James buys new hardware item

[Jimmy]

Yes my $138 1gb of RAM has arrived. So my eager self poped it in and started up, crash! before the windows loading bar thing the system began rebooting. SO I removed the 512mb stick and put the 1gb one in the slot I will refer to as slot number "1", it then started up fine, so I went back and but the 512mb stick into slot "2", crash.

Running eatheir of the two modules in slot number two will cause a crash or a long beep, with nothign lading on the monitor just this sustained beep, so I flik the psu power switch.

Running eathier module in slot number 1 will work perfectly (apart from one time were while testing fs with the 1gb stick everythign locked up and I had to hold down the power button, then during start up it got stuck on "loading IDE drives", works fine now)

Haveing the 1gb in slot 1 and the 512 in slot two will cause the long sustained beep., haveing 1gb in slot two and 512mb in slot 1 will cause a message to come up before windows loading bar saying that the following file is missing /windows/system/config/system.

I used to run my 512mb and 256mb sticks together fine, my mobo suports upto 2gb of ram. I have done a reinstall of xp as off having ran those two modules together, I removed the old 256mb when I found it was of a differant speed to my 512.

my new RAM is excacly the same as my 512mb one, DDR400 PC3200. So I can only have the 1gb stick in on slot 1, thats all, one gb I could have had 1.5. Why do I bother....

Better get this crapy system sorted out before my ivao senior captain exam tonight...

Thanks for any help/advice
James

[Charl]

James I think you got lucky with your previous RAM mix.
I've always been told to match RAM exactly, in pairs, and not mix and match between slots.
Throw away the old stick.

[Jimmy]

Difernt sizes work quite alot thow don't they, like Andrew has 1.5gb of ram I beleve set up like mine...

From the varios combinatins iv tried I think it could be something wrong with my slot not the ram at all..

Throw away the old stick.

will do, or perhaps sell thanks charl.

[ZK-TJL]

James I think you got lucky with your previous RAM mix.
I've always been told to match RAM exactly, in pairs, and not mix and match between slots.
Throw away the old stick.

I have also been told exactly that........always match them up.

[lowellyerex]

James,

What model mobo do you have?

[Codge]

Don't throw it out! If you do I would love to have it! If it goes OK I'll even buy it off you. I have the same type DDR400 and I mix them with no problems. I had 1.5 gigs but the 1gig stick was faulty and lasted about 5 mths. I now am back to 768mb and all is well. 1.5 was made up just like you are trying to do James and my current set up is a 512 and a 256.
Also $138 seems cheap for a gig of RAM. Where do you get them at that price?
I can't say I know what your problem is but I'm inclined to agree that it's not the RAM itself but something else. You say either of them works fine by themselves but not both together! Sounds weird to me because I do that without any trouble.
What the others are saying is right though, that we should match them. Maybe it's a mobo thing where some mobo's don't mind and some do. So we get told to match them to be on the safe side.
All I can do is offer to buy your 512 stick. I'll still want to buy a gig stick as well if I can get one for that price. I'm building a network so RAM is always needed.
Jimmy let me know how it goes. PM me if you want.
Regards Stephen

[Alex]

Hmm yea, $138 is a really cheap price, I bought two 1 gig sticks of RAM about 3 months ago for around $220-$20 each, from Dick Smith and Harvey Norman (then again, I bought DDR2 RAM, whereas James bought DDR RAM, maybe that has something to do with the price).

Alex

[Codge]

Hi Alex, I believe DDR2 RAM is actually cheaper than DDR400. It was the case at Dick Smiths a few months back anyway. The best price I've found in Dunedin for DDR400 1 gig sticks is $192 from a wee shop called PC Gear. Of corse you can bid for it on Trade Me but still $138 will be very hard to beat.

[Jimmy]

Hey guys, my motherboad is a MS-6533, microstar international.

I am happy to sell this RAM if its unliekly it will work, Im not wroied just having the 1gb, its a bit quicker than what I had

  Don't throw it out! If you do I would love to have it! If it goes OK I'll even buy it off you. I have the same type DDR400 and I mix them with no problems. I had 1.5 gigs but the 1gig stick was faulty and lasted about 5 mths. I now am back to 768mb and all is well. 1.5 was made up just like you are trying to do James and my current set up is a 512 and a 256.
Also $138 seems cheap for a gig of RAM. Where do you get them at that price?
I can't say I know what your problem is but I'm inclined to agree that it's not the RAM itself but something else. You say either of them works fine by themselves but not both together! Sounds weird to me because I do that without any trouble.
What the others are saying is right though, that we should match them. Maybe it's a mobo thing where some mobo's don't mind and some do. So we get told to match them to be on the safe side.
All I can do is offer to buy your 512 stick. I'll still want to buy a gig stick as well if I can get one for that price. I'm building a network so RAM is always needed.
Jimmy let me know how it goes. PM me if you want.
Regards Stephen

Hiya Stephen, i got my ram from pconlineshop, really good prices, I got dvd drive video card and now ram from there.

