Hardware guys - Memory issue- Any help?

[sarettah]

Ok, I am trying to take my wife's desktop up from 1GB to 2GB of RAM.

Its a Gateway GT4024 Media Center (XP Media Center)

It has 2 DDR2 PC24200 512Mb chips in it.

I bought 2 PNY DDR2 PC25300 1 Gb chips for it.

I put them in and nothing, won't even get to the point of talking to the screen. If I pull one chip out I get a diagnostic that is the same as it does if no memory is in there.

I checked and everything I read says I should be able to replace the 4200s with 5300s no problem.

I checked the specs and it says that it will handle the 2 gbs.

I scanned the box at crucial.com and the "Guaranteed Compatibility Upgrade" wa the PC25300 chips.

Each of the new chips was in it's own package so I would think it unlikely that both chips are bad. I don't have another box here that they will work with so I can't just drop them into another box to see if they are definitely good or not.

Any suggestions or ideas as to what might be going on here?

Thanks in advance


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[EddyTheDog]

http://www.offtek.co.uk/ram-memory-2...24gz/mid147219

This is the machine you are talking about I think - Have look around the site - I often find they can help when I have problems with memory.

[sarettah]

http://www.offtek.co.uk/ram-memory-2...24gz/mid147219

This is the machine you are talking about I think - Have look around the site - I often find they can help when I have problems with memory.

Thanks, but nope, thats not the machine I am talking about. Your link went to a laptop, this is a GT4024 Desktop (I forgot to mention the desktop part of it originally, sorry about that).

This is the link to the crucial.com reccomendation http://www.crucial.com/store/listpar...Center&Cat=RAM

And this is the link to the gateway specs http://support.gateway.com/s/PC/R/10...09052sp2.shtml

But thanks for looking around for me.


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[ner0]

Does it work with 1 of your old ram sticks + 1 of the new sticks?

[sarettah]

Does it work with 1 of your old ram sticks + 1 of the new sticks?

Nope. I tried.

It works fine with both of the originals, works fine with 1 of the originals

If I put in 1 of the originals and 1 of the new chips it goes further than with both new chips but just shows a garbled screen, does NOT actuallt get to booting.

I have tried each of the new chips alone too with no luck.

Thanx


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[bronco67]

Are we back in 1999? 1GB of RAM?

Even 2 isn't enough to run Windows.

[sarettah]

Are we back in 1999? 1GB of RAM?

Even 2 isn't enough to run Windows.

Well, I don't know what to tell you about that cause the box has been running fine for 5 or 6 years now. I was just trying to speed up a couple of things for her.

I usually run computers till they die. Have 6 computers up and running in the house right now, oldest is a Pentium 4 600mhz that I use as a file server, it's been running for 11 years now. I think I might have a gig of ram in that one.

Newest is my laptop, which is about a year old now, running win7 64 on 8 gigs.

My wife is comfortable with her desktop and it does everything she needs it to. We will upgrade her to a better box when the one she uses doesn't do what she wants it to.

She also has a very nice laptop that is win7 64 on 8 gigs of ram, similar to mine, actually nicer but a touch older. That is the one she uses for surfing and shit.

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[ner0]

Only thing I can think of is if your new memory requires higher voltage than your older sticks. Or the motherboard does not like that model of memory, make sure to get the exact model #s listed in the board memory compatibility guide. Or the sticks are faulty.

[videobunch]

Machine takes PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM DIMMs, Not 5300. Some machines cannot clock themselves down so timing issue or the machine is just picky. Try right speed and make sure it is name brand mem is my suggestion.

[cess]

Or the motherboard does not like that model of memory, make sure to get the exact model #s listed in the board memory compatibility guide. Or the sticks are faulty.

Yep the new memory probably isn't compatible, even if you buy the right kind it doesn't always work. Ram also goes bad quite often, could be bad sticks. If crucial has some that they guarantee works with the system then buy from them.

[Darkhorse]

Machine takes PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM DIMMs, Not 5300. Some machines cannot clock themselves down so timing issue or the machine is just picky. Try right speed and make sure it is name brand mem is my suggestion.

It will run anything up to 667MHZ. It should run them fine. Do you have any options of changing the memory timings/speed in the Bios? I doubt that mobo would but worth a shot.

[videobunch]

It is the bus speed of the CPU, it is best to match that with the ram and nothing that can be changed in the bios. Swap the mem for dif manufacturer first, then go to proper speed. You will not get the advantages of the 667MHZ since the cpu is not running at that anyhow. Some machines are just picky. Use like Kingston or Corsair memory as they seem to have the least issues.

It will run anything up to 667MHZ. It should run them fine. Do you have any options of changing the memory timings/speed in the Bios? I doubt that mobo would but worth a shot.

[sarettah]

Yep the new memory probably isn't compatible, even if you buy the right kind it doesn't always work. Ram also goes bad quite often, could be bad sticks. If crucial has some that they guarantee works with the system then buy from them.

I ordered a couple of sticks from crucial last night.

It will run anything up to 667MHZ. It should run them fine. Do you have any options of changing the memory timings/speed in the Bios? I doubt that mobo would but worth a shot.

Nah, no settings in the BIOS unfortunately.

I tried both of the new sticks in a box here at the office this morning, replacing 4200s with the 5300s and they worked fine so the sticks are good.

Has to be a compatibility issue somewhere, remonds me of the old days when you had to pay attention to the memory parity shit...lol.

So, I will wait for the sticks from crucial to get here (they are 5300s too) and see if they work, if not I will return them and drop down to 4200s.

Thanks for all the input.


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