ram problem

[ike2187]

I recently bought a 512 stick of ram off newegg and when I installed it booted up my comp I would just get a blank screen. Which I know it means it could be installed improperly or its the wrong ram. The thing is its the same type of ram thats already installed in my computer which is another 512mb stick.

My computer is a compaq (I know bad choice) and i did some reseach on it. Found out the mobo is a ASUS (K8N8X-LA PES) and it takes Two x 512 MB DDR-DIMMS, 1024 MB total (1 GB). link http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?cc=us&docname=c00064822&lc=en

The ram that I bought is gigaram 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM. Link http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820221005

So this really annoyed me I downloaded cpuz to see what ram i was already running. Which was Samsung DDR-SDRAM PC3200 - 512 MBytes.
The max ram my mobo can take is 1GB.

So I thought if I updated the BIOS and chipset drivers it could work which it didnt. Also I looked around and read that compaq's mobos are picky with ram which could be the reason and there bios sucks since there bascially isnt one. So I know I could just return this ram but first I want to find out why it isnt working in the first place. Or I was wondering if I could just spend 50 dollars a new mobo and if the memory would work since it isnt running on a compaq mobo or bios. So thanks in advance and sry if this is a bit lengthy.

 

[Crashman]

Yes, it's a compaq/HP problem, very common across MOST models.

You do have a good option: Go to www.crucial.com and use their memory selector to find guaranteed compatable RAM.

 

[ike2187]

I looked on that site and a 512mb stick is 65 dollars which is quite expensive compared to other products. But if I didnt want to buy that but buy a new mobo, would that solve the problem of the ram not working? Since it would be running on a differnt bios and itsnt a compaq mobo. Since i dont feel like going through the hassel of sending back that ram since it would cost me over 20 dollars for the restocking fee and shipping. So im just wondering if I could go in that direction.

 

[Crashman]

Crucial sells RAM that guaranteed compatible with your system. Other systems, ones that don't have compatibility problems as such, can use the same module.

For example, if you buy RAM guaranteed compatible with the HP version of the Asus board, it works. And if you decide later to put it in a retail Asus board (or Abit, Epox, etc), it will work in that board too.

You should return the RAM and demand no-restocking fee because it's not compatible with your motherboard. Rather than say it's not compatible, just tell them the problem you had, ie, "I plugged it in and the system wouldn't boot, so I plugged in a different module and it booted fine"

 

[ike2187]

I know that the crucial ram would work in other systems too but the question I was asking was would the gigram that I have right now would work if I were to buy a new mobo for my computer. And buying a new mobo won't be just for the ram but for a more advanced bios. Since I may overclock my computer in the future and my current bios doesnt allow me to. So just please tell me if a new mobo for my currnet compaq computer would solve the problem.

 

[Crashman]

I don't know much about GigaRam or how good it is.

 

[CommodoreRed]

I know for a fact gigaram has had some campatibility issues with ASUS cards. Also gigaram may be well priced but also is pretty new and has compaibility issues with many mobos, unlike more commen and always quality Corsair and OCZ. Read some reviews about gigaram may see people having similar problems due to non support of board. Personally I'd get different RAM, im not a saltin of knowledge when comes to RAM but know brands, not sure I'd trust giga yet. Not that its bad RAM, just with compat. issues.

(need to see boards and support RAM too make sure)

 

[ike2187]

yea I looked around and what a saw from the little posts about gigaram was that they would not run on defualt timmings or were faulty or wouldnt run at all. Most of them were on different mobos so I don't think im going to take the chance with that and so im going to rma it.