Did I buy good memory?

I had 2x256 mb of some generic brand memory that came with my comp and I just bought a 512mb stick of Mushkin memory today and I am very happy. The only problem I have is that I had never heard of this company before, are they any good? Should I go back and get some name brand stuff or is $90 memory pretty much all the same?

Mushkin is awesome. It is brand name.

Awesome, I just wanted to check with you guys before I lost my chance to return it, but it sounds like I am going to keep it

Mushkin is pretty much one of the top memory manufacturers out there. What did u get?

To be perfectly honest I have no idea, I just went into the store, said I want the best PC3200 512mb stick I can get for $100 or less and thats the one he recommended. All I know is that it cost me $89 from a warehouse store so I would guess from the products on their website that it is the EM series. Does that sound right?

Either way, it made all the differance in Farcry, I can now play at full video settings!!!

Actually I am starting to realize a problem. It seems as though my computer wont recognise my newly added memory but it will use it. Every time the computer starts it says taht it detected new hardware but it doesnt know what it is and it cant find any drivers for it. I also have been getting weird memory full and errors of the like from many programs. Do I maybe need to try a new bios or something?

Hmm, memory isn't really a "device" which requires drivers so much in the sense that it is just there and works regardless of an operating system anyway. I don't think your message is due to the new memory. My advice would be to check the Device Manager and see if you can get a clue as to what this "hardware" is exactly. Do you use PCI cards? Do you have any USB or firewire devices connected that might require drivers? A printer, perhaps?

Any of these could be the issue, but I've never seen Windows ask for drivers for memory, assuming that you have the proper chipset drivers installed.

EDIT: I noticed based on your sig that you are running the two 256MB modules along with the 512MB module. This could also cause the problem as the two may not like playing nice together. Try removing the 256MB modules, leaving just the Mushkin stick and see if that solves your problem (in addition to what I said above).

Good luck,

Odie

Well I think my computer may be toast, I have gotten 3 blue screens in about 4 hours and now my windows wont even start. To top it off I cant even reinstall windows xp for some reason, it says there is a problem with my cd even though it is the original Microsoft XP disk taht I used to install it to begin with. I am about an hour away from nuking the entire system and starting from scratch.

Ok, check the RAM is installed properly. If it is, I suggest going to www.memtest86.com, and downloading and running Memtest which will tell you if your RAM is bad. Note any errors and their location. From this you can work out if one of the sticks of RAM is bad.

Ok, I think I am finally going to get windows to install now so when I get it up and running I will dl that program and report back on what I find.

I also have another question, how can I get into my BIOS so that I can change my voltage to differant things like memory?

You should just have to hold the Delete key when the computer is first booting up.