less ram showing than i have installed

[vyruz]

hope i put nthis in the right understandable way...

recently i bought a second hand packard bell pc running windows vista with just 512mb ram and a 2.93ghz cpu

 

there were 3 free slots inside for installing more ram..... i added 3 more 512mb ram sticks to give me 2gb but for some reason it only says i have 1023mb ram installed..... any ideas as to why the other ram hasnt been detected after installation... ideally i need the 2gb ram for the software i use on a daily basis, 512 was no good at all, struggled even opening a web browser with vista.... all the ram i was using worked as i took it from my old pc running winxp

 

any help to this puzzle will be greatly recieved

[KenB]

Hi

 

It could be linked to your motherboard. If the max it will support is only 1GB then this is all you will see.

If there was only 512Mb in - it does sound like an old system.

 

Run the Crucial scanner from here - click here

It will tell you the maximum that your system will support.

 

Let us know the results.

 

Also ...........

Which method are you using to discover the amount of RAM that Windows sees ?

[vyruz]

this is the result of the scan

 

Memory Type: DDR PC2700, DDR PC3200, DDR (non-ECC)

Maximum Memory: 4GB

Currently Installed Memory: 1.5GB

Total Memory Slots: 4

Available Memory Slots: 1

 

there was also a diagram showing that i had 1 free slot but all 4 slots have a 512mb ram in them

 

i had checked it on the system icon on windows control panel which reads 1023mb

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, considering that it should work with up to 4GB, it may just be the old RAM you have tried is not fully compatible.

 

Can you let us know the details on the labels of each of the extra RAM you installed please, we will know better from seeing that.

 

Nev.

[KenB]

Currently Installed Memory: 1.5GB

It could be that one of the modules has a problem.

Try cleaning the contacts of all with a pencil eraser and re-seat them in the slots.

 

Run the scan again to see if you get the same result.

 

You could try taking one module out and running the scan - you are looking for the one that is not being recognised.

[vyruz]

further to my last post i have discovered the ram in port 4 is a different brand to the ram in port 3 and the ram in port 3 is the same brand as the ram in ports 1&2... i have read elsewhere that ram should be loaded in matching pairs so would replacing the ram in port 4 with a ram stick the same brand as what is in port 3 solve my issue? alternatively, removing the ram completely from port 4, would this give me the 1.5gb over the 3 ports?..... hopefully that would work as the only 2 matching ram modules i have left are 256mb which if it worked like i think it would would still only give me 1.5gb ram anyway without the option to add more..... as id like to try and upgrade the ram to either 2gb when i can get another same brand ram module, or take all 4 ram out and replace it with 4 matching 1gb modiules to give me the max 4gb my motherboard can take

 

hope that makes sense and thanks tin advance to any help given

[KenB]

i have discovered the ram in port 4 is a different brand to the ram in port 3

If you take the module out of the 4th slot ..... do you still get 1.5 GB showing?

If you DO then slots 1,2 and 3 are OK and the modules in them are OK.

 

If you do get 1.5GB .... swap the odd RAM for the module in slot 3.

What do you get now ? Still 1.5GB ?

 

If so .....

It could be that there is a problem with slot 4 .......... and not the RAM module itself.

 

Matched Pairs

It depends on the motherboard.

It is always best to use matched pairs if possible but it is not necessary on many m/boards.

 

We need to find if the odd RAM module is being recognised.

You could also try slots 1,2,and 4 with the same make modules and see if you still get 1.5 GB.

[vyruz]

i took the ram from slot 4 and put it into slot 3, it showed 1.5gb, with the first ram i had in slot 3 it showed 1.5gb.... when i took them out of slot 3 and tested both in slot 4 it said 1.5gb.... howevever i did notice upon removal that the ram in slots 1-3 were identical, made by crucial 133Mhz CL2 but the ram i was using in slot four was also crucial 1.33Mhz CL3.... could this have been the problem?

[vyruz]

I also have another stick of 512mb ram that says 1.33Mhz CL3.... dont know what make it is tho.... would i be able put those 2 in to make the 1 gb?

[Plastic Nev]

You could well be right about the one stick that says CL3. Leave that one out altogether and it should still show the 1.5GB which will prove the point.

 

Alternatively, remove all, and just put in the two CL3 ones you have, it shouldn't matter for this experiment that it is a different make.

There will be three different possibilities with just those two CL3 sticks, first is nothing and it won't boot at all, second is, it boots but shows only 512MB, thirdly it could boot and show 1GB.

 

From that, we can then know if the system will run on CL3 or not, or if it only shows 512MB one of the CL3 sticks is dud.

 

Nev.