PC not recognising new RAM

[Russell]

I had 512MB RAM in my PC, but it will take 2GB (2x1GB sticks).

Bought the new RAM (it is the right stuff), but the PC is only recognising 512MB from each bank so its now showing 1GB, not the 2GB it should be.

Are there any settings anywhere that I need to change to get the PC to recognise the full 2GB or is there a problem with the motherboard/RAM etc.

I've checked that I'm using the right RAM, and I've checked with my PC manufacturer that the board will take 2GB, but it just ain't happening.

Help!

Or do I give up and buy a shiny new laptop.

 

[gibbleking]

ya bios should auomatically detect the ram..if it doesnt i suggest swapping the ram round if you then lose all ya ram then a module(ie stick o ram is dead )if it makes no change then your bios settings need to change.ps i hope u earthed yourself before u did this cos ram is easily screwed cos of static :cry:

 

[Russell]

Thats whats odd...

I've got two slots, initially I put both 1gb modules in, and it read 1gb so I assumed that one module must be screwed, however when I ran a check on crucial.com, it showed that both banks were working fine, but that each was only reading 512mb, hence the total of 1gb. They should both be reading 1gb, gving me 2gb in total.

Seems that both modules work and the system is reading both banks, just at half what they should be

 

[gibbleking]

maybe youve been stiffed..possible they are 512s..do u have another pc u can try em in

 

[dyna-ti]

Could be your motherboard can only handle a 512 card in each memory slot
I've had a couple of boards that stated up to 3 GB but the manual said 512 max each slot[i had 3 slots]
Is it a reasonably new system?
Failing that ,when your system is booting up ,keep pressing delete till the bios appears ,it may have something there you could try
Not sure when inside the bios then save nothing before exiting

 

[Russell]

Did wonder if I'd been shafted but the modules do have 8x128mb chips on them so they should be fine, although there is nothing to say that half of them are knackered I suppose.

I put the serial number of my PC into the manufacturers web site and it says that the motherboard will take 2x1GB which I can only take at face value really.

Its quite old as computers go 2005 ish.

Will have a fiddle with the Bios and see if there is anything obvious (after making a back up on a seperate hard drive!!).

 

[al]

Hi

This isn't an answer but another question.

I went to my local computer shop to increase the memory on my laptop. the bloke installed some sticks of Ram to increase my computer too 1mb
!! or something.

The problem is my c drive is 96 % full and my computer freezes occasionally!

Whats wrong? Please help? I'm not into this kind of thing and would like to be able to at least talk about this with a smidgin of knowledge! So i don't look too much of a turkey.

Cheers,Al

 

[Russell]

Al, you need to delete half the stuff you've got saved on your PC. If its all important stuff, photos etc then buy an external hard drive and save it all to that, then delete the originals... or, go buy yourself a new PC with a bigger hard drive.

 

[orange71]

@Al - you need more hard drive space (this is different to RAM).

 

[mattbrown]

always good to update the bios