Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests computer RAM ?

Another question for you computer guys/gals.
I ordered 2 128MB cards of RAM made sure it was SDRAM DIMM like my computer has. What got delivered was 2 cards that look a bit different ie the black chips are in different positions, etc. then what I have now. I installed the chips, computer booted up adn then the screen went all crazy and the comp froze. I've tried a couple of different combos now and the only thing that works, other than my old RAM, is 1 of the 128 cards w/o any of the other cards. I did have two of the cards going in the two outer (of three) slots adn it worked the first time, I rebooted to plug in the rest of my things and the computer went haywire again. Could my accessories be goofing things up? Does the chip positions/differences on the cards make a difference? Any ideas? I did email the customer service dept. from the place I ordered but am waiting to hear back.

What kind of CPU and speed do you have now?? From my experience here's what could be wrong:
1)New RAM is incompatible with your old stuff
2)You could be maxing out the board and it doesnt know how to handle it.
3)Bad DIMM

It could be one or a combo of things, did you ground yourself(touch an unpainted part of the case) before handling the RAM? Static electricity built up in your body could have zapped the RAM thus pretty much destroying it.

Post your PC specs such as CPU type and speed, and what kind of motherboard (Tyan, Asus, Microstar, etc.) and the model. And the current amount of memory in your PC. Some people will tell you that all DIMM memory is compatible. That is partially true, if you have the same speed and timing throughout the memory bank. If you bought PC133 or PC150, it is backwards compatible to PC100 and PC66, but I have seen problems where the newer memory does not work at all in older systems. Post the specs and we'll go from there.

it happened to me once- it was bad ram... some processors are very picky about ram. I found this out the hard way.

Well this is what I know. I have an AMD k6 with 450 mhz. I don't know what kind of motherboard it has (where do I find that out?). The computer model is Compaq Presario 5440. I found out through the kingston website that it should be able handle up to 348mb of RAM and was compatible with PC 100/133. I have three slots for the RAM and the stock RAM was 56MB.

Dont worry about the motherboard, you provided enough information. Im guessing the DIMM that came with the PC is 64megs, and your PC has 8megs of shared video. Try the following:
1) start by taking 1 of the new DIMMs and putting in the PC, see if it boots, if it does and it reads ~120mb, then I would assume that DIMM is ok, take it out and set that one aside and try the other one with the same procedure. If the 2nd DIMM works, keep it in, and install the 1st DIMM you tested back into the PC. If that boots up properly and gives you a total memory size of ~248mb, you can install your original DIMM in the last bank and turn it on and see if it boots. If it doesnt boot with the 64meg DIMM in, and it booted before with the (2) 128's then keep the 64megs out and set it aside. I dont know what you use your computer for, but I doubt you will use up 312megs of RAM. If your PC has alot of dust in it, pick up a can of compressed air and give it a good cleaning, give special care to the DIMM banks, dust and other crap (cat hair) can get in there and cause the DIMM not to make a connection to the motherboard.

If you find that one of the DIMMs doesnt work (turn the PC on and nothing happens, or starts beeping)you probably have a bad DIMM. What you might have to end up doing is only using the (2) 128mb DIMMs. What kind of new memory did you purchase?? Kingston, Micron, PNY??

I had a problem like this on my old Compaq Presario 4504 ... we had a 32 MB piece that was corrupted! The computer kept crashing whenever I tried to use it with this piece in.

A year later, I bought another 32 MB of SDRAM, 100MHz as the manual suggested. Turns out the manual was wrong, and that computer only took 66MHz-SDRAM ("SD66"?). What happened then was that the computer was tempermental and only recognized a fourth of the RAM, if it recognized it at all.

Your problem is most likely similar to my first problem -- a corrupted RAM piece, whether caused by static electricity or faulty manufacturing. w

It could also be one stick of PC100 ram that is of very poor quality so if by chance the bios is set to access the RAM at a latency of CAS2 then the other sticks may work but this one may be unstable. Should check the BIOS and make sure CAS is set to 3 and not 2 just to keep things safe.

I had that happen but I play around so it was me setting it to CAS2 to begin with.

Well after trying both stick as was mentioned both measure at 120mb and both boot up w/o any hassle. However, when I put both 128 cards in, the comp will boot up sometimes just fine but other times will appear really goofy eventually crashing Just wondering if maybe my bus or mother board just can't handle 256mb or would a problem w/ one of the cards cause this? Thanks for the help by the way, I'm quite clueless on the hardware aspect of computers. Also the Ram should be Micron (it doesnt say on the card) but that is what I ordered.

Many Compaq's use Compaq specific RAM. Check with Compaq to see what the motherboard supports.

Well both chips work seperately so would that be part of the compaq specific RAM? I did go onto the compaq site but was unable to find much about this. I am just wondering of my comp just can't handle that much RAM together, or maybe I placed the chips in the wrong order. I'll try some different combos to see. Other suggestions would be welcome.