Can freezing be caused by Timings being off?

[NineLives]

I bought some new ram a couple of months ago and Windows 7 has been freezing like once a week since then, but I could never really narrow down the problem. I then remember my CAS latency always being set to auto because my first 4GB of RAM didnt like having their latencies keyed in, and windows would fail to boot unless set to auto. Anyways I changed the latencies from 9-9-9-24 (auto) to 7-7-7-21 as that is the latencies labeled on my new set of 4GB ram. The two sets I have (4 x 2GB all together) are the same voltage and their timings are almost exactly the same. One thing I want to note is that on my new set of ram, one of the stick's Heat spreaders are kinda loose lol. Anyways both sets are from g.skill, the eco series.. I'm going to try and see if my freezing stops now!!!

[SugarJ]

In short, yes.

If your 2 sets of ram have different timings, each setting has to be to the looser or slower setting of the 2 sets. If one is 9-9-9-24 and the other is 7-7-7-21, you should set it to 9-9-9-24. Ram can always run slower, but not always faster.
However, it's usually difficult to find all the advanced settings from the manufacturer, and get them set up too.

[NineLives]

Originally Posted by SugarJ

In short, yes.

If your 2 sets of ram have different timings, each setting has to be to the looser or slower setting of the 2 sets. If one is 9-9-9-24 and the other is 7-7-7-21, you should set it to 9-9-9-24. Ram can always run slower, but not always faster.
However, it's usually difficult to find all the advanced settings from the manufacturer, and get them set up too.

here are the timings (MOBO defaults it to 9-9-9-24) OLD SET: 7-8-7-24 NEW SET: 7-7-7-21 So should I just set it to the old set's latencies? also the new set is 1600mhz, while the old one is 1333, I have the freq set to 1333 though.

[NineLives]

I dont know what else could really be making my computer freeze all of the time, I've had it on 9-9-9-24 for a long time... Can freezing be caused from having latencies higher than they are meant to be? Also I just tried putting the timings to the timings of my old set of ram (7-8-7-24) and it actually booted, but I put it back to default for now.

[_dangtx_]

the loose heatspreader usually means issues,reduced lifetime,or both.

clamp it yourself or try an rma :)

[NineLives]

Originally Posted by _dangtx_

the loose heatspreader usually means issues,reduced lifetime,or both.

clamp it yourself or try an rma :)

meh im too lazy, and since the ram is running at a lower speed than it was designed for, im not too worried about it.

[NineLives]

I just want to tell you guys that I finished clamping the heat spreader down with some pliers, its like whatever thermal compound there was underneath the heat spreader wasnt making contact because after I squeezed them just with my fingers they stuck together, but I also used pliers to tighten down the bottom clip what was a bit loose. If my computer freezes again im gonna try and change the timings to 7-8-7-24 as they are the slowest timings out of what the 2 sets want.