Where Is All My Ram?

EMachine T5082
Vista Basic
Pent 4... 3ghz HT
160G HDD
Had... 512 Ram DDR2

I bought 2 Gigs as the specs say you can upgrade to that except when I put the two sticks in, it wont do anything.. Just runs.. Wont even go into Bios..

I put one Gig stick in the first slot and it starts and "sees" 896G

I put the 512 in and the 1G and it "sees' 896G

Frustrating to say the least..

Anyone know what may be going on?

The sticks of Ram must be the same size..

Sorry, but you cannot mix them..

Do you have the correct memory sticks?

512MB DDR2 (1 × 512MB), 533MHz (PC4200)
Expandable to 2GB
2 DDR2 Slots (Total) | 1 DDR2 Slot (Available)

linky

I have the correct memory sticks and I have mixed them in the past with no trouble at all...

However it is a moot point as it wont take the 2- 1 gig sticks either...

Does it read 2 sticks? ANY 2 sticks? it sounds to me that one of your RAM buses might have gone out. If you tried 2 1GB sticks and it only showed the one used (it will not show all 1GB per stick, some is used for shared memory) then something must be wrong with the 2nd slot.

Try using 2 known good sticks, and see if that works.

I don't know what else to tell you, possibly try switching the 2 sticks? (if the 1GB is in slot 1, put it in slot 2 ect.

~Sm0k3

edit for typos

[edit on 17-8-2009 by sm0k3]

reply to post by sm0k3


I think you hit the nail on the head...

The second slot looks to be bad..

Thank you a TON!!!!!

Semper

Getting bad ram slots is not as uncommon as you think.

I have seen several examples with msi brand motherboards.

Go to the e-machines web site and see what the max ram per slot is, usually 2 gigs.

"IF" that is the case, return the other ram and get (1) 2 gig ram stick.

u2u me when you do this and I will give some instructions that will allow the computer to take full advantage of the ram.



PS, isn't it great we have such well informed members in "all" fields!!!


[edit on 8/18/2009 by mrmonsoon]

I would check out www.crucial.com...
Are the DDR2 that you bought 800 or 533, or 667? I ask because there's a known issue while running on dual channel with DDR2-800, i don't know if there's some fix though. Anyway, since you have a 3ghz i'd say that two 512 DDR-2 would be enough, you also have the chance to modify your page file. Over some value, RAM is useless.
Another thing to try do would require to acces the BIOS.
Here you can find a good article about what to try do do in order to get access to BIOS:
www.pcuser.com.au...

once (IF) you manage to acces it, there should be somewhere a setting related to RAM that reads sync/async or something like that: once i managed to make it work by changing that value from sync to async (or visa versa, don't recall).
I hope that you will be able to bring it up to at least 1,24, which would be good IMHO.

I did some checking, your computer max's out @ 2 gigs ram.

Just get a single 2 gig stick and place it in the one good ram slot.

reply to post by mrmonsoon


Yeah, guess that is it...

I put the 1gig in the known good slot and the 512 in the other and it started, but does not see the 512 at all....

I suppose getting the 2gig card is a lot easier than replacing the faulty Ram slot huh?

Semper

reply to post by semperfortis


You have to understand, the cost associated with repairing or replacing the motherboard is probably beyond what you want to spend.
(unless it is still under warranty, and you can live without your computer for weeks.)

I am sorry to say, your cheapest, easiest solution is a single 2 gig ram stick in the good ram slot.

Since that max's your computer out on ram, the other ram slot does not matter anymore.