Acer Veriton x270 - Boot Issues Following RAM Upgrade

[soveryapt]

Good afternoon all

 

Interesting one here. Bought some RAM upgrades for one of my schools Acer Veritons (X270) as they all have either 1GB or 2GB each, and as they want to go to Windows 7 (Vista at the moment) I figured that memory upgrades would be the best way to go (school doesn't have the ££ this time to go for new machines as they've not long since done the suites). Money and politics aside though..

 

I've put the new RAM in the Acers (well, in one of them, and a second just to test) and they won't get beyond the "Press Del for Setup / Press F12 for Boot Menu" now, yet as soon as I put in the original memory they're fine.

 

The memory is the same spec as the old stuff (DDR2-6400/800 1.8) the only difference is that they're 2GB Sticks instead of the 1GB sticks that were in.

 

I've tried flashing the BIOS to the latest available, I've tried running default setups in the BIOS and I've tried mixing the RAM (1 old, 1 new) but unless it has the original memory in, it just won't boot.

 

Anyone any ideas (other than throwing them off the local castle turrets and seeing what happens).

 

Thanks

Andy

[soveryapt]

P.S. I've loaded Setup and that detects the new memory fine, it just won't boot beyond ..

[soveryapt]

P.P.S.

I disabled the Quiet Boot to see what was going on, gets to the Checking NVRAM stage, but stops with an "Update Failed" error .. Googling it at the moment, but any one any suggestions?

[AJWhite1970]

I've got a sack load of X270's. Will crack one open in the morning and see what we have inside them regarding RAM as I upgraded them all to 4Gb from 2Gb in the summer.

 

Andrew

[soveryapt]

Cheers Andrew.

 

These RAM upgrades may have to wait for the Acers then (just got the service manual and checking jumper settings at the moment to make sure there's nothing stopping it there)

[AJWhite1970]

Just had a look and mine are the same, DDR2 PC2-6400 800MHz 240-pin DIMM. The only thing I can think of is buffering? Did you get buffered or unbuffered RAM?

[soveryapt]

Not sure without checking. The only other thing could be brand. I went for crucial as that's what usually plumb for, though in one I found a stick of Kingston which transplanted perfectly to a more used machine that had only 1GB.

[AJWhite1970]

Mine do have Kingston in them. Also just checked my BIOS version, R02-C1 - 20090527. I'd forgotten how old these PC's are but with 4gb RAM and a SSD they still fly along quite happily with everything I throw at them!! They will be going to Windows 10 in the summer from Windows 7.

[3s-gtech]

I can confirm, we updated ours from 1GB to 3GB and they didn't need extra config. Not sure on memory brand, maybe Hypertec? They're about to be retired now, as we bought the base spec Pentium Dual Core ones but they're okay with an SSD.

[mac_shinobi]

Not sure how much this will help but

 

1) If you have bitlocker enabled - suspend this from within windows, preferably from a domain admin account

2) Go into the bios and confirm what mode the SATA Mode is in ie AHCI / Compatability or IDE Mode and make a note of this or remember what mode it is set to

3) disconnect all power sources ( battery / mains power ) and then if there is a cmos / coin battery you could disconnect, then disconnect this for about 5 to 10 mins or so ( long enough so it forgets all settings ) to basically reset bios to defaults

4) Install new ram - may want to try swapping the memory modules around and see if the slots they are inserted into makes any difference ?

5) Re-connect the cmos / coin battery

6) re connect either or both the laptop battery and the mains power and power the laptop on - it will most likely moan about the Date / Time being wrong and you may also need to set the SATA Mode back to the correct setting as per step 2

7) Save and exit the bios

 

Is that still the same ?

[soveryapt]

Hi

Yeah, did a CMOS reset (it's a desktop so there's a jumper) still no joy.

 

Thanks

Andy

[soveryapt]

Mine do have Kingston in them. Also just checked my BIOS version, R02-C1 - 20090527. I'd forgotten how old these PC's are but with 4gb RAM and a SSD they still fly along quite happily with everything I throw at them!! They will be going to Windows 10 in the summer from Windows 7.

 

I may just buy a couple of sticks of Kingston and see how they go and then get more in if they work ..