Problem adding new memory

[Guest]

I bought 256MB of new memory for my Gateway PIII-500 but am having some wierd problems and was hoping someone could help me out.

Original memory: 1 128MB module - PC-100 by Micron
New memory 2 128MB modules - PC-100 by MTech
Problem:

With all 3 modules in (any order) I get memory errors from not booting to just not running all apps. When I did get it to boot I ran Symantec's HW diag and it reports errors at 264110080.

With 1 old and 1 new module in (in any order) the machines works fine, no errors with Symantec, just normal. This applies no matter what order I have the memory in the 3 memory slots.

With 2 new modules in the machine works fine as long as the modules are in slot 0 and 1 on the motherboard. If I put one module in slot 2 and the other in either 1 or 2 the machine fails to boot.

With 1 module in any slot the machine works fine. It can be any one of the 3 modules.

So what I know so far is that all the modules are ok, the slots seem to be ok, but certain combos of the memory fail. I checked the Motherboard reference at gateway and I've met all the requirements for what type of memory and being able to mix memory types so I'm a little stuck.

Motherboard reference is at http://www.gateway.com/support/techdocs/references/motherboard/4w4sb0x0/4w4sb0x0.shtml

Can anyone offer any suggestions on this or am I stuck using 256MB of RAM?

 

[Grizely1]

Just use the 256, the extra 128 wont help in most games anyways. sell the extra stick, get some $$$

 

[mpjesse]

Sounds like your third DIMM slot is bad holmes. If all three work fine in slots 0,1 then the memory is good. I'm almost sure that it's the 3rd DIMM slot. Blow some air in it to get any dust out. I've had that happen before.

-MP Jesse

 

[Guest]

ok, will try blowing air in to clean it out, but I don't think it's the 3rd slot because if I use just 1 memory module I can use it in the 3rd slot just fine.

Originally, I also suspected the 3rd slot but conflicting tests with the different configs made me think that's not the key to this problem.
Thanks for the suggestion though.

-Sanjay

 

[Guest]

Send me one of your 128Mb sticks ... and I'll test it for a couple of months

 

[jeffg007]

Do you have the lastest bios? Never know it could help.

Jeff

 

[mpjesse]

Don't listen to DiFf, that d00d is just trying to gank your memory. What you SHOULD do is send me that new 128meg PC133 DIMM and I'll send you my 128meg PC100 DIMM. =)

-MP Jesse

 

[ledzepp98]

i have the same problem, sort of... i have 3 128 meg sticks of micron pc133. with all 3 installed, norton gives me a memory error when doing the hardware diagnostic (i don't remember the exact error and i don't want to try it now for reasons that will be evident further in my explaination). all 3 work and all 3 dimm slots are good (i can use any 2 sticks in any combination of slots, i.e. 0,1 0,3 1,2 2,3 etc...). if i run the norton diagnostic (and it always comes up with an error), i always end up getting a memory error at some point when running a memory intensive program. however, if i don't run the diagnostic, i don't seem to get any memory related errors. to test this i ran some memory intensive apps, namely quake3, 3dmark2000, the sandra memory benchmarks, and, probably the hardest test, using photoshop 6.0 and increasing the size of an image to over 400megs which ends up using all the available ram. none of those tests produce a memory error. now the only errors i deal with are the once in a while winME bullsh!t (probably because i am too lazy at the moment to do a clean install).

 

[Guest]

I wish the problem only occured when I ran the diags. But alas, the problem occurs all the time. I have come to the conclusion that there maybe some strange incompatibilities with the 2 128MB modules and I will test this out by trying some higher quality modules. I will update this post once I know more.

 

[Guest]

Some Motherboard only support 2 Double sided SDRAMs ( 4 Rows ) if you want to have 3 SDRAMs, then you gotta get 3 Single Sided SDRAMs. And some motherboard dont like Single Sided Dimms (128 Mbits per Chips). Check thru your motherboard menu.

 

[Guest]

Actually it sounds like one of your DIMMs are bad, try switching the memory into different slots, if errors continue the motherboard is bad and you wil have to call Gateway, if there are no errors it is one of your memory sticks.

Jason D. Gilmore
Gilmore Unlimited
209-385-3850
jason@gilmoreunlimited.com
http://www.gilmoreunlimited.com