alt tabbing problems

[benjiman]

alright im basically computer illiterate so ill post what i can hopefully someone can help me out. first off heres the system specs:
microsoft xp home edition (sp2)
intel p4 2.6 ghz (2 cpus)
768 mb ram
ati radeon x700 256 mb
im running it on 1280x1024 if that makes a difference
alright so i just got this radeon x700 and a 512 stick of kbyte ram (i know theres better brands) and i stuck the card in, stuck the 512 stick in with my two other 256 sticks, and the power button wouldnt work so i took out one of the 256's and it works i dunno whats going on there. anyways what the bigger problem is now that i have this stuff in whenever i play any game if i alt tab out to multitask it works fine until i go back into the game within one second the entire system freezes, sound is killed, no control over anything. someone told me to put the game and desktop resolutions the same but that didnt fix anything, some people said go to in game menus then alt tab that didnt work, so im really stuck. any help is appreciated.

[LaptopExtreme]

Does it work with only 1 stick of RAM? I dont think it's the ram, it may be that the system is having a hard time putting you back into the game. Not every game will let you go back in without any problems. Also, are all your RAM sticks the same specs (such as speed)?

[benjiman]

I haven't tried it with one stick, and no the RAM sticks i have in one is a 256 and one is a 512, could that pose a problem? As a side note, games that I used to alt-tab out of before the upgrade now freeze. I'll try it with one stick in the next day or two see what happens. If that is the problem would there be a way to fix that? I don't want only 512 RAM, or not being able to alt-tab out.

[LaptopExtreme]

I haven't tried it with one stick, and no the RAM sticks i have in one is a 256 and one is a 512, could that pose a problem?

Only if it's RD-RAM those have to be paired up.