Memory Issue

[emeraldplectrum]

I have an old Dell Dimension 2400. The mobo P/N is 411726100004 and the model number is E139765. It had 256 MB of PC2700 333MHz RAM when I acquired it. I researched on crucial.com what it could take for RAM, a max of 2 GB (2x1 GB). Crucial also said that PC3200 400 MHz would be compatible as it is backwards compatible and my mobo can mix different types of RAM, even densities. I found some PC3200 on eBay for cheap (perhaps my first mistake) as a friend of mine told me RAM is RAM, no need to overspend. I got the RAM, unplugged my PC and its monitor, mouse, etc. replace my old RAM and started plugging stuff back in. As soon as I plugged in the power cord, the PC turned on, then shut off, then turned back on and stayed on, but didn't boot. My screen stayed black. Put the old RAM back in and it works. At first, you would say, faulty RAM. I tried a gigstick in each slot alone, switched them, everything, same results. However, if you leave the old RAM in and add a gigstick, the PC boots, beeps twice and says new RAM found (or something like that) and you go to BIOS and it says it's there, Windows recognizes it, everything says I have 1.25 GB of RAM. Now that's cool but not what I hoped to accomplish. Both gigsticks do work with the old RAM installed, but neither work on their own. Why? I'm waiting on tech support from the place I bought it, but I'm not holding my breath. Any ideas?

 

[wahjahka]

how old is that thing?

 

[emeraldplectrum]

I'm not sure, it was given to me full of spyware and viruses as well as many other woes (all taken care of now). The CPU is faster than my laptop so I thought with a RAM upgrade it would be fine for my music recording. My laptop handles it fine but it's a pain to haul it to my studio and set it up and haul it back and if my wife is using when I want to record...you get the idea.

I'd guess it's about four or five years old. I'm not looking to do a lot with it, just work. I don't need 2GB of RAM, but I bought it and it's supposed to work and I'm perplexed that it only works WITH the old RAM.

 

[emeraldplectrum]

Also, will running it with the 1 GB of PC3200 400MHz with the 256 MB of PC2700 333MHz hurt anything? BIOS says its clocking the RAM at 333MHz so I'm not overclocking the old RAM, but is it going to give me problems in the future?

 

[wahjahka]

Also, will running it with the 1 GB of PC3200 400MHz with the 256 MB of PC2700 333MHz hurt anything? BIOS says its clocking the RAM at 333MHz so I'm not overclocking the old RAM, but is it going to give me problems in the future?

Since there are 2 diffferent ram settings (333, 400) the 400 one should go down to the 333, if your ram is having problems all i can suggest is updating your bios, and downloading a program called memtest and scan for errors

heres a link for memtest:

http://www.memtest.org/

 

[wahjahka]

Since there are 2 diffferent ram settings (333, 400) the 400 one should go down to the 333, if your ram is having problems all i can suggest is updating your bios, and downloading a program called memtest and scan for errors

heres a link for memtest:

http://www.memtest.org/

aslo in order for both ram sticks to work they have to be the same, exactly the same or performance will suffer, your probably not getting as much out of the 1 gb of pc3200 due to the 256 mb of pc2700

 

[bobbknight]

Put the old stick in with one new stick and run cpuz and if you can give us screen shots of cpuz.

 

[emeraldplectrum]

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There's a couple of screenshots from cpu-z. Let me know if there's a different tab that would have more info for you to help me.

I tired to run Memtest and all it did was go tick tick tick tick and put a bunch of numbers on the screen that didn't mean anything to me. I don't know if that is what it's supposed to do but it didn't look like the screenshots on their website. I likely did something wrong so I'll start over and try again with that.

 

[emeraldplectrum]

oops forgot to delete the img in that url

 

[emeraldplectrum]

I downloaded a different memtest file, I must have gotten wrong one the first time. It ran fine and did the first pass and found no errors. I ran a different memory test and it lit up with red and a list of bad memory. It got 76% through and halted. I don't know, I guess that means I got me some bad RAM? It didn't really come out and say, "look pal, here's your issue..."

 

[wahjahka]

I downloaded a different memtest file, I must have gotten wrong one the first time. It ran fine and did the first pass and found no errors. I ran a different memory test and it lit up with red and a list of bad memory. It got 76% through and halted. I don't know, I guess that means I got me some bad RAM? It didn't really come out and say, "look pal, here's your issue..."

ha yea i know, if your convinced there is something wrong with your RAM thn i would rma it

 

[emeraldplectrum]

I just got an email back from them after threatening to dispute the transaction and they said their tech department said that RAM isn't compatible with my motherboard and offered to replace it with "branded" RAM which is more compatible, but twice the price. I know Kingston and Crucial are big names in the memory business but I don't understand why PC3200 with a brand name would be more compatible than generic RAM.

The also gave me the option for RMA, which I took.

Thank you guys for your help. Just one last thing. If I have to buy a brand name RAM, what do you suggest?

 

[wahjahka]

I just got an email back from them after threatening to dispute the transaction and they said their tech department said that RAM isn't compatible with my motherboard and offered to replace it with "branded" RAM which is more compatible, but twice the price. I know Kingston and Crucial are big names in the memory business but I don't understand why PC3200 with a brand name would be more compatible than generic RAM.

The also gave me the option for RMA, which I took.

Thank you guys for your help. Just one last thing. If I have to buy a brand name RAM, what do you suggest?

OCZ, Corsair. G-SKill, Cruscial