(Question) RAM placement of same type and speed?

[kheckler]

I upgraded my system today from 4gb of RAM to 8gb. The modules are identical with the exception of the casing (new look, same specs). I tried putting the new memory in the last 2 slots (4 total) and BIOS wouldn't post. I then used just the new sticks in the first 2 slots and it worked. Then I put the old sticks back in but put them int he last 2 slots (keeping the new ones in the front). This worked too.

My question is, why would the placement of the new memory matter if everything is the same? I was informed that faster memory needs to be in the front but all of the sticks are the same so that wouldn't be the case.

Thanks in advance for any answers. I like to understand new issues for future building.

 

[itzdanielp]

It shouldn't make any difference, maybe it was not necessarily the switching of the location as much as it was the reseating of all DIMMS.

A lot of times if you are having RAM issues, simply unplugging and replugging all the chips back into the MB will clear up issues. That is probably what happened.

 

[Raiddinn]

RAM is a finicky thing. If you don't push it all the way in it definitely won't work, but a lot of times it won't work even if you do push it all the way in.

I recently upgraded an old computer in our house from 1x 2GB to 2x 2GB. The sticks were the exact same part number coming from the factory. Everything except the serial number was the exact same including the look.

Anyway, long story short it didn't work. For 7 hours it didn't work. That is how long I spent messing around with it only to have it keep turning off and turning back on and turning back off and turning back on.

I reseated the RAM a dozen times, tried different orders, nothing mattered. Using either stick I could boot, but no combination of 2 would boot until about the 4th time I took the battery out to reset the BIOS.

Eventually the computer finally recognized the other stick at the same time and now its working like nothing was ever wrong with it.

That is just what it is like to work with RAM a lot of times, and that is with the closest thing to the exact same part you can get without having the RAM come from the same physical package. I would almost guarantee they were even bought from the manufacturer in the same order from the store.

Anyway, RAM is one of those things you just keep working at and working at. When you reset the BIOS enough times generally it picks it up.

There is no good explanation for the behavior that I can see. Obviously, if it is not all the way in then there is a clear explanation, but for many of the cases you do everything right and it still doesn't work for a while.

 

[dayto11]

i think this may be why asus made memok