Adding memory pain

[Simcfc73]

Just bought 40 sticks of 512Mb to put 20 machines up to 1Gb and am having a mare.

All identical machines, first one I did has died and won't start anymore, second machine seems fine, third machine checks the memory and only finds half and so does windows. I run CPUz and it tells me there is 2 sticks of 512. Haven't taken a stick out yet to see if it goes down to 256Mb but the nice Crucial Memory tool told me these would work okay.

They are double sided which I know some MB's don't like.

Not looking forward to next week.

[kestrel1]

What type of RAM is it? What mobo is it going into & what is currently installed?
How many RAM slots on the mobo?
Do they need to be matched pairs?
Have you tried just installing one of the new sticks of RAM to see if the machine boots okay. If it does boot install one of the other new sticks. If it still works, you may need matched pairs.

[MyDejaVu]

there could be several factors, but probably your new ram is not compatible with the ones already installed, check for values , not only DDR speed, but CAS too,,, if you said you purchased 40 sticks to add to said 40 machines, what about matching old sticks only and new sticks only , I mean in 20 machines you can use 40 old sticks and then the other 20 machines use the 40 new sticks?

we have been having some trouble too when upgrading memory and sometimes it works well in some machines only, (even with same specs)

but I guess you have to try.

Regards

[srochford]

May not help, but are you sure the machines are identical? We have a large number of Elonex Prosentia 800 machines which look the same, have the same label on the motherboard but are actually different - most noticeable difference is that some have 100Mbit NIC and the others have 1Gbit NIC. the boot screen also shows that the BIOS is different.

[Simcfc73]

What type of RAM is it? What mobo is it going into & what is currently installed?
How many RAM slots on the mobo?
Do they need to be matched pairs?
Have you tried just installing one of the new sticks of RAM to see if the machine boots okay. If it does boot install one of the other new sticks. If it still works, you may need matched pairs.

Teach me, I should have opened the case and seen whats inside. Its got PC-2100 CL2 and I got PC3200 CL3.

The MB are GA-7VKMP, I hate Gigabyte boards and never buy them, I inherited these.

They are matching pairs and the two computers are identical in every way, MB and Bios match.

One thing that does happen is that when the computer does a memory check they both show 512 but in windows one shows 1Gb and the other only 512. Even more bizzare is CPUz shows both sticks in the one thats only showing half.

I need to do some testing when I get back to work on Monday.

[kestrel1]

I would go with MyDejaVu's suggestion of using the 40 new sticks in some machines & the old sticks in the others.
You should be able to use PC2100 & PC3200 together, but you may need to change the RAM timing in the BIOS, if you are able to change the settings on these boards. Only thing is the slowest RAM determines the speed, so using two new sticks would be best for half of your machines.

[Simcfc73]

So I got in this morning and I have sorted it.

I only did 3 machines to start with.

1st machines PSU failed.
2nd machine New Ram went in and worked fine.
3rd machine I put the Ram from the1st machine in which only showed half, tested and one stick was faulty.
4th machine reseated Ram and its fine.

So all this thread is pointless cos its all down to one stick failing.

I think I was remebering a time 4 or 5 years ago when I had to swap 30 pairs of Ram around because of the double sided issue.

[kestrel1]

Just remember you won't be getting the full benefit of PC3200 if you are mixing the two types. Probably won't make much difference though.

[Simcfc73]

Not mixing, all new RAM