Ram Question

I want to add a stick of ram (256mb) to a pc. How do I know if it's compatible, or does it even matter?

 

It matters a lot. Can you list the brand and motherboard of the PC in question? There are several types of RAM, they are not interchangeable, and some motherboards can only use so much RAM.

 

what kinda computer is it.you can call a staples or some other place that deals with computers they might be able to help you on figureing out how much it can handle.

 

What Fred said. If you have no idea what you have in the computer. Turn it off, take out the old memory, and compare it to the 256MB you want to put in there. They need to be the exact same size and shape, with the little gap in the exact same location. Compare the numbers on them as well, the PC-number and the CL-number among others.

If you have any questions about them, just post back here.

 

Or go to crucial.com and using their adviser, have them recommend something for you. At least you'll find out quickly what you need without cracking the case open.

 

In addition to the previously supplied advice:

If you are running that PC or laptop on the net, head over to:

crucial.com

and use the automatic detection option. It's the easiest way I know to find out what type of memory your computer uses.

Each type of memory has notches in different places along the modules length, and different numbers of contacts, or pins. Also, desktop and laptop memory modules are radically different in appearance. DIMMs for desktops are long, moderately slender rectangles, and SODIMMs for laptops are small and rectangular.

If you should choose to remove any components for inspection, make sure you ground yourself to a bare metal part of the case, or something else that leads to ground in the house to discharge any static electricity in your body (or wear an anti-static wrist strap) and power down the PC or laptop and unplug it/pull the battery before removing the any cover.

 

crucial.com worked perfect...Thanks again for all the help