Upgrading RAM

carpetseller

I am looking to upgrade the Ram on a friend of mines PC the system report states 384mg RAM (I'm assuming 1x256mb + 1x128mb) but when I scanned with Crucial's upgrade scanner it reported it as 512mb (2X256mb) if I add another 1X512mb will there be any compatability issues? Any help whould be greatly appreciated.

macman

In situations like this I would open it up and establish first what is physically installed. The Crucial scanner should tell you the max you can have installed and whether matching pairs must be used.
Make/model would be helpful.

banger9365

there always can be compatability issues with upgrading ram ,latencys ,voltage,speed,single/double sided and even make can make a difference,,most of the time
it will be ok ,put every so often you get a pc that is not ok with it ,thats when your problems start .
most of us use cpu-z to match the ram (they do in my circle of poeple),
chances are that it is 2x256mb and the graphic card is using some of the ram ,thats why it showing 384mb

BillScarab

I would agree that it is the graphics card using some of the RAM.

One good thing about the Crucial scanner is if you buy the RAM from them they guarantee it will work and if it doesn't you can get your money back.

How many free slots does it have? If it has 2 x 256Mb there may be no free slots so you would need to replace the existing memory.

carpetseller

BillScarab wrote: »

I would agree that it is the graphics card using some of the RAM.

One good thing about the Crucial scanner is if you buy the RAM from them they guarantee it will work and if it doesn't you can get your money back.

How many free slots does it have? If it has 2 x 256Mb there may be no free slots so you would need to replace the existing memory.

it has 4 slots

BillScarab

I'd go for putting an extra 1 Gb in then so after the Graphics Card has taken a chunk they will still have over 1Gb.

Check with crucial and see what they recommend, either 1 x 1Gb stick or 2 x 512GB sticks.

CHR15

Are all four slots the same colour??

This seems a fairly old PC, it used to be fairly common during the transition from SDRAM to DDR to have motherboard accepting either (but not both)

So you could either use SD or DDR memory sticks. Have a good look at the slots to make sure the locating lugs are in the same place.

Failing that, let us know the make/model of the motherboard.

Belarc advisor is a useful tool.