RAM problem

[gonnagetyou]

I just installed two 512mb sticks of RAM. They both work, but my computer is only recognizing one stick at a time. I can put one or the other in and it says I have 512mb. If I drop both in it still only says I have 512mb. What to do now?

[mechaman]

Does your motherboard support more than 512mb of ram?

[gonnagetyou]

Good question. How do I find out? I'm basically still learning when it comes to these things.

[Rbstr]

you need to look at you mobo's instructions, or call the company you bought it from (as is more likely)

[gonnagetyou]

Thanks for the help! I'll deffinantly check out my motherboard.

Is there any other possible reason that the computer would only recognize one stick? Taking into consideration that both sticks are good.

[SwitchFlip]

im think of buying some more ram, since i only have 256, im probably gonna get 1 stick of 512 or maybe 2 sticks but what kind of ram should i get, i only have $235 dollars canadian what should i buy? :confused:

[Ait'al]

get 235 American! 8D


To start we need to know your motherboard bus speed so we know what speed ram to get. What is your mother board actually? Give me a link if you have one, or jsut the stats. We also need to know if its DDR or not but im guessing thats a given!

Heres some good DDR 400. Youll want to replace anything you have with it: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80097-26 (283$)this is one gig, if you cant use 3200 it only gets cheaper from here! corsair twinx pro is very good! Or so im told 8) this is a pack of two 512s that dual to a gig.
First version of above: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80097-18 250$
non pro type: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80097-27
Im not sure the difference form the different latencies:

Site im getting this all from http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductList.jsp?ThirdCategoryCode=011116&SortBy=BD&Brand=CORSAIR

Heres the 3000 stuff: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductList.jsp?ThirdCategoryCode=011115&SortBy=BD&Brand=CORSAIR
Heres the 2700 stuff: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductList.jsp?ThirdCategoryCode=011112&SortBy=BD&Brand=CORSAIR

Id go with the twinx prostuff since its in your price range! 8) assuming your computer supports ddr 400. The 283$ one and the 250$ dollar ones i listed the prices for are the same thing with different latency. Those are the better ones. 8) But the third one is the first one without all the extra stuff and the higher latency. Its the same price as the second one but without all the stuff the pro ram comes with.

[Daleon]

If both sticks work fine by themselves, and your mb is new enough support 512 DDR in the first place, my best guess is one of the sticks is buffered. Which means you can't use it with unbuffered memory. This would mean you bought something like pc2100 DDR or so, as its still pretty tough to get any higher speed DDR buffered currently. Did you buy the ram or get it from someone?

[SwitchFlip]

I cant find anything on my mobo, but it's called KM400GA6734 whatever the hell that is :) and right now for ram im using pc2700 256 mb ddr ram, and all i know about my mobo is that it supports up too 1 gig of ram :groovy: :groovy:

[SwitchFlip]

it came with my comp, i cant find my comp on the internet, but its a cicero i got it from future shop

[Ait'al]

This has got to be something more interesting than buffered ram. :evil: That would be such a let down 8)

Where did you get the ram and was there any packaging? do you stil have it? etc Wheres your manual and whats it say in it about memory. look in hte begining unless manuals have changed drasticaly in hte last 10 years or my memories that bad! ;)

what do you remember about this alleged "memory buying" :brow: (im being a detective today! wheres the sherlock holmes smiley?)

[SwitchFlip]

(im being a detective today! wheres the sherlock holmes smiley?) lmao :nazi:

[Ait'al]

IM not a nazi ?? 8(

[Rbstr]

Buffered ram sound like it migh be plausible, but than that buffered stick wouldn't work, but both of his do, a mobo has to support it and most do not, just server boards mainly and then AMD 64.

No Ait your not a nazi, just crazi.

[Daleon]

Dood, give some more info on the freaking ram. Playing guessing games is a pain.

[gonnagetyou]

Sorry I been busy. The RAM i baught was Centon 512mb PC133 SDRAM. I was trying to replace 2 sticks of 128mb PC133 I had in there. I'm still trying to find out what motherboard I have. This is a 3 year old Gateway computer I have and with my luck the motherboard probably doesn't support anything higher than 512mb. It has a Pentium III 1000mhz processor.

[Daleon]

Ah, ok so its not DDR. Did you try one of the 512's and 256's to see if that worked? If both sticks of the 512 are the same stuff, then your mb prolly won't support a gig.

[gonnagetyou]

Yea I tried a stick of 512 with the 256. It still only registered 512. Pretty sure it's my motherboard at this point. Never replaced a motherboard before, so this should be interesting trying to find one that works with everything else I have.