[Techtalk] adventures with mad RAMS

[Robyn Willison]

Hi

Looks like you bought a dud stick of RAM. This happens, be brave and
return it. Tell them the steps you've gone through to check it and that
you use an anti-static mat.

Cheers

Robyn

On Thu, 2009-01-15 at 21:43 -0800, Carla Schroder wrote:
> On Thursday January 15 2009 08:08:53 pm Carla Schroder wrote:
> > heya,
> >
> > I am being foiled by mad RAMs. I have one system that has two DDR2 slots,
> > dual-channel. Originally it had just one stick of RAM, and I wanted more so
> > I ordered a second one the same size, specs, and brand. There is a nice
> > label right on it so I had all the right numbers for matching it. When I
> > installed it the system behaved as though there were no memory at all-- it
> > powers up, but the keyboard does not light up and the monitor stays black.
> >
> 
> Ha! My google-fu is mightier than my hardware-fu. A bit of Web searching 
> revealed that resetting the CMOS (short the pins) would re-set the memory 
> timings in the BIOS. And lo, I have a working system again. But only with the 
> old memory, the new memory is DOA.
> 
> According to everything I have read, even on dual-channel boards you should be 
> able to mix and match memory (as long as it is within what the board 
> supports), and the worst thing that happens is the dual-channel defaults to 
> the speed of the slower module.
> 
> Carla
>