ram problem

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Darg

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I bought a single sided 256mb stick of pc133 sdram today, and added it to my existing 2 x 128mb double sided pc133 sticks. Problem is, windows only seems to be recognising 128mb out of the new 256mb stick, making a total of 384mb ram that is recognized. I have no clue why this is happening. System specs are below (taken from belarc advisor)

Operating System
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 1 (build 2600)

System Model
VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C692BX

Processor
733 megahertz Intel Pentium III
32 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Main Circuit Board
Board: 693-596A-DD
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. 4.51 PG 04/07/00

Drives
13.02 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
HITACHI DVD-ROM GD-7000 [CD-ROM drive]
IDE-CD R/RW 4x4x32 [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

ST313021A [Hard drive] (13.02 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 6CT0GG2D, rev 3.03, SMART Status: Healthy

Memory Modules
384 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'BANK_0' has 128 MB
Slot 'BANK_1' has 128 MB
Slot 'BANK_2' has 128 MB
Slot 'BANK_3' is Empty

Controllers
Standard floppy disk controller
Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]
VIA Bus Master IDE Controller

Bus Adapters
VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller
 
Try it with just the new 256mb module. If it still doesn't work, either the module is defective (or mislabeled) or your motherboard cannot handle modules of that size. Perhaps there is a BIOS update available on the motherboard manufacturer's site.
 
ok its reading 128mb with just the 256mb stick in there.

so its either the ram or the mobo can't read > 128mb sticks. Perhaps the latter, since I got the ram from my local reputable retailer, who always back their parts with a 1 year warranty. I'll try pursuing the ram path first anyhow, since they are usually very happy to accept returns or replacements.

does the fact that the ram is single sided play any part in this problem?

i'll try looking for a bios update as well, but I hear all sorts of nightmare stories about bios flashing going wrong, so I won't be applying an update unless I'm 100% sure it would fix this issue.
 
Do you need to have matched pairs of ram for it to work? I have seen where if you are unmatched - I think - that you put the unmatched in the A slot. You might want to look up your motherboard on this.
 
hmm now there's an interesting thought, but how matched is matched? do they need to be both single/double sided, and also have the same number of chips on the stick? or do they just have to be the same size in terms of mb ?

Don't know if this makes any difference or not, but I can tell you:

1 128mb stick has 16 chips over 2 sides
1 128mb stick has 8 chips over 2 sides
the new 256mb stick has 8 chips on 1 side

I think my motherboard manufacturer is DFI, I'll pay a visit to their site, and to the VIA site as well. Thanks.
 
The motherboard chipset cannot support high-density RAM. Only certain chipsets can. 256mb modules will work on it, but they need to be low-density like the 128mb stick that has 2 x 16 chips.

Logical_1
 
hmm ok maybe i'll take it back for a double sided stick with more chips then.

i found my mobo manual eventually, and found a table which seemed sorta relevant but I didn't totally comprehend, so I'm not sure if it clarifies anything or not.

Code: 
Uses x64 or x72 PC SDRAM DIMM, 3.3V

DIMMs                    Memory Size
2MBx64/x72                16MB
4MBx64/x72                32MB
8MBx64/x72                64MB
16MBx64/x72              128MB
32MBx64/x72              256MB

edit:
I found my mobo was a DFI CA-61, so I went to the dfi site to look at bios updates, and I stumbled across this interesting tidbit:

Only DIMM 1 and DIMM 2 support 256MB (DIMM 3: 128MB), due to limitation of north bridge
Click to expand...

just to clarify, I have 3 memory slots on my mobo, even though belarc is saying I have 4 for some weird reason.

edit2:
There's also this pdf, which refers to a bios update

http://www.dfi.com.tw/Upload/Manual/cA61-beta.pdf
 
like logic mentioned the mobo does not support it .
i had that happen to a gigabyte p4 mobo with a sis chipset (POS mobo)
 
Only DIMM 1 and DIMM 2 support 256MB (DIMM 3: 128MB), due to limitation of north bridge

ie it won't go higher then 128 megs
double or single sided
 
well obviously I wouldn't put the new 256mb stick in slot 3 :)

Logic said get lower density ram, and so I will have a look for double sided 16 chip ram.
 
I had a similar problem once.
I flashed my BIOS to the latest revision and that fixed numerous problems.
 
Flashing my bios didn't help the fact that i plugged my IDE cable's in backwards :confused:
 
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