New Ram = Uh Oh

[Sacofjoea]

Recently bought a stick of Kingston 256mb ram from the store. Got home, installed it and everything worked without a glitch.. for the first few days.. Then I started getting all these errors in XP and programs crashing, as well as frequent Blue Screens (the xp souped up versions)
I took the ram out, no problems since.. sucks a lot cause I wanted that extra ram, but seems to only be causing me problems...

Anyone know what could be happening?
(btw my mobo is about 2 years old.. has 3 ram slots.. each can hold 512 I believe) and currently have 384mb.. (128/256)

thanks
sac

[JungleMan]

Take out your existing 128MB stick and throw in the 256MB stick. If it still doesn't work, yippee, you've got a bad stick of RAM and all you've gotta do is return it and get a new one.

[RyanSmith]

How does your computer take memory? Some take them in banks of 1, 2, & 4. If you have x banks of 1, that means you can put one stick of memory in for it to work. If you have x banks of 2, that means you have to put in 2 sticks of memory for it to work, etc.

Don't know? If you didn't make your PC yourself, I'm sure www.crucial.com will tell you if you find your computer in the manufacturer's list and find the right model/series.

I don't know what to say though.

[chrisjk]

The old pentiums used to have to be done in pairs, like if you wanted 128MB you had to buy 2 64's. That's the only restriction I know of, these days you can pretty much slap together any old mish-mash and it'll work. Obviously they need to be the same type though.

[JPicasso]

I think putting more RAM in when you already have 384 is
a bit greedy.


But it sounds like a bad stick. I'd follow Jungleman on this one.

[chrisjk]

Originally posted by JPicasso
I'd follow Jungleman on this one.

Careful, you being behind him might give him the wrong idea

[JungleMan]

Shut up Chris

I think if it has to be installed in pairs, it wouldn't be recognizing the memory at all. Plus, wouldn't you need terminators installed in empty slots too..

Besides, you can't have pairs of two in a system with 3 memory slots and there are no dual-channel (paired) SDRAM boards available, unless he's got an i820 or 850 which uses Rambus, he wouldn't have to worry about banks...

[chrisjk]

I said the pentium (I) had to be done in pairs

[JungleMan]

btw my mobo is about 2 years old

[Sacofjoea]

its 3 slots all sdram.. (is that what you meant?) I exchanged it for another stick.. installed it (same exact stick) computer wouldn't boot... SO I exchanged it yet again (couldn't get money back) for a PNY 256mb stick and so far.. so good *knock knock

[JPicasso]

Probably dropped that crate on the shipping docks.
Glad you're up and running.

[MidgetsBro]

Originally posted by Jungle-Man
Shut up Chris

I think if it has to be installed in pairs, it wouldn't be recognizing the memory at all. Plus, wouldn't you need terminators installed in empty slots too..

Besides, you can't have pairs of two in a system with 3 memory slots and there are no dual-channel (paired) SDRAM boards available, unless he's got an i820 or 850 which uses Rambus, he wouldn't have to worry about banks...

I had one of those boards. God damn Rambus. I had to drive all over *****ing southern california before I found a place with one of those terminators. My uncle conveniently forgot to get me one when he gave me the board and ram... Then, a week after I did that, my uncle came back with another stick of rambus, so I just got rid of the terminator anyway... what fun that was.