A question for all you techies out there

To explain, I fitted a 1tb hard drive to my laptop to replace the 500gb that was in it and am using it in an external enclosure to store movies etc and it works 100%
I contacted Crucial Memory who said my memory can take 2 modules of 4gb each instead of the 2 2gb installed.
When I fitted them, all I got was a blank screen even though the power light was on. I tried using just one but got the same. Then I tried the 4gb with the 2gb but got the same result.
I am reluctant to send them back as I want more memory, is there something in the bios that is preventing me from upgrading to the higher memory?
I also googled the laptop and it said it can take it so what am I doing wrong?
Would be grateful if someone can help me with this as I don't think it is anything serious to make this work.

The laptop is:

TOSHIBA Satellite A500 PSAR3E-OON005EN

Main Circuit Board:
TOSHIBA KSKAA 1.00

Bios:
TOSHIBA V1.90 05/26/2010

It runs Windows 7 Ultimate.

reply to post by scotsdavy1


What is the speed of the RAM?

Also, there are high density DIMMs that will not work in some older models.

I just checked and your Toshi will only take DDR2 ram. If these are later ones, it won't work.

Either you purchased the wrong type of memory for the laptop, or both memory sticks are deader than a hammer, via static electricity.

I could be wrong on this, but usually this is what I noticed if I couldn't get a desktop to boot up when I put in memory sticks.

also star to the above poster, as the clock speed could be wrong as well.

It wouldn't be anything in the BIOS, but the BIOS might need to be updated to accept the memory. Exactly what kind of memory did you purchase?

reply to post by chr0naut


Don't want to appear thick, but what do you mean by the speed?

Originally posted by _BoneZ_
It wouldn't be anything in the BIOS, but the BIOS might need to be updated to accept the memory. Exactly what kind of memory did you purchase?

Crucial Memory download a small programme that tells you what type and size of memory your PC can take. I have had memory from them before when I upgraded my desktop PC when I used to use it. It's gathering a lot of dust now as I don't use it any more, but the memory worked fine then from them...

I thought there was something in the Bios that is automatic for memory or can be altered or am I wrong in thinking that?

Did you remove the battery from the machine before the memory upgrade?

I made this mistake once. If you don't remove the battery first you will fry the memory.

reply to post by scotsdavy1

I wanted to know what speed and type of memory your bought. The maximum speed memory you can purchase for that particular laptop is DDR3-1066 (PC3-8500). Anything faster, and the laptop won't run unless the BIOS will let you manually slow the speed of the memory down.

reply to post by chr0naut


Memory is DDR3

reply to post by Caroline13456


No I didn't ...

Most modules are keyed so they cant be put into the wrong environment.

Make sure the modules are properly seated, this is OFTEN the cause of your symptoms.

Does seem odd that none of them work.

Start by using just one stick, see if you can get it to boot.

What type of mem did you get?

Originally posted by scotsdavy1
reply to post by chr0naut

 

Don't want to appear thick, but what do you mean by the speed?

RAM works by charging up a capacitive circuit. Over time, the charge depletes, and so the RAM refreshes the charge, in a loop, all the time.

Normal read and write cycles have to fit in between these refresh cycles and so there is a fairly absolute limit for how fast you can read or write to the RAM.

Normally this is in nanoSeconds and the speed is appended to the end of the product code of the RAM chips (the actual chips on the DIMM board).

If you spoke to Crucial, they would probably have advised you about a specific model of RAM. The model number was important.

Originally posted by scotsdavy1
reply to post by chr0naut

 

Don't want to appear thick, but what do you mean by the speed?

He means the clock speed on the ram, by default it looks like most toshiba take DDR3 SDRAM and the clock speed on the ram is 1066mhz. Basically if you got ram that is higher than 1066mhz, it could be out of the specs that your machine can take, what is the clock speed of the new ram.

from looking around, it will support up to 1333mhz

Originally posted by _BoneZ_
reply to post by scotsdavy1

 

I wanted to know what speed and type of memory your bought. The maximum speed memory you can purchase for that particular laptop is DDR3-1066 (PC3-8500). Anything faster, and the laptop won't run unless the BIOS will let you manually slow the speed of the memory down.

Mem will just run at speed already set by bios.

Originally posted by scotsdavy1
reply to post by chr0naut

 

Memory is DDR3

There's your problem.

Can you exchange the RAM for DDR2 ?

Also, DDR3 DIMMs should have a different position for the key slot and should not be able to be seated correctly in a DDR2 slot.

Originally posted by eXia7

Originally posted by scotsdavy1
reply to post by chr0naut

 

Don't want to appear thick, but what do you mean by the speed?

He means the clock speed on the ram, by default it looks like most toshiba take DDR3 SDRAM and the clock speed on the ram is 1066mhz. Basically if you got ram that is higher than 1066mhz, it could be out of the specs that your machine can take, what is the clock speed of the new ram.

Faster ram is happy to run in a slower machine, it just dont like going faster than it shoud.
I got 1600 ram in mine at mo bu due to cripples psu I'm running it at 1066.

reply to post by eXia7


Sorry, I'm new to this in a way.exact things written on them are :

4GB DDR3-1333 SODIMM 1.35V 204 PIN

would it help if I removed the battery first then tried it or as a previous poster said I might have fried them by installing them with the battery in at the time?

Originally posted by VoidHawk

Originally posted by eXia7

Originally posted by scotsdavy1
reply to post by chr0naut

 

Don't want to appear thick, but what do you mean by the speed?

He means the clock speed on the ram, by default it looks like most toshiba take DDR3 SDRAM and the clock speed on the ram is 1066mhz. Basically if you got ram that is higher than 1066mhz, it could be out of the specs that your machine can take, what is the clock speed of the new ram.

Faster ram is happy to run in a slower machine, it just dont like going faster than it shoud.
I got 1600 ram in mine at mo bu due to cripples psu I'm running it at 1066.

True, but I've done this on a desktop and experienced stability issues, but again that could be because of a numerous amount of things, technology is so finicky sometimes lol

Originally posted by chr0naut

Also, DDR3 DIMMs should have a different position for the key slot and should not be able to be seated correctly in a DDR2 slot.

I mentioned that up above. If he's able to insert it, I would assume it should be ok, unless he got very old slow sticks.