Memory Upgrade Fails

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Beau

I have two year old Dell Dimension.
It currently has 128 MB of memory. It has two
slots. Dell lists the Memory to upgrade to, size, pins,
etc. I purchased two 256 MB of these. When I installed,
and rebooted it says that Memory size has decreased and
then the screen goes through a flashing/rolling of
lines similar to and old TV off channel.

Any suggestions why the memory might not work? Could one
of the slots be bad? This is second time I have tried to
upgrade the memory.
 
Beau said:
I have two year old Dell Dimension.
It currently has 128 MB of memory. It has two
slots. Dell lists the Memory to upgrade to, size, pins,
etc.
Click to expand...

The "etc." is very important and may explain why the
memory you purchased doesn't work in your computer.
If you didn't buy the memory directly from Dell, or as
recommended by a reputable memory configurer such
as Crucial's (www.crucial.com), or Kingston's
(www.kingston.com), I would suggest you return it and
buy name brand memory that is guaranteed to be
compatible with your computer. Did you take precautions
against static discharge when you installed the memory?
If not, that's another possible cause of the problem.

-- Bob Day
http://bobday.vze.com
 
OK you have 2 x 256Mb which are new and 1 x 128Mb original component.

Pull out the Dell Module and sswap it with one of the new Modules.

Boot into BIOS, are you now showing 512Mb? If yes then go into Windows and run up applications one after another and check if the PC works without crashing.

Now, you have completed all the above, you can either replace the 512Mb with the Dell 128Mb and buy more memory thru Dell or else keep the 512Mb work faster and then go and buy a matching module to your 2 x 256Mb.

It will be obvious that the original module is not of the same specification as the 256Mb modules.
 
Also, Dell machines are very, very picky. Make sure that it doesn't
require Registered ECC Modules or RDRAM modules. There are many
different types of memory. Also, try updating the BIOS for better RAM
compatibility.
 
Beau said:
I have two year old Dell Dimension.
It currently has 128 MB of memory. It has two
slots. Dell lists the Memory to upgrade to, size, pins,
etc. I purchased two 256 MB of these. When I installed,
and rebooted it says that Memory size has decreased and
then the screen goes through a flashing/rolling of
lines similar to and old TV off channel.

Any suggestions why the memory might not work? Could one
of the slots be bad? This is second time I have tried to
upgrade the memory.
Click to expand...

Exactly what type of memory is it?

If it is PC133 SDRAM then that might explain the problem because there
are two different types of PC133 SDRAM.

The older type uses double-sided modules (chips on both sides of the
card) and is also referred to as "low density".

The newer type uses single-sided modules (chips on one side of the
card only) and is also referred to as "high density".

A two year old machine should support high-density modules but if
yours is a bit older than that and was at the end of its model cycle,
or perhaps on a close-out special, then it might only support the
low-density version of PC133.

Check the existing 128 pin module. If it has chips on both sides, and
your new 256s only have chips on one side, then this is probably what
the problem is. The "cure" is to get the low-density PC133 modules,
which are harder to find and cost approximately double the price of
the high density modules.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
 
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