Ram disappeared

[Ray]

Hi

On my PIII 866 I had 128 ram originally and then 2 years ago I had 128 more ram installed giving me 256 ram. Suddenly today when I booted up the computer it only says I have 128 ram...............Where did the ram go?? (128)?
Is it possible that it came loose and that is why it is not registering? Does ram die or wear out?
I have done all the simple tests like going to My computer > Propeties and reading the info screen as well as >Run>Dxdiag and it states 128mb there as well. Any ideas?

Ray

 

[OS samurai]

When you machine first boots up how much ram appears during or just after your posttest? In the upper left hand conner sp? Of your screen. Is your system working correctly? Have you moved your machine recently?

 

[Ray]

When it boots up on the upper left it says something like 131000 which is 128mb because it use to say 262??? before. I move the comp quite a bit as my sound jack for my headset went screwie so I use my speaker jack to go from headset to speakers. This is only a 6" movement though. I have not been into this computer (unlike my play computers) but I guess I will have to open it up and look inside. I hope I get some input before I get into the comp though.

 

[OS samurai]

it sounds to me like one on the chips might be loose. but if you want to test the memory you could try running memtest86 to check for problems http://memtest86.com./ Check out Ricks post in this thread for help with memtest https://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4824&highlight=memory+test

 

[SNGX1275]

Yep, sounds like it may have worked itself loose, open the comp up take the ram out and put it back in firmly (might want to use one of those antistatic things if you are paranoid about that type of stuff).
RAM can just die, but I think if that was the case here you'd have had computer problems before it just up and didn't register.

 

[Ray]

You were right. I went inside and check out the ram......I had to cut through a ton of dust bunnies to get at it though. It was out on one end about 1/8 of an inch. The clip was over completely. Could this have been from the original installation? I upgraded 2 years ago (before I started working on computers myself).....from 128 ram to 256 ram but after I got the upgrade I never noticed any difference!! (This is why I started working on computers myself) No notice of faster startups of programs and everything that crashed before still crashed after the ram upgrade. Would poorly installed ram create this?? Well the ram is seated nicely now and it registers on screen......Thanks....I think I'm gonna like this place.
.......PS I just installed a new CD/rw and have another question. Gotta get over to the CD/rw forum to post.

Thanks Ray

 

[OS samurai]

You’re welcome & welcome to TS:wave: having more Ram well allows you to have more applications & windows open at the same time. And your processor will take less of a performance hit, because you will not access the swap file as much. Some things that may cause system crashes would include d/simm trips that run at different clock speeds I am not sure if poorly installed ram in of itself would cause these issues but it might.

Just my .02