molbee.sahib said:
Hi,
Tried putting in 2 * 128 SDRAM pc133 memory sticks into a p3 motherboard,
with three memory sockets. Instead of 256, only 128 MB was shown at memory
check. When only 1 stick was inserted, 64 MB was shown(seems only half was
getting recognised).
Does anyone have any solutions, recommendations.
Thanks.
Molbee
The problem here is your system needs low density memory and what you
are putting into it is high density memory. Unfortunately what they call
"industry standard" is really high density memory these days, and a lot
of older systems just can't deal with it. You are unfortunately going
to have to pay a premium to get low density 16x8 memory for your PC in
order for it to be able to recognize it. You wont find any good deals
here, you can expect to pay 2-2.5x as much for quality low density memory.
Use the memory configurator at Crucial and pick out the memory you need
that way. You might pay $3-5 more for it getting it from them, but you
wont be spending 20% restocking fees and fed-ex return shipping
constantly to try to find a good deal on it. Quite simply, there are no
good deals on low density memory outside of finding someone throwing
away their system in the trash and salvaging the memory from it. The
sweet price point for buying this stuff was several years ago, and the
people who actually have it in stock have you over a barrel.
It's nearly impossible to go into a store like Best Buy, Office Depot,
or even CompUSA and ask for low density PC100/133 & actually walk out
with a useable stick. You run into a couple problems: The first being
most PC133 sold today isn't backwards compatable with PC100 (if you need
that), and nearly all of it is high density 32 bit chips which you can't
use (your system will only recognize half of it as it has a 16bit
interface).
Even most of the stores on the web selling 16x8 memory will ship you 32
bit chips which you can then return. Don't even mess with the retailers
on pricewatch unless you want to be ripped off. Just bite the bullet,
pay the money, go to Crucial and save the hassle.
--Timbertea