I'll send ya a PM about the 512mb stick, would go well with your otherone.

If any one would like to buy a 256mb DDR stick send me a PM or else it can sit on this shelf along with the old cd reader drive (honestly how would want to buy a 256mb stick thow, especaly at the price id make you pay haha! j/k )

Thanks
James

[HardCorePawn]

Hey Jimmy,

I see you tried the combinations of 512+1G in both slots. Have you tried putting a single stick in Slot 2, with nothing in Slot 1? That should help identify if its the RAM or the Mobo...

If the 512Meg and the 1Gig work separately in Slot 2 (with nothing in Slot 1), then its just an incompatibility between the RAM... and I guess you are just SOL.

However, if neither of them work in Slot 2 (with nothing in Slot 1), then it sounds like the mobo may be FUBAR (and given the amount of problems you seem to have with your machine, I would put a lazy $20 on this being the case )

Also, are you SURE the ram is the same? Have you tried using something like CPU-Z or PC Wizard to confirm it is what you think it is?

[Jimmy]

  Hey Jimmy,

I see you tried the combinations of 512+1G in both slots. Have you tried putting a single stick in Slot 2, with nothing in Slot 1? That should help identify if its the RAM or the Mobo...

If the 512Meg and the 1Gig work separately in Slot 2 (with nothing in Slot 1), then its just an incompatibility between the RAM... and I guess you are just SOL. sad.gif

However, if neither of them work in Slot 2 (with nothing in Slot 1), then it sounds like the mobo may be FUBAR (and given the amount of problems you seem to have with your machine, I would put a lazy $20 on this being the case dry.gif)

Also, are you SURE the ram is the same? Have you tried using something like CPU-Z or PC Wizard to confirm it is what you think it is?

Thanks jared, I have done a few mroe tests. works fine with the 1gb stick in eathier of the slots. So slots are fine (hehe there gos your twenty, lol), but placing the 1gb in slot one with the 245mb in slot two caused a normal startup untill welcome screen then crash and reboot. Haveing them the toher way around caused a blank display just before the windwos loading bar..

I knew it was a bit of a risk buying differant size RAM, but there was also a risk in buyign anothor 512 if they were differant brands and stuff. So even if I was to buy jsut anothor 512 I still have as much ram if I had done. Sadly fps haven't really improved, only improvment I can see is opening firefox after closing fs is faster... I supose I could buy anothor excacly the same 1gb, 2gb woudl be great, ill think about it.

thanks for the help guys
James

[Jimmy]

thought I had sorted this out:

Loading up fs during the splash screen I suddenly got a blue display going on about an aplication unexpectidly colsed. and the physical memory was being dumped, I hit enter key and the system restarted.. It got to the "Detecting IDE drives" then jsut stayed saying "detecting IDE drives......" SO i had to hold down the power button to restart, it continuly did this. (this happend not long after I first installed this new RAM too.. but I thought that had stoped and forgot about it)

So I removed the 1gb RAM stick into slot number 2, when I presed the power button I got that long sustained beep again, so I had to turn off the psu. I moved the RAM back to slot 1 and it started up with out a problem... confused? This is why I want to move on to a new motherboard, this one is cursed!

I don't midn things happening for a good reason, but things that work fine somedays, yet not others, do rather get on my nerves...

and of course...

"any help a apreciated" (im forever needing help with this darn computer, yet I still love technology!)
Thanks
James

[HardCorePawn]

This is why I want to move on to a new motherboard, this one is cursed!

You owe me $40

Seriously tho, my gut feeling is that your mobo is stuffed. When weird random stuff starts occuring, its usually the mobo, as its the hub of your system (ie. everything connects to it).

So if its the video one minute, then hard drives not detecting, then some sort of memory corruption, its somewhat symptomatic of the mobo on its last legs.

Having said that, it could be something simple... is the inside of your comp nice and clean? No big deposits of dust? Sometimes, a buildup of dust will lead to shorts on the mobo which results is random errors.

I would recommend NOT using soap and water, like your mum taught you, to clean up A can of compressed air is usually best for blasting it out... or a little hand vacuum with a long nossle for getting into the tight spots to suck it out.

[Jimmy]

So if its the video one minute, then hard drives not detecting, then some sort of memory corruption, its somewhat symptomatic of the mobo on its last legs.

Having said that, it could be something simple... is the inside of your comp nice and clean? No big deposits of dust? Sometimes, a buildup of dust will lead to shorts on the mobo which results is random errors.

yup its all clean in there, no piles of dust