| missing ram?
Posted: 10/13/2009 6:36:51 PM | ive fitted 1.5 gig of ram on my pc, 1g in slot 1 and .5 in slot 2. ive ran the o/s which is xp and properties and says only 1gig.
i thought i would run cupid and see whats happening and its recognised the both slots so says i have 1.5 of ram.
so which is telling me the truth? and if indeed its not adding the .5 gig how do i get it to work?
the ram is ddr. | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/13/2009 7:02:33 PM | I'm sorry...I was focused on why you have a picture of vomit on your profile.
Anyway...some computers will only recognize the higher of the pair. But my knowledge is limited.
Meaning if you put two one gigs in you get two gigs. If you put a two gig and a one gig you will only get two.
The newer systems will take odd sizes.
But I'm wondering why you are patching together that POS.
I just picked up a laptop with 4 gigs...upgradeable to 6 or 8.
2.13 GHtz Intel Duo Core 2 and a 512 meg dedicated graphics card 500 gig hard drive
All for under 600 bucks. Plus free upgrade to windows 7
Take that puke and your computer to the curb on your way to the computer store.
I'm selling one with 2 gigs running vista 32bit at 1.86 GHtz for 200 to an acquaintances' for his granddaughter....
You can get a snappy home box for 400 or under or used for the price of jacking up your old one.
Stop buying stuff for junk. | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/13/2009 8:41:13 PM | Are the memory cards the same? Try swapping the memory cards inside the computer. It is also important to go into the Setup (F2) once the new memory has been added. The setup keeps track of the hardware changes to your computer, and the additional memory needs to be saved in the Setup configuration.
1. What is the make, model and serial number of your computer?
2.There is a possibility that a memory slot is bad on the motherboard. You could try swapping the memory around and see if that makes any difference.
Verify that the memory speed is the same for both. If the speeds differ, that is probably the problem.
Some system BIOS (startup program) will recognize the memory installed, even if they don't match.
 | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/13/2009 9:00:17 PM | Check out the manufacturers web site/motherboard manual first make sure the slots are capable of 1Gb sticks of RAM.
If the slot is capable of taking 1Gb sticks of RAM then check and see if the stick you have is double sided or single sided and make sure the motherboard is capable of taking that kind of RAM, also check if your RAM is X x 32 or X x 64 configuration.
If you havent gotten your answer in either of those, and A: the board is capable of taking 1Gb sticks and B: is capable of taking your kind of RAM, then its possible that Windows is reporting the amount of RAM incorrectly...
The BIOS boot screen will tell you how much RAM it can see of whats installed.
Not all 1Gb sticks of DDR333 for example are the same, some are x32 some are x64, some are single sided and some are double sided... and by sided I dont mean there are memory chips on both sides of the stick. | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/13/2009 10:04:16 PM |
ive fitted 1.5 gig of ram on my pc, 1g in slot 1 and .5 in slot 2. ive ran the o/s which is xp and properties and says only 1gig.
i thought i would run cupid and see whats happening and its recognised the both slots so says i have 1.5 of ram.
You haven't said anything about the specs of your PC , the age , the type of Ram that the mobo takes or even how many Ram slots it has.
Anyway , if CupID recognizes the full 1.5 Gb of Ram , then you will need to insert the ram sticks in bank 0 and bank 3 , leaving bank 2 empty , and if that doesn't work , then put the second stick in the next Ram slot and so on until you get the Ram recognized by the BIOS.
So the configuration will be the 1 Gb in bank 0 and the 512 Mb stick in any of the other slots , leaving bank 2 empty.
Sometimes with mismatching sticks of Ram you may need to put one stick in bank 0 and the other in the last Ram bank.
In most cases , it won't matter if the Ram sticks are of different bus speeds , all Ram sticks are backward compatible and what will happen is that the faster Ram stick will run at the same speed as the slower Ram stick. | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/13/2009 10:27:30 PM |
You haven't said anything about the specs of your PC , the age , the type of Ram that the mobo takes or even how many Ram slots it has.
Anyway , if CupID recognizes the full 1.5 Gb of Ram , then you will need to insert the ram sticks in bank 0 and bank 3 , leaving bank 2 empty , and if that doesn't work , then put the second stick in the next Ram slot and so on until you get the Ram recognized by the BIOS.
So the configuration will be the 1 Gb in bank 0 and the 512 Mb stick in any of the other slots , leaving bank 2 empty.
