A7A266 - 1GB RAM stick not recognized

[Guest]

Hello all,

I have an A7A266 mobo. I recently bought a 1GB RAM stick to upgrade my
(2) 256MB sticks. (all DDR PCI1200 type). Unfortunately, the board
doesn't seem to recognize the 1GB stick at all. I've tried installing
along, and in combination with the other two in all permutations and
alone. The BIOS doesn't ever add in the 1GB stick, just the 256MB sticks.

All dip switches are off, and jumper free mode is on. Any ideas why
it's not autodetecting?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Sick Willie]

Hello all,

I have an A7A266 mobo. I recently bought a 1GB RAM stick to upgrade my
(2) 256MB sticks. (all DDR PCI1200 type). Unfortunately, the board
doesn't seem to recognize the 1GB stick at all. I've tried installing
along, and in combination with the other two in all permutations and
alone. The BIOS doesn't ever add in the 1GB stick, just the 256MB sticks.

All dip switches are off, and jumper free mode is on. Any ideas why
it's not autodetecting?

Thanks,
Mike

The A7A266 only has two DDR slots. It does have 3 SDRAM slots. You are not
trying to add SDRAM and DDR at the same time, are you?

Sick Willie

 

[Guest]

message
The A7A266 only has two DDR slots. It does have 3 SDRAM slots. You are not
trying to add SDRAM and DDR at the same time, are you?

Sick Willie

Negative. All of my RAM (old 256MB and new 1GB stick) is DDR, and I am
installing only into the DDR slots.

I tried mixing the 1GB with (1) 256MB, and it finds 256MB. I tried just
the 1GB, and it find some small amount, which appears to be on board
since it finds that small amount when nothing is installed.

MH

 

[Sick Willie]

message
The A7A266 only has two DDR slots. It does have 3 SDRAM slots. You are not
trying to add SDRAM and DDR at the same time, are you?

Sick Willie

Negative. All of my RAM (old 256MB and new 1GB stick) is DDR, and I am
installing only into the DDR slots.

I tried mixing the 1GB with (1) 256MB, and it finds 256MB. I tried just
the 1GB, and it find some small amount, which appears to be on board
since it finds that small amount when nothing is installed.

MH

Well, there is no RAM onboard on this board so I'm not sure what to tell you
about this point. With no memory in any of the 5 slots, it POSTs and
indicates how much memory? It should, at best, beep at you without any RAM
installed. As far as the 1 GB stick not being recognized, the A7A is very
picky about memory - and there was very little memory in that size range at
the conception of this board, so a different brand might work better.

Sick Willie

 

[Guest]

Well, there is no RAM onboard on this board so I'm not sure what to tell you
about this point. With no memory in any of the 5 slots, it POSTs and
indicates how much memory? It should, at best, beep at you without any RAM
installed. As far as the 1 GB stick not being recognized, the A7A is very
picky about memory - and there was very little memory in that size range at
the conception of this board, so a different brand might work better.

Sick Willie

Thanks for the help. I think the brand thing might be the problem. I
did some more thorough testing and misspoke before: no RAM means no boot
at all, as you said. If just the 1GB stick is in, it says 16MB. If I
put the old 256MB in slot 1 and 1GB in slot 2, I get no boot. If I put
1Gb in slot 1 and 256MB in slot 2, I get 272MB.

The RAM appears to be Mitsubishi . Any idea what brand *will* work at
that size, or what brands are good?

Thanks again for the help.

MH

 

[Sick Willie]

are

not



Well, there is no RAM onboard on this board so I'm not sure what to tell you
about this point. With no memory in any of the 5 slots, it POSTs and
indicates how much memory? It should, at best, beep at you without any RAM
installed. As far as the 1 GB stick not being recognized, the A7A is very
picky about memory - and there was very little memory in that size range at
the conception of this board, so a different brand might work better.

Sick Willie

Thanks for the help. I think the brand thing might be the problem. I
did some more thorough testing and misspoke before: no RAM means no boot
at all, as you said. If just the 1GB stick is in, it says 16MB. If I
put the old 256MB in slot 1 and 1GB in slot 2, I get no boot. If I put
1Gb in slot 1 and 256MB in slot 2, I get 272MB.

