I'm not quite sure what I'm doing
 

I have decent computer knowledge, or at least I'd like to hope so, and I bought some 512 MB of RAM the other day because I needed the upgrade. Anyways, I know I got the right kind, since my according to this manual that came with my motherboard says it accepts 400 DDR SDRAM, which is what I got. But I put it in one of my empty memory slots the other day, and my computer doesn't seem to be recognizing it (I checked using Belarc Advisor, good stuff). So, any reason why it may not work?

you want the answer, we need the info.

specifics:
motherboard?
ram brand?
what do you already have in there, ram-wise?
the rest of the gear in your computer?


this is like telling people my balls itch too much and asking them to diagnose me. without specifics, nobody's gonna know what's crawling around on my sack.

Only thing I can think of is that if you only have 1 stick of RAM and 2 slots, you have it in slot 1 instead of slot 0. I know older computers used to cough at that, not sure about new ones.

All I know is that my mom's system (asus a7n8x) will run 1gb of pc2100 fine. But as soon as I put a single stick of pc3200 it only recognizes the 3200 (even with 1gb of pc2100 in it). So, i'm not too sure if your having a similiar problem. Have you tried each stick by itself and have run it through memtest86 (http://www.memtest86.com/)?

I'd try memtesting each stick individually, than both at the same time.

i had the same problem before when i got my new stick of ram.. what i did was alternate the sticks in the slots.. and it worked after that.

Take a look at your motherboard manual. I know the one in my father's computer would only recognize RAM of the same type unless they were grouped in particular slots.

thanks guys, this seemed to have been the problem.

A good rule of thumb is to not mix and match your RAM. If you're going to do an upgrade, get more of exactly the same thing, or just get all new. Different RAM can have different clock speeds and even RAM with similar clocks can have different latencies. This can cause the motherboard all kinds of confusion and might lead to system instability.

Alright, now I'm having problems again. My computer seems to be running more slowly now, despite me doublng the RAM. This is what I got http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...999-330&depa=1 . Is it cheap crap or somethng?

info. we need it. motherboard. previous ram. current setup.


dammit, i figured my balls analogy would do it.

KT6 Delta MSI Motherboard, I don't know any other specifications about my computer because I don't know how to figure out what kind of RAM my other 512 MB stick is.

Okay, you've got two sticks, right? Try just using one or the other. If speed goes up a whole bunch just using one.... then I'm gonna guess the mother board has some issue with two different kinds of memory. Shell out another $80, and get another stick of exactly the same stuff, then you will have your 1024MB of RAM. By the way, do you really need that much RAM? Unless your a gamer, or like to do a lot of video editing while running AutoCAD, a GB is kinda overkill, IMHO.