Sometimes with mismatching sticks of Ram you may need to put one stick in bank 0 and the other in the last Ram bank.
In most cases , it won't matter if the Ram sticks are of different bus speeds , all Ram sticks are backward compatible and what will happen is that the faster Ram stick will run at the same speed as the slower Ram stick.
Just because CPUID can see it it doesnt mean it can be used.
RAM slots should be populated consecutivly unless your going for dual channel thats true, but in this instance as the sticks are not matching size dual channel configuration will not work no matter what slots they ocupy.
So on that bases contigious bank ocupation is best, ie bank 0 > bank 1 > bank 2 > bank 3 etc.
Not all RAM is backwards compatable, just because it fits in the slot it doesnt mean its going to work, whether its the right generation or not.
For instance my DDR 2 667 RAM will not work in anything other than a board with a chipset that can run Fully Buffered DIMMs.
The best thing to do is see that the RAM he has is known to have problems with the boards chipset dont you think?
google the RAM part number to gether with the chipset model number and he should get some kind of result, be it positive or negative, from there on in if the news is good then he can mess about with the location of the sticks.
Take a look at this auction on ebay
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MAJOR-1GB-DDR-333MHZ-1-GB-DDR333-FOR-KM266-266-266a_W0QQitemZ120469854337QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_ComputerComponents_MemoryRAM_JN?hash=item1c0c901881&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
Take a look at the chipset list.
That means that that stick is a 1Gb stick of DDR333, it will work in the chipsets listed, but if you run an Intel chipset your shit outa luck...
Despite the fact that the RAM is on the surface the right kind of RAM for your board. | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/14/2009 12:03:42 AM |
RAM slots should be populated consecutivly unless your going for dual channel thats true, but in this instance as the sticks are not matching size dual channel configuration will not work no matter what slots they ocupy.
So on that bases contigious bank ocupation is best, ie bank 0 > bank 1 > bank 2 > bank 3 etc.
No , not necessary , sometimes with mismatching Ram manufacturer/brand or size , the only way to get them to work is to try different Ram slots.
At times , I have had to put Ram sticks in bank 0 and then in the last bank or even leaving bank1 and bank 2 empty.
The last machine that I added Ram into with mis-matching manufacturer/brand was for DDR Ram and I had to place the sticks in bank 0 and bank 3 .
If the Ram sticks are the same type , eg SDRam , DDR , DDR2 but different manufacturer/brand , then you may have incompatibilities , so if at first the extra Ram doesn't get recognized by the BIOS , then you start swapping the Ram in and out of the Ram slots in an attempt to get it to work , sometimes it works , sometimes it doesn't .
And since the OP has not said what type of Ram he is using , then people can only give generic answers to his question. | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/14/2009 4:21:56 AM | | when you look at 'available' ram, you have to take into consideration peripherals that also use your system ram to run. for example, an older graphics card with no on board ram of its own may very well alocate 512 Mb of system ram for its own use. this will be deducted from the available ram shown overall. it puzzles many people why they can install 4 gig of ram into a machine and then only see 3.5 gig available, they blame the os when this is not neccesarily the case | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/14/2009 5:06:08 AM | the motherboard is a microstar 6533 and has 2 banks both capable of holding a gig in each one. the 1 gig stick is ddr 333 but cannot see the second stick info as got a casing on, all thats writen on it ddr512pc3200lla2, which dont help me much lol according to the net it shouldnt have any problems with the extra ram as quite a few sites advertise such as this
http://www.upgradecomputermemory.com/ram.cfm//memory/M/Microstar-Int/MS-6533-MS-6533/
so i presume il have to look into the setup and bios? | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/14/2009 5:44:38 AM | | after a bit of playing around i decieded to swap the ram around, including the original ram which i knew was ok. but the problem is bank 2 is not working for some reason? what ever ram is added on there the system dont recognise, so still have the original problem but now the fault is known. | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/14/2009 5:56:26 AM | having a dodgy slot can happen.
Im guessing the original setup was to have the 1gb in slot 0 and the 512 in slot 1, and it showed 1gb, then when you swapped the sticks over it showed as 512 installed? | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/14/2009 6:11:35 AM | | yeah, then tried with a 256 original in both slots to and again never recognised slot 1 so i left slot 0 empty and put original in slot 1 and fired it up, blank screen and one long beep. but how come my system checks aint picking up if its a dodgy slot? and why does cupid pick up the ram in slot 1? | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/14/2009 8:23:47 AM | It is interesting as problems go.