The RAM appears to be Mitsubishi . Any idea what brand *will* work at
that size, or what brands are good?

Thanks again for the help.

MH

The 16 MB instead of 1024 MB indicates that it is seeing 1/64th of the 1 gig
stick so it is a question of memory layout. A lot of old boards that I have
to deal with (much older than the A7A, do not like high density memory in
single sided packages. I'm sure the problem is similar even though I doubt
that the 1 gig dimm is single sided.

Although I have nothing against Crucial, I ordinarily don't recommend them
either. However, in the case where compatibility could very well be an
issue, such as your's, they would be hard to beat. They have 1 gig sticks
of RAM on their website, www.crucial.com, that they will *guarantee* will
work with the A7A266 or your money back.

The real question would be why go with one 1 gig stick rather than two 512
meg sticks? Unless you plan on upgrading memory again at some near point in
time, it would be much more cost efficient to go this route. And, before I
would invest much money in memory for the A7A, I would certainly consider
upgrading the motherboard so that I could take advantage of the much faster
memory speeds that are out there - and are sure to get even faster. Right
now I have 10 machines and only two (the ones I personally use every day, of
course) have 1 gig of memory - the rest all have 512 meg. Even those two
have (2) 512 meg sticks, due to the much better price of that particular
size.

Sick Willie

 

[Guest]

The 16 MB instead of 1024 MB indicates that it is seeing 1/64th of the 1 gig
stick so it is a question of memory layout. A lot of old boards that I have
to deal with (much older than the A7A, do not like high density memory in
single sided packages. I'm sure the problem is similar even though I doubt
that the 1 gig dimm is single sided.

Although I have nothing against Crucial, I ordinarily don't recommend them
either. However, in the case where compatibility could very well be an
issue, such as your's, they would be hard to beat. They have 1 gig sticks
of RAM on their website, www.crucial.com, that they will *guarantee* will
work with the A7A266 or your money back.

The real question would be why go with one 1 gig stick rather than two 512
meg sticks? Unless you plan on upgrading memory again at some near point in
time, it would be much more cost efficient to go this route. And, before I
would invest much money in memory for the A7A, I would certainly consider
upgrading the motherboard so that I could take advantage of the much faster
memory speeds that are out there - and are sure to get even faster. Right
now I have 10 machines and only two (the ones I personally use every day, of
course) have 1 gig of memory - the rest all have 512 meg. Even those two
have (2) 512 meg sticks, due to the much better price of that particular
size.

Sick Willie

This particular RAM I thought was a "good deal". I ordered from
getitgotitgood.com, actually through ebay. I paid $160 for the stick,
which was comparable to two 512MB's from what I was seeing at the time.
They also offered the garuntee that it will work with the system or I
could return... looks like I'll be returning. So far their customer
service has been pretty good: they originally sent me the wrong type of
RAM, but, quickly followed up with the correct one when I pointed it out.

For posterity, I tried moving around the undocumented jumper in front of
the AGP slot to 2-3 and removing it compeletly. No effect.

Mitsubishi 1GB RAM sticks appear not to work with ASUS A7A266 boards, I
guess.

Thanks again.
MH

 

[Sick Willie]

message ....> This particular RAM I thought was a "good deal". I ordered from

getitgotitgood.com, actually through ebay. I paid $160 for the stick,
which was comparable to two 512MB's from what I was seeing at the time.
They also offered the garuntee that it will work with the system or I
could return... looks like I'll be returning. So far their customer
service has been pretty good: they originally sent me the wrong type of
RAM, but, quickly followed up with the correct one when I pointed it out.

For posterity, I tried moving around the undocumented jumper in front of
the AGP slot to 2-3 and removing it compeletly. No effect.

Mitsubishi 1GB RAM sticks appear not to work with ASUS A7A266 boards, I
guess.

Thanks again.
MH

That would be a great price if it worked. Good luck.

Sick Willie