RAM issues

[Silence]

Heya all, i searched but couldnt find anything relevant, so could you help me with one small wee problem?

Last week i bought a 512mb 2100 DDR stick to put in my machine. I already had a 512mb stick in there, but i couldnt tell the speed (no labels on it at all), but figured it couldnt be too high as it's over a year old.

Bought it off OCS, had it nicely delivered, and installed it.

First off, it booted up fine, but said i only had 512mb RAM in.

Hmm, have a quick look around, and decide to reboot.

Then it recognises it, and i feel a wave of pride wash over me However, after about 10 mins it rebooted itself. Then it got stuck in an endless rebooting sequence (just after selecting whether it should load XP in safe mode or not), and i noticed that the RAM count at startup wasn't there.

So, removed the RAM, rebooted (with that feeling of dread we all get when we realise we have possibly carked the whole system), and breathed a sigh of relief when it all worked fine.

Now, does anyone know what the problem could be? I cant tell the speed of the original stick of RAM, would that be the problem? My Dad seems to think that it is because the new RAM is not identical to the old stick, any truth in that?

Thank you in advance for your help

[Curfish]

Have you tried the new ram on its own? what motherboard do you have?

[Trash Man]

Also download memtest and run to see if the memory is fine or not.

http://www.memtest86.com

[steve threlfall]

Sounds like the new memory may be knackered

[Trash Man]

Originally posted by steve threlfall
Sounds like the new memory may be knackered

Might not be. Not all makes get on with each other, plus some makes don't like some motherboards.

[Stoo]

The "identical" thing is is a throw-back to the days of SIMM memory when you had to use matched pairs if you didn't want problems..

These days you *should* be able to mix and match but now and again you do get bugs which cause problems.

Have you tried running it with just the new memory and seeing what happens?

[fondie]

first troubleshoot, replace the memory you had in there to start with with the new stick (ie. take out the original stick of RAM, then put the new stuff you bought from OCS into the same slot), then come back and tell us what happens.

[Silence]

Thanks for the replies guys

I changed the RAM around, works fine, so it seems more of a compatability issue.

My mobo is an MSI KT3 Ultra (MS-6380E)

[Spud1]

have you tried putting the new ram in slot1, and the old one in slot 2?

[fondie]

ok, try with two sticks, but reverse the slots in which they are placed, i'd imagine you should get the same error, but will help confirm that it's a motherboard issue rather than a RAM one. after that you could try using 2 sticks of RAM, placing the original in it's original slot and placig the new stuff in a different slot to the one you first tried, (ie. if you had the momery in slots 1 and 2, now place them in 1 and 3), if your motherboard allows that of course.

edit: hmm just realised you said it worked now, lol, so don't have to bother with all that ^, unless you just curious

[Silence]

Err, my bad, i meant that the NEW stick of RAM works on it's own. When i get back from work i'll have a play around with the order they're sat in and report back

[BlackSheep]

Originally posted by Silence
Err, my bad, i meant that the NEW stick of RAM works on it's own. When i get back from work i'll have a play around with the order they're sat in and report back

maybe the timings on the original stick of RAM are set too harsh for the new stick and it can't handle it - also check that you are not running the PC2100 out of spec (i.e. at higher than 266Mhz FSB).