RAM issues

[millsnboon]

i just installed 2 x 1GB DDR400 PC3200 RAM - which my system isn't recognizing at all (neither in BIOS nor in Windows)...I followed one of the other threads and it led me to the CPUID website and their CPUZ program and i was shocked then to see that CPUZ did recognise the new DIMMS and it was telling me i have 2.8GB memory (including the 768MB which windows recognizes.)

I bought the RAM on ebay (so i don't know much about it, except that it should be DDR400 non-EEC unbuffered RAM, and thus should fit in my system.) i'm not sure if my sytem can handle high or low density ram and i'm not even sure which these new dimms are. I checked the crucial website and by all accounts this should be working, but its not! Any ideas why CPUZ can find it and nothing else can? i have an intel 828 chipset (i think) on an IBM A50 8084 running XP Pro.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

What is the brand and model of your PC or motherboard. Try taking the old RAM out and see if the new RAM is recognized by the BIOS/Windows okay.

 

[millsnboon]

I'll try but am a bit nervous about screwing up the whole system. suppose i can always put it back how it was if it doesn;t work.

Any idea why CPUZ is finding the RAM and Win/BIOS aren't??

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Nope, not sure why it's being seen by CPU-Z. Don't worry about breaking anything. Just open the case, touch an unpainted piece of metal inside the case to discharge yourself, push the tabs down, and work the old RAM out. You'll be fine .

 

[millsnboon]

Cheers. i'll give it a bash and let you know how it goes

 

[Tedster]

https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic65114.html

 

[millsnboon]

Thanks Tedster,

I spent ages researching before i bought the RAM and before i installed it to make sure i did it right. Gonna try and rearrange them to see if that works - has been working with mixed types so far (1 x 256, 1 x 512, from different manufacturers) but we'll see what happens when i put the 2 1gb modules in slots 1 and 2.

Any idea why they are showing up in CPUZ?? and not in win/BIOS?

 

[Tedster]

as the guide states it is best not to MIX ram.... you can get undesirable results. And buying ANY used electronics off of ebay is extremely risky.

 

[millsnboon]

yeah i learned my lesson!

Swapped one of the new DIMM's into the slot of my old 256MB DIMM and the pc wouldn't boot. Guess that tells me this ram ain't compatible! Think it looks like a high/low density miss match but it took me this long and through this process to find that out. never mind....will see if i can pick something a bit more trusty up from crucial or somewhere like that.

Cheers for all your help

 

[millsnboon]

Another question...for the future.

Do memory timings have to match? the ram i have is 3-3-3-8 and i'm now looking at some new dimms which are 3-4-4-8.

 

[captaincranky]

Who Built the Box......?

Sometimes the manufacturer's website will have RAM compatibility charts .
Running at the speeds that PC3200 does I don't think that small of a timing difference would do any harm. But, that's just a guess. Wouldn't hurt to get a second opinion.

Please note; "Kingston Value RAM", will boot in virtually any board. It's my first choice, It never disappoints. There's no status in owning it and it doesn't overclock well. That said, it just works, and works well.

Richard NIxon lost the presidential election to John F. Kennedy, perhaps in large part to a joke that Kennedy told at one of their debates. "Would you buy a used car from this man", asked Kennedy, the rest is history. You can quote me on the answer I would give today, "yes, before I'd buy anything off Ebay".

 

[millsnboon]

built by IBM...think i'll go with some low density stuff, got a guy at a shop saying his stuff should work and he'll refund me if it doesnt. will have a look at Kingston Value tho, cheers.