Trouble Installing New RAM

steviemac101

Hi, Hope you can help,
Our Packard Bell iXtreme 6052 came with 256mb ram, after checking it's spec I discovered it would take an upgrade to 1gb so I bought two 512 mb ddr dimm chips.
Trouble is I have only been able to get them to work together once, it just won't boot up with them both in. So i tried a combination of ram in the slots
The first 512mb works by itself,
so does the 2nd.
I can also install 1 x 512mb and the original 256 mb giving me 768 mb
If i try them both together it usually loads up halfway and then fails to get further.
If I swap the two 512mb to each others slot, all I get is 2 buzzes from the hard drive and nowt else.
I'd be very grateful for any suggestions.
Ta Steve

PolishBigSpender

Where did you buy the RAM chips from?

steviemac101

Hi Mate
PC World, Took the spec of the PC in and was advised they were the correct ones. When I have checked on the pb website. it states that I have the right chips

DatabaseError

are the chips identical?

steviemac101

Yes exactly the same, as I said I can swap and use each one independantly or either one with a 256mb but not the two together, It's a weird one

aliEnRIK

768 MAY be the max your computers going to allow (but that IS very unusual)

Put just one in and boot up
Download MEMTEST
http://majorgeeks.com/MemTest_d350.html
Test to see its ok then replace with the other ram chip and test again

GunJack

have you tried going into the BIOS and checking the RAM settings?? It may need a tweak or even a BIOS update to recognise and correctly use the extra .25GB ??

spud17

steviemac101 wrote: »

Yes exactly the same, as I said I can swap and use each one independantly or either one with a 256mb but not the two together, It's a weird one

Just had a look at Orcalogic for your PC it says 512mb/slot, max of 1gb.

I have a similar problem with my ancient Giga-byte mobo, it Should run 2x512mb, but just blue screens, so have settled on 512 + 256.

exup

spud17 wrote: »

Just had a look at Orcalogic for your PC it says 512mb/slot, max of 1gb.

I have a similar problem with my ancient Giga-byte mobo, it Should run 2x512mb, but just blue screens, so have settled on 512 + 256.

Would that have the same problem as using RAM with different speeds that the slower one would bring the other down to its level. - using a 512 with a 256 would efectlively still only be 2 x 256 K ?

spud17

Nothing to do with speed.
512 and 256 are size of RAM.
Doesn't have to be paired either.

exup

spud17 wrote: »

Nothing to do with speed.
512 and 256 are size of RAM.
Doesn't have to be paired either.

ta - just wondering - that was all