2nd RAM not detected

[jyo_ps]

i bought a new 128 MB DDR RAM to upgrade my 3 year old P4 1.6 MHz 128 MB DDR..intel 845 BG motherboard. which has 2 slots for RAM (one was not occupied for 3 years). I installed it in the slot and it worked fine for a day ( 256 MB detected ) then suddenly BIOS came on when i switched on the comp and then only 128 MB was shown as installed and the second memory bank was shown as not installed..i tried all possible permutations of putting old ram in unused slot and new ram in used slot, putting only one RAM at a time etc etc..tried cleaning slots..etc ?

can anyone help me out ...plz

what can be the problem ..is it hardware conflict because there is a 3 year age difference b/w the RAMs

[bigbazza]

Had a similar problem with a friends old pc. They bought a 256mb stick and put it in the second slot. It would register in the RAM check on bootup but not otherwise. It would not register at all in the first slot.
Try Everest Home Edition. www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181 for all the details of RAM inside your PC, particularly your original 128mb stick. Your new RAM may be defective, or not compatible with the original 128mb stick

When you run EVEREST, Click on "Computer" icon, then on "Summary", then on "Report" (at top menu), then on "Quick Report Summary", down to "Plain text". Save it to a file, as whatever name you like, (maybe PCddmmyy--with ddmmyy being the current date). Then it can be posted for all to see.
Bazza

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Originally Posted by jyo_ps

i bought a new 128 MB DDR RAM to upgrade my 3 year old P4 1.6 MHz 128 MB DDR..intel 845 BG motherboard. which has 2 slots for RAM (one was not occupied for 3 years). I installed it in the slot and it worked fine for a day ( 256 MB detected ) then suddenly BIOS came on when i switched on the comp and then only 128 MB was shown as installed and the second memory bank was shown as not installed..i tried all possible permutations of putting old ram in unused slot and new ram in used slot, putting only one RAM at a time etc etc..tried cleaning slots..etc ?

can anyone help me out ...plz

what can be the problem ..is it hardware conflict because there is a 3 year age difference b/w the RAMs

[Ayanla]

Well according to your motherboard manual, found online here: http://premioinc.com/pc/manuals/mb/845BG/845bg.pdf , the ram it supports is:

DDR 200 or DDR 266, which is in the PC2100 range if I recall correctly. My guess is you went with something faster and your mobo isn't liking it.

[Bambo]

May be those 2 modules dont like each other that much, as in they will never work on same computer, but it will not help if you have timings set to Auto/SPD. If modules are not identical then which will decide what timing will be active and will no. 2 agree? So try force timing, one that will work for both modules.

Why it worked at first I dont know - but the timing thing definitely can give these problems and as Ayanla said they probably dont share preferences/pre-programmed timings which bios reads when set to Auto/SPD.

See manual 4.2.1 Chose "User defined" and see what is in there.

[jyo_ps]

ayanla
the new ram i bought is DDR 266..i dont know about the old one

Bambo
how do i force timing ? i dont have any idea

[Bambo]

Well look in manual and see what is in that "User" menu

User Defined allows setting memory control and video memory cache mode. If selected here, will also display in the Advanced Menu as: “Extended Menu: Used.”

You dont necessarily have to force anything but should confirm those 2 modules both can work at active timing - which will be set by bios/you. Normally Auto/SPD is safest cause matches what ram is rated to but bios can only read from 1 module, the first detected probably. So if module no. 2 requires other timing there will be problems. Can show itself as a module not detected. Can also be the case if modules use same timings but have incompatible chips, cant combine just any ram. Can be tricky and hard to diagnose. Same with voltage, 1 module may be runs best at 2.5v and the other 2.7 - doubt that will be problem but possible.

Might be a good ide to use Memtest86 - very easy but much to say about it http://www.houseofhelp.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=38201 all you have to do is make a bootfloppy or cd following instructions. Boot from floppy and it will autostart. Then you should see timings on screen and at least know what is active should bios be lacking information. I dont know what is in there, may be you cant change much. If something is very wrong (many ram-errors) you should not boot OS. There should not be any errors at all. When/if you get the 2 modules to work let Memtest86 run for some hours.

Just looking at modules should give some info on timings, brand. May be even recommended voltage is mentioned.

[hugh750]

Originally Posted by Bambo

Well look in manual and see what is in that "User" menu

User Defined allows setting memory control and video memory cache mode. If selected here, will also display in the Advanced Menu as: “Extended Menu: Used.”

You dont necessarily have to force anything but should confirm those 2 modules both can work at active timing - which will be set by bios/you. Normally Auto/SPD is safest cause matches what ram is rated to but bios can only read from 1 module, the first detected probably. So if module no. 2 requires other timing there will be problems. Can show itself as a module not detected. Can also be the case if modules use same timings but have incompatible chips, cant combine just any ram. Can be tricky and hard to diagnose. Same with voltage, 1 module may be runs best at 2.5v and the other 2.7 - doubt that will be problem but possible.

Might be a good ide to use Memtest86 - very easy but much to say about it http://www.houseofhelp.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=38201 all you have to do is make a bootfloppy or cd following instructions. Boot from floppy and it will autostart. Then you should see timings on screen and at least know what is active should bios be lacking information. I dont know what is in there, may be you cant change much. If something is very wrong (many ram-errors) you should not boot OS. There should not be any errors at all. When/if you get the 2 modules to work let Memtest86 run for some hours.

Just looking at modules should give some info on timings, brand. May be even recommended voltage is mentioned.

Thank you for mentioning memtest86 otherwise i wouldn't found out that one of my memory sticks was bad, now i only have one in my machine 512 megs and it seems to be running faster!
Even gta san andreas seems to be runnging better as well, i was getting some weird errors and lockups lately anyways, a bad memory stick may have been the reason.

[bigbazza]

There is now memtest86+ available from http://www.memtest.org/ if anyone is interested. including USB stick and floppy versions. Bazza

[jyo_ps]

Bambo , if it is a question of mismatch of RAM timing then what will be the solution will i to ditch one RAM ?

[Bambo]

Yes, you will need to make Memtest86 happy through bios changes if those 2 modules wont work together out of the box. Just making them boot would be nice but remember to test as well. I have killed OS registry files a few times thanks to stupid bios and myself - there were no problems booting...

May be also an idea to clear cmos if bios editing dont help - sometimes bios needs that. Look it manual for how it is done. When you do that all values, including your edits, will be cleared and you have to re-edit everything. Best to load "optimized defaults" or simular - then take it from there, go through/check all settings.