RAM Upgrade Problem

dtaylorl · 06-16-2010, 07:57 PM

So my brother and I both just did a RAM upgrade. We bought 3 1GB sticks of DDR2 laptop RAM. My computer (Ubuntu) went from 1.5 Gigs to 2. His computer (Vista) went from 1 Gig (2 x 512MB) to 2. My computer works fine, his doesn't. The first time it booted faster then normal, then it froze and rebooted itself. It now wont boot at all (usually freezes on startup, sometimes makes it into safemode before freezing). Obviously bad RAM is a possibility, but is there anything else I should be looking at to fix the problem? I read somewhere that a large memory upgrade can sometimes give Windows problems. Should I be looking at changing any settings, drivers, bios options, etc?

**SporkV** · 06-16-2010, 08:26 PM

Are all the RAM Sticks the same speed/supported by the Mobo?

dtaylorl · 06-16-2010, 08:58 PM

Both of the new sticks are identical. Not 100% sure on motherboard compatibility. The best info I can find on the mobo is here, but it seems pretty vague. I am running the "windows memory diagnostics tool" right now, but I will check to see if they are similar speeds, etc. as the old ones when it is finished.

What exactly does the windows memory diagnostics tool do? It is telling me that "Hardware problems were detected." Does this 100% mean there is a bad stick of RAM, or is a bad BIOS setting still a possibility? I ask because going back to the original configuration (the two 512 sticks) stopped the computer from starting at all, whereas with the new sticks I can at least boot into Windows, although it starts having errors right away. I should also mention that the graphics card "borrows" memory from the RAM so I do wonder if there might be a configuration issue related to that.

**SporkV** · 06-16-2010, 09:00 PM

well for mobo speed capabilities it should say right on the board...

dtaylorl · 06-16-2010, 09:18 PM

Can't see any info on the mobo, at least not in the accessible area where you insert the RAM (this is a laptop). Only difference I can see between the old and new RAM is that one is DDR2 5300 (new), the other is DDR2 4200 (old).

Cam42 · 06-16-2010, 09:28 PM

That is probably your issue. Try to find 4200 RAM.

dtaylorl · 06-16-2010, 09:37 PM

Hmmm... the computer seems to be working fine with one of the new sticks and one of the old. This would seem to indicate that the other new stick was faulty. The only confusing part is why going back to both of the old sticks didn't work. Running another memory diagnostic to make sure everything checks out okay.

Giga Hertz · 06-16-2010, 11:46 PM

You could try swapping the sticks for the ones you have and see if it's the same issue.

dtaylorl · 06-22-2010, 07:39 PM

Okay, so the memory scan checked out okay and the computer has been running fine for the past week. I got a replacement stick today and it has the same problem. The funny thing is that if I just swap the 1GB sticks it still works fine. So long as there is 1.5GB in the machine, there is no problem. But the mobo is supposed to support 4 gigs. Any other ideas?