no idea whats going on (RAM)

sfinks98

sfinks98

New Member
for a while ive been running 1 gig of patriot memory. then recently my friend sold me his old gig so i could have 2. however when i installed it my computer only recognized it as 1.5 gigs. i figured the reason for this is that his sticks are different brands and i could only run two different brands in my comp at the same time. therefore my computer would only recognize one of his sticks. I then removed one of the sticks and found my computer only recognized 1 gig of memory. so i switched sticks and it still only read 1 gig. does anyone know why this is happening (it still reads 1.5 when i have both of his sticks in)?!?!
 
My guess would be the single sided and double sided combination....
Check the Mobo's manual for the possible combination of Single, Double sided RAMs.
 
You can have different brands with each on the other channel. But like Shady has indicated you don't want to mix different types. If you are running a newer AMD AM2 or Intel Core 2 Duo board you will need strictly dual sided DDR2 memory. Single sided dimms are mainly seen on the older AMD 462, 754, some 939, and Intel P4, Celeron boards. What make and model board are you running there?
 
Your memory is known there. The difference between single sided and dual sided dimms is the dual sided has a row of ic chips on both sides of the dimm. The other memory is either the opposite of yours or is a mismatch due to latency timings. It definitely is not capatible with the current memory you already have. The next step is to remove your original dimms to see if the other memory will even run on your board? Most likely not.
 
With both of the other dimms installed you may have simply been given two 256mb dimms resulting in the 1.5gb total. The mismatch of memory would accuont for the lack of seeing 1,024+256=1,280mb total. Whatever the reason the additional memory isn't going to work there for you. Now you have to decide between two more Patriot 512s or going with two new 1gb dimms in order to see a 2gb total.
 
PC eye said:
With both of the other dimms installed you may have simply been given two 256mb dimms resulting in the 1.5gb total. The mismatch of memory would accuont for the lack of seeing 1,024+256=1,280mb total. Whatever the reason the additional memory isn't going to work there for you. Now you have to decide between two more Patriot 512s or going with two new 1gb dimms in order to see a 2gb total.
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You cant make that assumption yet. Besides if you want to do this mathematically, reread his first post. I believe that his problem is his motherboard might only support 1.5 gigs. If you have some more ram (like a full 2 gigs and you know its 2 gigs) try placing that in and seeing. There might also be a setting in your BIOS that needs to be changed to see the full 2 gigs. OR what I believe to be the true problem is your motherboard only supports 1.5 gigs. What motherboard do you have?
 
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kobaj said:
You cant make that assumption yet. Besides if you want to do this mathematically, reread his first post. I believe that his problem is his motherboard might only support 1.5 gigs. If you have some more ram (like a full 2 gigs and you know its 2 gigs) try placing that in and seeing. There might also be a setting in your BIOS that needs to be changed to see the full 2 gigs. OR what I believe to be the true problem is your motherboard only supports 1.5 gigs. What motherboard do you have?
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The bios post screen right from the start shows the total amount of memory installed on the system. Since there are 4 dimm slots where 1gb + is already seen the board already supports 2gb of memory total. Newer boards now run 2gb dimms for 8gb and 16gb totals. For DDR400 memory even there are still 256mb dimms available like those Crucial has available at http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?imodule=CT3264Z40B

Do you want DDR2 667mhz 256mb dimms? http://dealnews.com/memory/prices/PC2-5300-DDR2-SO-DIMMS/61/256MB.html?ref=rss_dealram_type_61
 
I don't think it's a board that only supports 1.5GB but just for the sake of arguement, what motherboard do you have?

My money is on ESTA's guess, your friend probably gave you a 512MB stick instead of 1GB
 
There's supposed to be two 512s while they may simply be two 256mb dimms or they are simply not compatible with the board there by being too old like PC1700 memory on a board that runs DDR266-400 memory.
 
try it with ONLY the ram you got from him to see what it is. if it reads 512, try it with one stick of the ram you got, if the computer reads 256mb, then you have two 256mb sticks. if it reads 512mb, try the other stick you got from him. if it doesen't boot at all, then the stick is eaither bad or incompatible (which is why the pc isn't recognising it)

yea, it takes a while. but pretty much the only way to test sticks of ram is to try and boot a computer with them one at a time.
 
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sfinks98 said:
therefore my computer would only recognize one of his sticks. I then removed one of the sticks and found my computer only recognized 1 gig of memory. so i switched sticks and it still only read 1 gig. does anyone know why this is happening (it still reads 1.5 when i have both of his sticks in)?!?!
Click to expand...

It sounds like 1 of the sticks is incompatable with the other 3 or 1 stick is just bad.
 
Depends on what Motherboard. if you have a motherboad that will only support 1 gb thats all its going to take. But if its 2gb your RAM SLOT could be burnt out or wont work. Make sure your BIOS can read your ram. There are security on how much the mb can hold. Other then that no clue :( i feel dumb but try that :)
 
With 512mb dimms working in the first two slots the board has a 2gb capacity with four working 512s installed. Knowing the make and model board would make this easier since the specifications will show whether the board also supports 1gb dimms as well as 512s. But the problem there is either bad memory or the wrong size or type maybe from mislabeling.
 
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