Failing RAM??? Not Sure What the Problem is

All RAM has CAS latency, even the very first RAMs. I suggest that you just read up on CAS here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAS_latency.

333 was about average for DDR. 533MHz was top end IIRC.

As for the 200 pin thing. You counted? Geez. Just look at the label. It will say something along the lines of PC3-12800 or the like. PC tells you it is RAM. 2/3 denotes DDR2 or DDR3. The number divided by 8 is the speed. So that number (PC3-12800) would be DDR3-1600. Counting the pins is not an accurate way to tell what you have, as DDR2 and DDR3 both have 240 pins in desktops and on laptops ddr and ddr2 have 200 pins.
 
Kirk mate, I recommend you just chuck that Evo out, sounds like it's been having a lot of problems over the years. By all means, try to sell the RAM, HDD and maybe the battery - providing they all work OK, but just chuck the rest out.

Also sounds to me like you're after a new laptop and are interested in one of those barebones kits? I'd probably just recommend you buy something off the shelf if you want a laptop, or if you're into doing it all yourself and learning more, you could build your own desktop.
 
Yo wolfeking!!!

I think I'll keep this chart to refer to later some time. This looks real interesting. I don't know how you found this!

According to that chart of yours that you found, it appears that I had a DDR1 RAM, not DDR2?:o
It looks like this would be 166MHz.

So you were talking about the CL rating? Which means that 2 or less for DDR would be a LOW cas rating?
[Although it is kind of confusing because it said the lower the better, which would mean that a "6" is considered a LOW CAS Rating]
[You said something about a "4"]

There is a small number that you need a magnifying glass to see on the corner of the card.
I didn't see the 2/3 numbers or the 12800. I'll have to take a look again.

Hello spirit,

Yes, that's true. Some day I want to build a desktop from scratch, but I only have the basic gist of how to do it.
I kind of get stuck around the idea of the heat sink glue and how to do it when installing the processor.
Otherwise I have the general understanding of how to do it...

And as far as the Evo, here I come garbage for a slam dunk.
However, also the rechargeable battery, the DVD drive, power supply, and RAM is probably junk because of their REALLY low quality, I am going to keep them anyways, just because. Yet, as for the HD, I am going to definitely keep that as I know I can find use for that!

But as a side note, even though the Evo is garbage, and I will NEVER use it again as a "running" computer, I am going to keep it around all the same.
Hold on a second -- I know what your about to say.
Okay, but the reason is simple:

I don't have very much experience with a laptop and it is kind of fun to take apart and to study.
Which is percisely what I did the first moment that I realized the laptop would no longer run.
It was actually fun taking it apart and studying it.

[Starfleet Captain]:good:
 
You can not just say that 4 is better than say 11 for CAS. It (CAS) is directly related to the seed in MHz. The lower the CAS for a given MHz the better. For now, just assume that as long as you are comparing the same Speed (like 2 400s or 2 1600s) then you can compare CAS to see what is better (like 3s or 8s).

I think you are getting comfused because you are assuming that MHz and CAS measure the same thing, and they do not.

@Jason
I think it is pretty clear he is not using the laptop anymore. It has pretty much devolved into a RAM theory class here.
 
Dear wolfeking,

I doubt the RAM that I had in my dead laptop caused it to die, although, as far as I know, it is a possibility.
However, if I get a "new" laptop, this IS something that I need to know, and to be aware of.
wolfeking
You have to be wary of low latency RAM (below JEDEC standards) on standard laptops though.
Click to expand...
wolfeking
There are some memories that have tight (lower number) CAS timings that some systems will not function with. That is only a issue if you try to buy high performance RAM for a laptop.
Click to expand...
I guess the real thing that I was trying to figure out was how to tell -- or what is the number range for low latency RAM is (in CL? You can't figure it out by the MHz or the RAM mb #, huh?)
And what the high performance RAM number range is, or how you can tell!!

I have heard of overclocking having the potential to permanently destroying a board. I'm not quite sure if there is any difference between the board and RAM as far as this is concerned, but the possibility exists.

For example, if you put a 4 Gig strip of RAM in a computer that can only handle 256 Mb...

Sincerely,

[Starfleet Captain]
 
You did not overclock anything on that laptop, with the possible exception of graphics, but unlikely. It will not kill your board dong that.

