Computer won't start after adding RAM

I do medical transcription from home and my boss says I need to upgrade my RAM. I currently have 756 or so and she wants 1 GB. I went to BestBuy to get a stick and when I put it in, the computer wouldn't start. :confused I took it out and it started just fine. I currently have three sticks in three slots and one empty slot, which is where I put it in. Any suggestions?

Computer is an HP Compaq dx2000 MT. I'm running Windows XP Pro with SP3 I think and I have about 7 GB of free space left. The RAM they gave me was 1GB of DDR2. The guy at BestBuy said my computer apparently can hold up to 4GB.

Thanks!

Tina

 

The first thing to do is try removing the first three sticks, and putting the ram in the first slot, then try starting the computer. Be sure to seat it tightly. Do you have two different colors of slot? If so you might need to have matching sticks. If so just remove the one lone stick, leave the other two and just install the 1GB stick. Then try, that should do the trick.

 

It did look like there were blue and then black slots, but it was hard to tell. If there were two colors, they were alternating. I'll try what you said and cross my fingers!

 

Just out of curiosity, Why does your boss say you need to upgrade your ram? Were you having some problems running the program you need to run?

 

lcsmith39: Because a Boss' job is to give orders, not to understand if the consequences make any difference. They just do what the memo's from above instruct them.

TinaS: Here's hoping it does the trick.

 

WOW,why you don't read the post.His comp is HP Compaq dx2000 MT,and this comp use ddr400 ram,BUT he have ddr2 ram.Either way someone is not telling the truth,cos ddr2 can't fit in ddr slot.

http://www.crucial.com/search/searchresults.aspx?keywords=Compaq dx2000

 

Whoa there! The dx2000 series takes DDR, just like Goran said. The guy at BestBuy gave you the wrong stuff. I'd take it back to him and demand a refund, he sold you incompatible parts.

Go by the link Goran posted instead. Crucial makes good stuff, back it with a lifetime warranty and free tech support, and purchasing from the url Goran posted will guarantee you that you get compatible parts that will work.

Also, they'll send you a packing list you can use to get reimbursed from your boss.

 

Precisely why I check things out myself before shopping. That way, there is nobody to blame but myself.( And I haven't had to yell at myself for a VERY long time)rolleyes :-D

 

I'm sorry I didn't see this until now. 7GB of free space is a scary small amount... you may want to head on over to the Software forum at some point and get some suggestions on clearing up space on your hard drive.Windows doesn't like too little space, and gets antsy and confused and loses files for you if it doesn't have enough leg room.

 

For cleaning the hdd space crap that you've been collected over the years,I would strongly recommend to download the famous CCleaner,and download Smart Defrag for defraging you comp and run faster after that.
http://majorgeeks.com/download4191.html (CCleaner)
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=5318 (Smart Defrag).

When you run CCleaner make sure that you run Registry cleaner,and delete everything.Don't worry cos CCleaner is evasive so it wont hurt the xp registry.

 

Since that machine came with a 40GB hard drive, it is not that unusual for someone to only have 7GB disk space. That means time to move some documents over to another drive, or the OP to upgrade to a larger drive. For the spec's. http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00068577/c00068577.pdf