RAM For dummies

[MuffinofDoom]

my friend is a bit computer illiterate shall we say. Anyway, he has some RAM troubles and i'm trying to help him, but i can not physicaly help him. Here is his dilemma:

I have an Asus A8V Deluxe Motherbord with two 512mb sticks. A couple of days ago I decided to upgrade to 2gb and so I bought a 1gb stick. When I installed the ram, I put the two 512 sticks in A1 and B1, and the 1gb stick in B2. My computer went into windows but did not read the other 1gb I just installed. I then placed the 1gb stick in A2, but an overclocking error came as soon as I turned on the computer. The 1gb stick is working fine after testing it. I don't know what is wrong. Can you help?

Apparently he has the right kind of memory. His old RAM, the 2x512 sticks don't seem to work when he puts in the gig stick. But the gig works by itself.

Help appreciated!

 

[Marshillboy]

his computer probably cannot handle more than 1gb of RAM it seems...

 

[Mental Liberator]

Asus A8V Deluxe Motherbord supports up to 4 gigs, so that's not the problem. Try re-installing all drivers. Also try switching around the RAM in different slots and see if the 1 gig works in A1. And MuffinOfDoom, don't call your friend a person that's stupid about computers if you're resorting to come here for an answer that you're probably going to get all the credit for.

 

[Kage]

His old RAM, the 2x512 sticks don't seem to work when he puts in the gig stick. But the gig works by itself.

That seems a bit weird, so can this be drivers? Surely the motherboard would recognise 2x 512mb, and then a gig on one chip, though could windows be at fault in some way? If its Windows XP, you should know how funny this is with new hardware being inserted, but I wouldn't honestly think RAM would do that.

I would suggest to try another slot with this 1gig as well,

Surely the computer has an A1,A2,B1,B2 slots then? Well try telling your mate to insert 1 512mb chip in A1, and another in A2, and finally to put the 1gig chip in the B1 slot. Does this work?

If that doesn't work, it is horrible to say, but possible that a faulty chip could have been bought.
It wouldn't be the first time it has happened with computer hardware by all means.

Does it give any error messages? Does the computer even start up? What happens exactly?

I hope I can help

 

[rdcmmnst]

Are you sure that he bought compatible chips..maybe the computer is trying to dual channel these chips...and they aren't compatible you might check.

 

[Kage]

Hmm, I'm not sure, but I think the computer only switches automatically if both are compatable, but its worth a shot.

 

[rdcmmnst]

Yeah i'm just guessing Kage you ought to know that by now. But they haven't replied yet som maybe i was right...hehehe

 

[MuffinofDoom]

And MuffinOfDoom, don't call your friend a person that's stupid about computers if you're resorting to come here for an answer that you're probably going to get all the credit for.

Aw, thanks for such a warm invite to the forum. An it's obvious that if i were able to help him i would ahve done so already. I said he was not very computer savy. I just came here fore help. Well, you don't know me well but i am not the person to take credit for others aheivements.
SHeesh.

Anyway, I gave him a few suggestions, along with some of my own. Apparently now windows is saying he only has 1.5 gigs of RAM but other outside programs say he has 2 full gigs.

If those programs say he has 2 gigs then does it matter if Windows says otherwise?

And yes, his mother bord has four memory slots.

 

[ChuNalt787]

mabye windows is showing how much he has unused and the other programs are showing full. could be wrong tho