If you put a larger than supported RAM module in, there are 2 possible outcomes. If the limit is chipset address size, then it could function as normal, but not recognize more than supported. My M90 is like that. I can install 8GB all day long, but the 945PM/ICH7m chip will not support 64 bit address so it will not recognize more than 4GB. If it is a BIOS limitation, then you stand a chance of a POST fail, and thus no boot. Same with speed settings. The BIOS will either default it to JEDEC standards, or it will end in a no boot situation.

I think you are blaming RAM for an issue that does not exist right now. If you replaced your RAM, then make sure you replace it with the same Speed and CAS spec RAM. Do not increase it, or decrease timings, as it makes it extremely difficult to diagnose.
Try some RAM of the same spec as what the machine came with and see if it boots. If it does, then your RAM was out of spec and you found the issue. If not, then you know you have a problem elsewhere. Aside from physical damage, there is nothing that the RAM can do to kill your machine permanent.
 
wolfeking,

When I bought new RAM for the laptop, I only went by MHz speed ratings and Mb size.
But you said that the CAS rating has nothing to do with the MHz and cannot also be determined by the Mb size, other than that it increases with upgrade capacity.

wolfeking
I think you are getting comfused because you are assuming that MHz and CAS measure the same thing, and they do not.
Click to expand...
Therefore, I cannot know if it was the proper CAS rating.
When you speak of CAS rating, you are talking about the CL?

I did not know that I had to be aware of this when I bought new RAM!

[Starfleet Captain]
 
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That's kind of confusing. Because that chart of yours only has the words:
"Generation Type Data rate Bit time Command rate Cycle time CL First word Fourth word Eighth word"

So the closest that I can come to your definition of CAS by way of it meaning,

wolfeking
CL is command latency.
Click to expand...
would be the "command rate" name word that they use in that chart of yours.
Note: As you can see, there is the "CL" word in the chart, but it is not that.

When I was looking for RAM to buy over a span of several months, I was repeatedly looking at many different types of RAM that I was considering to get.
This took many days. And during this time I don't seem to remember EVER seeing that "CAS Rating" word definition that you tend to keep talking about.
Of course, I also wasn't looking on newegg either, though I did know about that site. It's a good site actually.

But anyways, what I was trying to get at is that when I asked what I needed for the hardware specifications that matched my computer, the only things that they said the hardware required, was ONLY Mb size and pin number -- that's it, plain and simple, and nothing more. And as I found out the hard way, DDR2 RAM does NOT fit in a DDR slot, nor run. I bought the wrong RAM the first time and had to send it back, because computers are DDR# specific.

It seems to me that all the other factors are ALL "relative" to the size of the number in Mb in RAM capacity. This means that the bigger the RAM size, the better all the other rating numbers will be. Therefore, it would only be logical that the highest Mb size RAM for a DDR2 for example would have the highest rating that is possible for all the other numbers for what you termed, "high performance", it would seem to me. And the lowest Mb RAM size of DDR2 would have the worst CAS rating.

I was told that the hardware requirements for my computer was a maximum capacity of 1 Gig of RAM, and being DDR card specific.
The DDR333 was just by chance, not by design, though I think I could have gone a little either way and still been able to run it just fine.

UNLESS, as you said, I might encounter the "low" CAS rating OR the high performance scenario.

...The RAM that I bought was...
Ahhaa, I just opened up my dead computer again-- joy to the world.
Okay, so I'm here looking at the RAM right now in my hand. And I'm not seein' it. Those numbers that you spoke of that were on the card that defines what the RAM is.
All that I see is "Hynix 333A", man, that is some small print. Ok, just a sec, here we go. I just turned on a flashlight.
"hy5du121622at-j", "KD00974K", "Memory Master 11" [with printed sequential numbers that go up to 12], "94-0", "H1B",
"1" [and NOT in the 1/2/199/200 pin number section, but separate and a bigger letter size, you know, like how I do when I write],
"0330-9c", "SP755K", "3402W" next to a "9329" right below it. Otherwise known as DDR333, 512MB RAM; I used 2 of these 512 RAM sticks in my computer.

Anyways, I'm not very good at hardware, therefore I don't remember whether it is DDR or DDR2.

