Cheers Ray
I have an old Dell Latitude that I use for my Vinyl cutter. I have fitted two new memory sticks of 256 Mb each, so should get 512 Mb, but regardless
of which stick is in, either A or B, (or both together), it will only read 256 Mb. Any idea what is going wrong? The BIOS has been checked and is the
latest version. At a total loss as to why this should happen. Please keep the advise in simple terms, as a total numpty with regards computer speak!
Cheers Ray
depending on how old it is it might not support 512Mb of RAM.
post the model and I will have a look for you
Well the note on the bottom states Cpt-C, is that the correct number/type. Regards Ray
Says 512 max so should accept it
I have had PC's that you have to actually tell them what's plugged in, they have no 'plug and play' capability. You might need to configure the second stick. If it can only handle 512meg it's likely to be old enough to need manual configuration.
Depends on a couple of other of things.
The ram speed needs to be compatible with the motherboard.
They also should be a matched pair
Eta the BIOS might need changing to adjust for the new ram.
[Edited on 3-6-12 by MakeEverything]
Also are they identical sticks? brand and more importantly the make up of chis Ie no of indivdual chips on the stick. Alot of older pcs require matched pairs.
quote:
Originally posted by Slimy38
I have had PC's that you have to actually tell them what's plugged in, they have no 'plug and play' capability. You might need to configure the second stick. If it can only handle 512meg it's likely to be old enough to need manual configuration.
Ray
quote:
Originally posted by MakeEverything
Depends on a couple of other of things.
The ram speed needs to be compatible with the motherboard.
They also should be a matched pair
Eta the BIOS might need changing to adjust for the new ram.
[Edited on 3-6-12 by MakeEverything]
quote:
Also are they identical sticks? brand and more importantly the make up of chis Ie no of indivdual chips on the stick. Alot of older pcs require matched pairs.quote:
See above, yes to both!
[Edited on 3-6-12 by Chippy]
Chippy - 3/6/12 at 01:50 PMJust noticed that I get a, (very brief), error message which reads, (more or less).
Failure to read//write.....100000000........00F00EE............Expecting 00F00EF
That is roughly, after several attempts, what it says. Don't know if that helps.
Regards Ray
scudderfish - 3/6/12 at 02:53 PMCould be a dogy socket on the motherboard. Have a look at www.memtest.org
MakeEverything - 3/6/12 at 03:28 PMquote:
Originally posted by scudderfish
Could be a dogy socket on the motherboard. Have a look at www.memtest.org
Or a odgy ram card. I bought A pair from giraffe or something, and one of hem was no good,
D Beddows - 3/6/12 at 03:38 PMOld laptops can be REALLY picky about RAM - I've got a prehistoric Compaq Armada I use as a netbook and I've tried 3 times to buy some extra RAM for it and 3 times it hasn't worked. The RAM was from reputable companies and the spec was spot on but the laptop just doesn't want to know
snakebelly - 3/6/12 at 03:39 PMAlso check the momory in the os, unlikley but i have seen bios misreporting memory only to boot and find the os sees it all, rare but worth a look.
As already said likely to be a memory mismatch, if both work alone but not together buy a matched pair.
I always use crucial and if its a windows os you cann use the crucial memory scanner to get axactly what the board needs;
http://www.crucial.com/uk
HTH
Chippy - 3/6/12 at 04:01 PMAs said within the post, the sticks are a matched pair, both work independantly, so are fine in that they both work. They are both 16 chip, which is what is recomended. The BIOS is the correct most up to date one. The bit that I don't get is the fault code, (see above), that come up at each sign on, any clues as to what that means? Thanks for the replies so far.
Crucial does not help, as say's no recomendations. I have tried Memtest, and that just supports what I have done so far. Regards Ray
MikeRJ - 3/6/12 at 07:04 PMquote:
Originally posted by Chippy The bit that I don't get is the fault code, (see above), that come up at each sign on, any clues as to what that means?
The BIOS tests the operation of the memory during the POST (Power On Self Test) by writing certain patterns to the memory and ensuring it reads back the expected values. The message you received says that the BIOS read a value from a particular address that was different to the value it wrote.
The address is shown as (hex) 100000000, is that definitely the correct number of zeroes? I ask because the is well outside the address range I would expect for 512MB, but if it had seven zeroes it would seem more logical.
Do you get the error even with one stick fitted? Does the PC work correctly with either stick fitted into either slot (i.e. only one stick fitted in total)? If so do you get 256MB reported in each of the four possible combinations?
Check the contacts on the memory sockets, they can get damaged if the memory isn't fitted correctly.
[Edited on 3/6/12 by MikeRJ]
Chippy - 3/6/12 at 09:23 PMquote:
Originally posted by MikeRJ
The BIOS tests the operation of the memory during the POST (Power On Self Test) by writing certain patterns to the memory and ensuring it reads back the expected values. The message you received says that the BIOS read a value from a particular address that was different to the value it wrote.
The address is shown as (hex) 100000000, is that definitely the correct number of zeroes? I ask because the is well outside the address range I would expect for 512MB, but if it had seven zeroes it would seem more logical.
Do you get the error even with one stick fitted? Does the PC work correctly with either stick fitted into either slot (i.e. only one stick fitted in total)? If so do you get 256MB reported in each of the four possible combinations?
Check the contacts on the memory sockets, they can get damaged if the memory isn't fitted correctly.
[Edited on 3/6/12 by MikeRJ]
Hi Mike, not sure with regards the amount of zero's, could well be seven, the error message is not on screen long enough to get a correct count.
Not sure if the error message occurs with just one stick fitted. But regardless of whichever stick is in whichever slot either A or B the computer still shows 256 Mb in all four combinations, so the contacts have got to be good, or at least that is how I see it. Regards Ray