RAM question

Gurrg · Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2002 8:15 pm Post subject: RAM question

alright, after talking to nipples and asking him thousands of questions i bought summo RAM.here is the story.

I went to the comp. store (staples) and i bought two 256 RAM chips, doing the math is 512, i get home, install the chips and i check to make sure i have the correct amount and it says that i only have 256 RAM installed. So can my computer not handle it? Windows 98, Pentium II processor, or did they lie to me? It clearly says on the package "256RAM SDRAM PC133"

Any ideas?
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Bright Red Nipples · Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2002 8:45 pm Post subject:

Did you take one of the RAM withy you like I recommended?? Your machine may not be compatible for PC133. It should say on your existing Ram chip what type it is. I also may be way off on this. Make sure that they are both securely installed. One of them may not be down all the way.
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SpeCies · Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2002 8:57 pm Post subject:

As BRN said, makesure that both chips are tightly secured into place. Reset your Bios to it's factory settings. Verify both of your chips work. That is about it. I would first makesure your Bios is reset due to Shadowing and other setting may cause it not to read correctly.
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thewz · Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2002 9:39 pm Post subject:

Almost the exact same thing happened to me. It's probably not the ram but the motherboard. Some of the older motherboards (and since you are running a pentium 2, we can assume that it's quite old) can not handle large sticks of ram. I bought a stick of 512 megabyte pc133, but my ghetto 440bx chipset only read it has 256 megabytes. If you bought 2 256 sticks of ram, it's most likely that your motherboard can not handle more than 128 megabytes per stick.

If that's the case you might as well return the ram and get 2 or 3 (or however many slots your mobo has) sticks of 128 mb pc133.

Hope that helps
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DukeNukem · Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2002 5:42 pm Post subject:

B4 you do that tell us what motherboard you have - that will help a lot.
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Gurrg · Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2002 7:54 pm Post subject:

I don't know the motherboard, i haven't messed with anything except the RAM, on my old chips it says
PC100-322-620

so, that may be the problem, and they are in tightly, the white clips are both on. so.... how do you find the motherboard name (my comp is getting new and needs a major upgrade)
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thewz · Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2002 8:06 pm Post subject:

To find out your motherboard go to this site:

http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/

Go to the downloads section and download Sandra 2002. After you install it, open the program and in the gui you should see a button that says "mainboard information" or something to that extent. It will tell you your motherboard model, chipset information bios version etc..

Another way to find out what motherboard you have is by opening your case and looking at your chipset. It should have your chipset information printed on it.

Or you could just look at the cover of your motherboard manual.

(assuming that you have one)
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Bright Red Nipples · Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2002 8:54 pm Post subject:

You may need to take bake the PC133 and exchange it for PC100. Some of the older MB may not be able to take the PC133.
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thewz · Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2002 9:21 pm Post subject:

BRN from what I understand, if the motherboard does not support pc133, the ram will revert to pc100 mode. (but it would be 5-10 bucks cheaper to just get pc100 ram if that's the case) Correct me if I'm wrong, but pc133 is only useful if you are getting fsb speeds of over 100 mhz, unless you got really good pc100 ram that overclocks well. Seeing how Pentium 2 processors usually operate at either 66 or 100 mhz bus speeds, pc133 ram would be useless.

I'm not sure if I'm right about that though, I'm no computer expert.

MunkeyEye · Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2002 9:37 pm Post subject:

here's a quick link to see what sort of ram (PC133 in this case) would be compatible with your FSB.

simple RAM FAQ

Bright Red Nipples · Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2002 11:29 pm Post subject:

I had a friend that ran into the same situation. He went back and got PC100 and everything worked, that's why I was suggesting that.

Bada Bing · Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2002 1:55 pm Post subject:

Go to belarc.com and download Advisor.
ALSO RTFM for the PC it will tell you what size and type RAM you can use. Most P2 systems can only handle PC66 or PC100 and you cannot mix them.
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JuVaNiLe · Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2002 5:29 pm Post subject:

is it normal to have 127 ram