eMachines T5230 Memory Upgrade

[BrokaToe]

Hi,

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. I decided to upgrade my mothers eMachines T5230 from the stock 2x512mb of ram to 2x1gb or ram. I pulled the original ram from the computer and found it to have ddr2 pc2-5300 667mhz modules. So I purchased 2x1gb pc2-5300 667mhz 240 pin modules to replace the 2 512mb modules that were in it. Hoping to upgrade her system from 1 gig or ram to 2 gigs. But after installing the new ram, the system is unable to boot into the operating system. It will go into the blue screen doing the system memory dumb, and then restart again only to find itself in the select boot options screen ie. Start Windows Normally etc. Have I chosen the wrong type of ram for this computer, or are there some settings in bios or on the motherboard that I need to change in order for this ram to be recognized? I did try to start the computer in safe mode with only one of the 1gb modules in slot 1, and it booted into safe mode. Please help if you can. Thank You.

Robert

 

[The_Other_One]

I just looked real quick and saw it is in fact expandable to 2GB, so I don't quite understand why it won't boot. I know some motherboards can be quite pick about their RAM so it very well could be the brand.

Why not try each stick by itself and see if you have any better luck, perhaps one of the sticks is actually bad. You could run memtest86 as well, but honestly, I'd just exchange it for another brand if you still can.

 

[BrokaToe]

Would I not need to be booted into the OS with the ram in the pc I'm running the memtest86 on? Just wondering how to run a memory test on the modules if I am unable to boot into the OS while using them. I have in fact tried using one module at a time and get the same results on either stick. Maybe I will have to try another brand. I'm not real familiar with Windows Vista, so wasn't sure if there were settings that may need to be modified.

 

[johnb35]

No, you would not need to boot into the OS to test your memory. You would download Memtest to a computer and burn the iso image to a cd and then boot to the cd and it will automatically test your ram.

 

[BrokaToe]

Thank you for the help, I have ran the memtest86 on the ram modules and found that both sticks are producing errors. So I will refund these and shop for a better brand.