256 & 128 meg

I have a Dell Dimension L600r that came with 128 meg of memory,there are 2 dimm sockets and 1 was empty and i assumed if i put 256 in the other socket i would get a grand total of 384 meg of memory....i used what Dell recommended for upgrade ,sdram pc133,256 meg,..i didnt buy it from Dell,i couldnt see spending 89.00 dollars,i bought the ram from newegg (mushkin).
i installed the memory and the computer booted up fine,but i am only showing 256 ram,its like its now not seeing the original 128 and is only seeing the new 256.....do these need to be installed in pairs with the same memory size?

 

I looked at the original 128 stick of memory,is made by samsung and is a pc100,thats probably the problem?....why does dell say to use pc133?....thx in advance
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/memconfigproductlisting.aspx?icompatid=68198&c=us&l=en&cs=19

 

first of all, if you run pc133 with pc100, the 133 will run at 100 speeds. (stupid dell......) Im not sure why the memory is registering as only 256 but maybe resetting (pull 'em out, stick 'em back in, maybe switch slots) BOTH ram sticks could help. Hope it helps

 

I pulled both sticks out and swopped em,same thing,still reading 256,shut the computer back off,and pulled just the 128 stick out and left the 256 in,powered back up and bios is registering 128........could the memory from newegg been packaged wrong?

 

Its not uncommon to have 2 sticks of memory that just won't work with each other. Especially when you mix bus speeds.

 

also check is the 256 meg stick double sided? some older pc's can only read single sided

 

I think ibonkers is on to something, it's very common issue.

It's very unlikely Newegg gave you a 128 stick, you should be able to tell by looking at the stick of memory

 

Yes,the original 128 stick is double sided(im assuming your talking about the pin contact area) and the dimm sockets have contact pins on both sides.the new stick of 256 is double sided as well

 

So what?

The reason Dell suggest PC133 is that it's easier to get, backwards compatible, and usually cheaper or the same price, so it's a better buy.


As far as double-sided, it has banks of memory chips on both sides of the stick.

 

yep.....the original 128 stick has 8 memory modules only on one side,the 256 that im trying to install has memory modules on bothe sides.....8 on each side....i,m going to call newegg this a.m. to see if they will take it back,and to see if they offer a 256 that is single sided.............Thank you for the help.

 

I installed this stick of 256 mem (single sided)and this Dell wouldnt even boot up
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146302

Muskin was pretty sure it would work.....Im at a loss,......maybe i need to stay with the exact specs of the oem 128 meg......Samsung,pc100-322-620,part number M366S1723ATS-C1L...
http://www.samsung.com/Products/Sem...ch.aspx?partnum=m366s1723ats&cd1=c1l&x=10&y=7

any help would be much appreciated..thx
im looking for 256 of the samsung type

 

Try taking your old stick out and not using it, and using two new sticks.

You will have to play around with the combination.

It's not unusual for this to happen, especially on older motherboards.

 

yeah,i tried booting up while leaving the 128 on board it seemed to be booting up but the monitor wouldnt display anything....so i pulled the 128 and it wouldnt bootup at all,the computer would just beep.....i tried the other slot and no go
what im trying to get to work is Mushkin brand 256mb pc133 - 32 by 8..
I was looking at the oem samsung website....i just dont think i got the right kind of memory.....
http://www.samsung.com/Products/Sem...ch.aspx?partnum=m366s1723ats&cd1=c1l&x=10&y=7

here are the specs for my computer...
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dmum/specs.htm#memory