Does the BIOS show the full 1.5Gb? | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/14/2009 9:17:20 AM | im even now confused as have been checking every setting, took out every ram and gentle clean, emailed msi, checked bios and thought id check the bios against the ram .... and for some reason its working .... but cannot think how ive done it .... only solution i can come up with is if contacts were dirty? but dont explain why the system didnt registor them but cupid did? its worn me out so off to the outdoor to pick up bottle of wine and cider.
cheers for the help and ideas, just seem to have gremlins guys lol | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/14/2009 12:28:32 PM | | I believe RAM has to be added in matching pairs, starting with the first slot, in your case slot zero. | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/14/2009 3:22:14 PM | As I understand it, it's not good to mix RAM.
If it did see the .5 gb stick, that's how fast you would be...you're only as fast as your slowest component.
RAM is dirt cheap, why not go ahead and invest in another 1gb stick that matches the one you already have and throw away the .5 | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/14/2009 4:10:00 PM | | ram can be added at different speeds hence i looked through the bios in set up and theres an alteration for speed or a certain speed. ddr ram is getting harder to hold off hence the prices change daily, and me personally is not gonna order whatever of the net when can get ram up in my town. | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/15/2009 9:58:24 AM | on a DIMM RAM doesnt need to be added in pairs except in special sircumstances, such as on the Supermicro Super P3TDE6, it used PC133 RAM but in dual channel only mode, so needed two DIMM slots to be populated with ECC Registered DIMMs.
On dual channel boards of today it is better to have matched pairs, but that is for performance, not because they have to be installed like that...
As I said there are some exceptions to this rule, but they are in the minority in most cases.
The IO from the RAM will default down to the lower speed because of the way the interconnect works.
So on the old DDR systems that used PC2100 and PC2700 you can have a system fitted with both types of RAM and it should work fine, but it will run at the slower PC2100 IO speed. | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/16/2009 12:31:34 PM | well tonight the system crashed, and when restarted just the long 8 or 9 seconds beep with nothing starting. looking up on the net and presumed its a ram problem? took the ram out and played around with it and got it working after a hour  what i did notice before the crash was when system was turned on or reset no beeps were made? so presum the system wasnt doing its job or working properly?
im now back to square one with the ram, sometimes the its recognised, sometimes it isnt even though its showing up on cpuid. time to start saving or win on the horses for a new pc me thinks  | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/16/2009 12:49:49 PM | You might want to take both sticks out and check them individually. Like you said, could be a RAM problem...mixing RAM isn't recommended and you may have killed one of the sticks.
With RAM and HDDs in a RAID when working together, it's best to have them match as close as possible even down to the time they were manufactured.
http://www.pchell.com/hardware/beepcodes.shtml | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/16/2009 3:17:07 PM | Ram is extremely cheap these days . You can pick up gigs of memory for under 30 bucks now.
Ram does not have to be consecutive. For ease, its best to not mix n match, but I have used Compaq memory in a dell pc, HP in an e machine, etc -
The main thing is the board spec, ram type, and speed - If you have a stick of say:
1gb ddr2 5300 non ECC, and another of 2GB ddr2 5300 nonECC, putting them both in the same system will work because you have the same specs -
if you have pc5300, and 6700 they will not work together. Any system thats 3 yrs old or newer should support a minimum of 2GB of ram.
Your board will support 2GB max, and looks like you have pc3200DDR -
Sounds like the motherboard is going out, as the slot is causing the problem.
This may help, has helped me before but not a guarantee:
Put both sticks in -- turn the system on and right back off - reset the cmos with the jumper, or by popping the battery out, boot the system .... turn it off - put the battery back in, and then boot it up -- go into bios and then look.
 | |
|
| missing ram?
Posted: 10/18/2009 11:50:01 PM | DIMM 1 has to match DIMM 3
DIMM 2 has to match DIMM4
Or atleast this is how it is for most computers.
This means that:
slot 1 must be equivalent in everyway to slot 3, same goes for slot 2 and 4.
If you only have two slots then slot 1 must match slot 2 in every way (you can switch ram brands but I wouldn't recommend it).
1 gig is not equal to .5 gigs so it shouldn't work (or this is how most motherboards work) | |
|
Home
login 