[Starfleet Captain]
 
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Kirk, Please stop trying to make it more difficult than it needs to be.

You bought RAM. It is compatible based on the info you just gave. you RAM is not your issue most likely. You need another DDR compatible laptop to test for sure though. Or known good RAM.
For future reference, just go to crucial, look up your laptop model and get RAM that matches its stats. http://www.crucial.com/upgrade/HP+-+Compaq-memory/Evo/Evo+Notebook+N610c+Series-upgrades.html is the page for your laptop.

That aside CL and CAS are not the same thing. CAS is a number greater than 1 that increases as MHz goes up. CL will never be greater than 2, ever, no matter if it is PC133 or DDR10 6GHz or the beyond.

Stop worrying about it now, and start looking elsewhere for your issue.
 
When I went to crucial and entered all of the information, the results did not say anything about the CAS rating or what high performance is.

So there is no way to know what this is. And from this site, the CAS rating and high performance is not a hardware requirement, or even something that you need to be concerned about.

Though it would be nice to know how to find out what these ratings would be anyways.

Thanx

[Starfleet Captain]
 
Thanks Wolfeking!

It would great to be able to find out how to determine what a minimum CAS rating and high performance is, though.

[Starfleet Captain]
 
StrangleHold:)
Thnks for the reply bro!

This hardware stuff is all really confusing.
I'm not an expert in the hardware area.
I am still trying to figure all this out.
It seems to be a slow process.

But I'm starting to understand a few things.
I'm better at the software end of computers.

Wolfeking
CAS is latency. There are some memories that have tight (lower number) CAS timings that some systems will not function with. That is only a issue if you try to buy high performance RAM for a laptop.
Click to expand...
I guess what I was really asking was how would I be able to know if the RAM was "high performance", so that I will make sure to avoid the type of RAM that won'r run with my system, as that would be a total loss. Like a dead computer isn't already!!!

[Starfleet Captain]
 
They're getting ready to come out with DDR4 -- your kidding me!!! As if we don't have enough types of RAM as it is!! Man, that bytes!:gun:

So if I was getting DDR 1 then there are only 3 types of RAM that I can get: DDR333, DDR400, DDR533?:confused:

If this is true, then it would really simply things as far as understanding it and knowing what to get and what not to get.
This means that if I need DDR RAM, then DDR533 might not work on my system?:o

Therefore DDR333 & DDR400 are essentially safe? (meaning that there is a 100% chance that they will run in ANY system)...

[Starfleet Captain]
 
533 will not work in your system. But DDR does not have just 3 settings. Technically there are 533 different versions, but that is being a little too direct. The main ones are between 200MHz and 400MHz, generally 200, 333, and 400.

NO. You can not assume that. You need to look at your system support to see if 400MHz will work. And should your FSB be lower than 400MHz, then you will not be able to run 400MHz RAM either.
 
The easiest way is to use CPUz and then multiply it by 2 (because of DDR ram). Like in the example below, you can see that it is running at 532MHz, so the operating rate is 1064MHz, making it 1066MHz DDR3.


untitled by wolfeking, on Flickr

If you are not getting your rated speed, and you are running DDR2 or before, then look at your FSB on the front page of GPUz. Below it is 199.5MHz.

untitled by wolfeking, on Flickr
 
Hey Bro:cool:

Is CPU-Z a program?
If it is, I can see how this would be real useful, as it is able to examine your computer hardware and determine what you have.
This program can determine the FSB that you need -- or only what you currently have?

But I'm not quite sure if what you have is the basis for what you need.
Then again, everything is based off of the processor, so this must be true.

If this program cannot determine what you can use (min and max RAM#), then can you find this somewhere on the RAM strip by physically looking at it when you take it out of the computer?:eek:

[Starfleet Captain]:D
 
Sorry Jim, but It seems my last response was to a spammer. :( But his question was valid none the less.

Yes, it is a program. You can get it here: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
I generally use the G3 Killer or ROG version of it, because they are easier on the eyes, but that is personal choice.
It will only tell you what you have, not compatibility in most cases.

what you have is not a basis of what you need aside of the ram type (ddr 1/2/3), processor type (1155/2011/478 etc), and GPU connection type.
 
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