Installing heatsink/fan combo over CPU

Hi Fred,

The two pairs of twin sticks of RAM are not the same. They no longer make the Kingston 512Mb RAM that I originally purchased. I went to Crucial and ran their diagnostic test. I didn't buy the RAM that the test recommended but I wrote an email to Crucial and gave them the info about my mobo, CPU, RAM and hard drive. I told them that I wanted to purchase 2 twin sticks of 1G RAM each. They recommended Ballistix 184-pin DIMM PC3200 DDR SDRAM and I bought it. The specs can be seen at:

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=E1BEAD7BA5CA7304

I had the 512Mb of RAM in slots 1 and 2. I moved one stick of 512Mb RAM to slot 3 and inserted one 1G RAM in slot 2 and one 1G RAM in slot 4.

The slots for RAM in my mobo are color-coded. Slots 1 and 3 are yellow and slots 2 and 4 are green (or the colors are the other way around).

I'll change the slots that the RAM are in when I'm ready to shut down tomorrow and I'll let you know how it went. My mobo supports 4Gb of RAM.



The specs on my mobo says:

I believe my CPU is dual core, but I'm probably wrong. For all that I've learned, sometimes the words trip me up. The info on it is:

Denise

 

Hi Fred, I assume your motherboard supports sata 11 (3gbs) ? - If not, I am not sure that you would notice any difference, so, I will be interested in the findings.
Denise,
Your internal Hard Drive , as you say is Sata, - I cannot remember you fitting an IDE/SATA converter to it .
So, unless I have Alzeimers, I seem to remember you fitting the sata drive as normal, with sata cable ? - then putting in the XP cd, and the talk at the time was that I remember saying you can install without the sata floppy driver very often, as XP will allot its own ?
My point is that I have discovered that your motherboard will see it as IDE, if the motherboard sata driver is omitted, and this is where the full potential of sata is not used (albeit, not much )
Have a look in your Bios, and see if the Internal Hard Drive is on IDE, but connected by a sata data cable, in the computer - I am sure it is.
My other point was that if seagate have a sata controller driver, it may allow it to work, if the one that came with the sata controller is not seagate's.

 

Hey DeniseM, you just made post #666 on your computer Damion...

Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 666


I could not find your exact CPU on the 'Egg, but I think that is a single core. I was trying to think of the term Dual Channel as far as your memory. What are the specs of your original RAM? And see how the computer runs with just 2 sticks of RAM installed.

E

 

LOL Fred . . . Damien is about to get the :crap kicked out of him, so he better straighten up. But in his defense, I have to say that he's changed a lot and is learning the rules.

Last night, I switched the sticks of RAM around so that a stick of 1G of RAM each is in slots 1 and 3 and a stick of 518Mb of RAM each is in slots 2 and 4. I haven't seen an improvement in speed. I'll remove the 2 sticks of 512Mb RAM later and see if it makes a difference. I'll first leave the 1G of RAM is slots 1 and 3 and then I'll change it to slots 1 and 2 to see if that makes a difference too.

These are the specs that I have on the original 512Mb of RAM:

And these are the specs on the new 2G of RAM:

This is the only info that I have on them. It seems that they stopped making the parts for my pc after I bought the kit.

 

I didn't fit an IDE/SATA converter to the hard drive. I first used the SATA cable that came with the motherboard to connect the hard drive to it but it wouldn't post. I'll have to look back through this thread to see why the SATA cable wouldn't work. It was agreed though, that I needed to use an IDE cable.

I remember wanting a floppy drive. Sometimes I didn't understand the reasoning behind doing some of the things we did so I just went with the flow. If you said that XP would allot its own driver, I figured it would and didn't pursue the matter further. So it may be that XP alloted it's own driver but I couldn't tell you for sure.

I thought this at the time also but since the SATA cable that came with the motherboard didn't work and we all agreed that it needs an IDE cable (with no adapter), it's what I did.

I'll check out BIOS to see and let you know later. I'm converting some files right now and it'll be about 5 hours before the program finishes.

I don't understand this.

Meanwhile, I'm going to go back and check all the posts to this thread and find the info about the SATA and IDE cables and I'll post the post numbers in another post. It'll probably take me about 5 hours to find it anyway, lol.

Denise

 

Ok, my memory is terrible . . . too bad I can't insert a few more RAM sticks into my brain.

The SATA cable connects the hard drive to the motherboard.

The problem that I had was that the BenQ needed an IDE cable. I had it connected using a SATA cable and had to buy an IDE cable for it.

About the drivers, I found some discussions about them starting in posts number #103, on 2/12/07ASUS said:

My motherboard came with a disk which I installed. After I installed everything, I went into Device Manager and clicked on each component and then clicked on “search for updated drivers.” Every result said that I have the most up-to-date drivers.



In post #107, on 2/13/07, baklogic said:

In post #109, on 2/13/07, baklogic said:

The above instructions is what I did. I copied them into a Word doc and printed it out before I disconnected my old pc and hooked up the new one.

Is this the information you were looking for baklogic?

Denise

 

Yes, I am glad alzheimers hasn't got me , yet.rolleyes :tas
If you get a chance , go into Bios, and see if it shows drive o as IDE.- I would like to know, if you don't mind- for posterity, or just personal comfirmation.
With your memory, as Fred has sorted on the Ram, - just a little extra - If you try Igb in slot1, and 512 in slot 3, and 1gb, in slot 2 , 512 in slot 4, you should find you get the full 3gb performance, at dual channel. :grouphug
Check if , in the bios, it is showing all 4 sticks, and ratings (1gb, 512), :highfive
Although different brands can work against each other, your timings appear the same, so that should be o.k
It will be worth checking the motherboard manufacturers compatabilty list, if you have problems.:guns

 

I checked BIOS and CMOS but I didn't see anything that lists the RAM that's installed.

In BIOS, it says

"OS Select For DRAM >64MB [Non-OS2]"


in CMOS, it says

"Base Memory 640K
Extended Memory 3078144K"



Denise

 

I read back, and realised you had been on to crucial, so no problem with ram compatability.
If you have Everest , you can check what it shows in there, for the ram, whichever way you install it.

 

In case you never had Everest.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

 

This is what EverestHome found as my memory:

I also ran a benchmark test but the report was too big to attach.

 

I would reduce the virtual memory , to 512, and see how much better it performs.(Start, right click My Computer, click properties, visual effects, settings (performance options, advanced, virtual memory, change, set min tto 256, max to 512)It is just as easy to change it back.
Virtual memory uses the hard disk, and is much slower than the Ram. At the moment it is using more of you hard disk, than the installed ram.