Ram & CPU not doing what they should

I updated my Ram from 512MB to 2GB recently. After upgrading I could observe some benefit in the performance of my machine. Now after some time, my PC has started giving various problems. When transferring files from 1 drive to another and to external drives, the transfer hangs in between and then stops there itself. Some day all the programs work very slow the another day they all work smoothly. Sometimes even restarts without any reason.

Another problem is that the multiplier of my Q6600 is rarely 9x and most of the time it is 6x. Due to this, I doubt if there is frequency loss in the CPU speed. Does this upgrade of ram made issues with my CPU. However, earlier I had never checked the multiplier of my CPU.

Multiplier dropping to 6* is a feature of the motherboard/cpu. Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology (EIST) is doing it. It downclocks your Q6600 whenever you don't need it at full load. This is a good thing because it saves power. Try running something that takes up 100% of you processor, like Orthos. The multiplier should go up to 9. Then stop orthos, and it should go back down to 6.

Make sure the CPU multiplier in BIOS is set to 9, not AUTO. The first time I overclocked a computer, I left it on auto - I thought I was at 3.2 GHz, but had not moved from 2.2! :D

The clock speed of the RAM isn't being properly detected. It's being detected too low. I can't really explain why it is behaving this way. Clearly it is a bug and will soon be fixed in a BIOS upgrade. But that doesn't change my situation right now.

Check your Ram with Memtest for some hours. It can also be that the random restarts is due to the more voltage required by the Ram which the motherboard is not providing. Also it can be due to the voltage requirements for even other components like PSU, HDD, drivers, etc.

Total RAM capacity is not the only criteria when upgrading RAM. Did you check to see if the RAM you bought was compatible with your motherboard? RAM density as well as other factors all come into play.

Go to Crucial.com and use their memory configurator to see what kind and size RAM is fully compatible with your system. Pay attention to ALL the specs on the recommended memory, not just the capacity.