First off - I don’t have a clue what I’m doing

I wanted to add more RAM in an attempt to solve an issue I’m having in Minecraft, where my daughter and I have created a world which probably uses loads of memory (due to a villager mod and loads of shit we’ve done in 1 place).

Anyway, I bought 2 sticks of the exact same RAM that I already have, added them, booted.

But now Windows runs like shit.

Any ideas?

https://amzn.eu/d/9XF0gJp

I had 16mb so I added another 16mb

Oh man, I hope you bought 16GB and not 16mb.

Do you have a link to your other memory? And your motherboard? Typically adding RAM is just going to work and shouldn't slow your system down at all. However, the RAM should definitely be the same. And that's more than the DDR level (eg, 3 in this case) but also CAS latencies, stick capacities, etc. To be specific, the sticks you linked are DDR3, 1600mhz, with CAS latencies of 9/9/9/24.

Here's the actual product page from Corsair: https://www.corsair.com/us/en/p/memory/cml16gx3m2a1600c9/vengeance-lpa-memory-a-16gb-1600mhz-cl9-ddr3-cml16gx3m2a1600c9#tab-techspecs It's got more specific data. You'd want to make sure this both matches your other set of RAM and also what your motherboard supports.

Without digging too much into stuff, you may want to see if your motherboard has any firmware updates. It's possible this is an issue that was discovered and already fixed.

16GB yes I'm evidently stuck in a floppy-disk era mindset.

The 2 x new RAM sticks are 100% the same as the 2 x existing RAM sticks (image attached).

CPU = i7 870 @ 2.93GHz
MB = Gigabyte P55-US3L

I'll see about doing a MB firmware update (no idea how but i'll research it)... and i'll report back my findings.

Can't seem to update my BIOS firmware.
I'm currently on the "FE" version, so I assume this means the FG, FH, and FI versions in the link below are all newer firmware versions:
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA ... rt-dl-bios

No idea with "Revision" i'm on, but that doesn't matter because I tried incrementally updating the BIOS from the FG, FH and FI files from all Revisions.
I get the same message on all occasions (attached).

For clarity, i'm doing all this from the BIOS menu > Q-Flash option. According to guides (below) this is how you do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ_hWeg_wF0

I wonder whether the issue is simply that my OS isn't supported by these updated? If you look at the Gigabyte link above, it doesn't list Windows 10 / 11.

Anyway, the puzzle remains.... why are there 4 RAM slots on the MB if, when you use all 4, the PC runs like shit.

You're right, that RAM is totally identical. Guess that's not the issue. I guarantee that "slow down when you add RAM" was not an intended consequence. I had to look up that CPU... your PC is a dinosaur. Regarding your BIOS ID check error, from what I've found it means you're trying to install the wrong BIOS update (eg, wrong motherboard). What version of Windows are you running? I know under win11 you can go to "system information" to get detailed info on your motherboard, CPU etc. This probably isn't helpful... sounds like you have a pretty good idea of the hardware you have.

Other than the BIOS updates, you could check for updates to chipset drivers and such. I've seen those make a big difference in the past. But typically Windows is pretty good at providing decent drivers on its own. Maybe check Windows Update's optional installs to see if there's anything that may be pertinent. I've had older versions of Windows that would have issues with new hardware, where they'd run like crap until I reinstalled Windows, but I don't think that's been the case since at least Windows 7 and possibly XP.

Not sure any of this is helpful.

Yes, my PC has been upgraded over the years, all the while being aware that the CPU socket set is from the Triassic period. I can say I’ve gotten very good mileage out of it but I can’t quite justify getting an entirely new PC (family priorities and all that jazz).

I’ll try updating chipset + other MB stuff and also check for Windows optional updates.

Failing that, I think my options are:

1) suck it up
2) get 2 x sticks of 16GB (assuming they exist) to try and get 32GB ram from 2 slots. Maybe it’s the 4 slot thing that is a non-starter.
3) replace the mb with something that’s rated for Windows 10/11. Although, given how old the chipset is, I doubt I’ll have options here.

Ah, so you are running Windows 7. You could try a reinstall of Windows.. it's a bit of a nuclear option, but if you're been running the same Windows install this whole time, it may not be a bad idea. It's possible one of your sticks of RAM is bad, too... new or old. Hmm.. you could poke through your system logs and see if you're any errors that seem related. I'd start with drivers updates prior to doing any of these other things though.

System logs are are under start -> run -> eventvwr, then Windows logs -> system. If you see a bunch of errors that that seem related to memory then that could indicate either a driver or hardware problem. It's also possible that your second memory controller on your motherboard is damaged. If you're really interested in troubleshooting this, you could pull out your original set of RAM, put the second set in the first two slots, and see if you have problems. If everything runs fine, the RAM is probably good. Then put your original RAM in the second set of slots and see what happens. If it runs like ass again you're back to drivers/BIOS or possibly the memory controller. Sorry, troubleshooting stuff like this can be a PITA.

I'm deffo on Windows 10, but i don't think it's been too long since my last reinstall. Maybe a year or 18 months.

I updated the chipset drivers, but no difference

Good shout on the testing. I tested the 2 new sticks on their own (took the 2 old out completely) but everything felt fine performance wise.
The 2 old sticks also perform fine.

I think i'm gonna draw the conclusion that the ancient motherboard / BIOS / memory controller is at fault (maybe even damaged) because the RAM sticks seem fine.

That's probably as far as i'll take the troubleshooting because i'm too lazy / busy but thanks for your help pal!

Yea, no problem. Sorry you couldn't get it sorted. I didn't take the time to dig too much into that motherboard.. if it accepts larger sized sticks you could go that route (16GBx2 instead of 8GBx4). Not sure what that looks like from a cost perspective, and it definitely sucks to have all that extra RAM hanging around you can't actually use.

So... ultimately adding more RAM may not fix your Minecraft issues. Sometimes the performance issues are because of CPU, sometimes because of game engine limitations. Not sure how much research you did on whether this would help the problems you were running into. I've never really played Minecraft, so I have no personal knowledge. Are you hosting the Minecraft world on a dedicated server? I host dedicated servers all the time for game for the people I play with and I do it all on a dedicated machine. The thing is ancient (though not quite as ancient as yours) but it does well. Of course, getting a whole machine set up to host your game is probably more expensive than just upgrading the RAM.

Push the boat out like I did 18 months ago and go 2x32Gb! Totally not needed but whatever https://www.scan.co.uk/products/64gb-2x ... 2-42-xmp-2 It was £140 when I got it, down to £117 now. Not super cheap but I'm hoping I won't need to upgrade in forever now, RAM-wise at least.

My first Minecraft world, where I've explored quite a lot, done a lot of digging etc, still lags like a bitch even with this installed. Minecraft just loves to lag these days. Hope you can sort something out

Yeah, looks like I have some spare RAM in the drawer now. I think i'll mark this one down to "you win some, you lost some"
A £70 loss isn't so terrible. I might list the sticks on FB Marketplace for £20 or something.

I may consider the 16/32GB stick option, but there don't seem to be many options for DDR3 (ancient dinosaur type).

As for Minecraft, I've compromised by moving to a different area in that World and starting afresh. So far no crashes, but if it happens again, it will motivate me to look into options again.

I might be wrong but I believe this is the problem:

Under specifications it says
4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 16 GB of system memory

Ah, i think you nailed it.