DDR333 instead of DDR400, but that isn't too bad, and it was stable

 

[smcd]

Weird. I've bought no-name RAM before and it works better (less sensitive to overclocking) than the name brand I currently use. I'd make sure you're not overclocking, and run a memtest on the RAM to ensure it isn't bad. Also, make sure it is clean in the connections - no dust or anything.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

I had bought a new mainboard & a 512 DDR (400) memory bank (no name... shame on me, but it was the cheapest one and I "only" had to buy 120€!) nearly 2 years ago.
Now the prize for the DDR memory is very low and I bought a great kingston 512 DDR (400) memory bank, but now my system is unstable, means sometimes theres suddenly a restart and such things...
Any way to make it stable again? I know, the ram banks seem that they will not work together, but I've heard probably a Windows reinstalll will help? Someone know more?

If you still get random BSODs and reboots only when gaming, then your processor may be degrading. I have saw many horror stories on a message board about Pentium 4 Northwood cores being fragile and degrade just by increasing the Vcore when OC'ing.

If it's degrading, then it will be unstable at the same OC that was stable before then gradually getting worse until it's unstable at stock.

Also, bad caps can cause the same symptom. Please check the caps on your motherboard.