computer problem

[occidentalis]

Hi, I put this on EBA but no one replied and I'd really like some ideas on what's going on. Apologies for the cross post.

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Hey

Having a small problem here

I just purchased my long awaited ram upgrade only to find my PC won't run with both my new ram and old ram together. It works fine with both by themselves, so I can only assume they are somehow incompatible.

My old configuration - 2x dual channel 256mb sticks, hynix brand

The new stick is 512mb, veritech brand

I have tried nearly every possible combination of positions in the slots but nothing works... the computer hangs on startup. Nothing is displayed on the monitor and the keyboard lights aren't on. But the new ram works fine by itself and the old ram works fine by itself. My motherboards is an intel d865perl. The manual suggests that this configuration will work but the memory will not work in dual channel mode.

Do I need to take this back to the shop?

[planthelper]

we, talking the old 72 pin's aren't we.

just reconfigure the pheriferal incognition.

those old dual channel 256mb sticks, hynix brand can be at times a pain in the ass once you try to new stick them with 512mb, veritech brand.

see, the ozilators are not in perfect alligement with the factory settings.

your best chance is to go foxy with the proxy and reconstitute the old values.

sorry, i don't know anything about those things....

i just had to writte something which sounds to me as what the pro's would suggest,

the sort of stuff i never understand, lol!

[Amulte]

so its not dual channel? how many ram slots do ya have?

[foolsbreath]

yeah there can be incompatability issues with ram,

its the way the memory is accessed

sometimes its just tough luck, see the pro's first, usually they'll charge 25 for a look

But if you cant solve it buy another new stick

Oh and sometimes if its only designed for 512, it won't recognize any more than 512, in which case It may run perfectly, but only access 512 of ram, making the rest useless, or it might throw it right out of wack?

At least thats what I was told by a good friend and expert on such matters when I was looking to upgrade, I solved the problem by spending a grand on bits and letting him throw it togethor. For a cool K I have now got a 64 bit system with 2 x 200 GB serial hard drives and 2000GB of RAM, a kick ass sound and video card, serial raid controllers etc.

Don't buy shit from a shop you'll pay twice what its worth, i've seen computers for over 3000 with less than what I have, mind you I don't have one of them fancy flat screens, but you can get those for not much more than $100 if you look around

[Pelinster]

Hi Creach,

From my experience you need either 2 or 4 sticks on Dual Channel Mainboards, but there may be chipsets that support otherwise as most mainboard chipsets implement Dual Channel in a different manner. Also on the mainboards I have worked with, all your sticks must have the same speed (mhz) and latency. That's why it's a really good idea to buy all your ram at once in the same brand (or a dual channel kit) to make sure you definitely have the same chips, because even the slightest difference will put most Dual Channel mainboards out of business.

I would look at getting rid of your old 256 chips and getting an another (identical) 512.

[occidentalis]

I have four ram slots, it is a relatively recent motherboard and should be able to handle 4gb of memory.

According to the motherboard manual it will automatically detect dual channel mode when the ram is in the right configuration in the slots. That's how it is now. What it should do is, when I put the new chip in, detect that it is in a non-dual channel config and go to single channel, but instead it seems it just doesn't work. This is assuming I can actually understand the motherboard manual. I'm not scared of computers but this is just on the boundary of my confidence and knowledge.

If anyone wants to have a read and see if they can understand it a bit better than me, http://www.intel.com/products/motherboard/d865perl/index.htm.

I have called the shop and they said they will check it out for me on monday.

[Pelinster]

From my experience it doesn't work that way. Two of the ram slots are one channel, and two are the other. I haven't seen a mainboard that can switch the second channel off and still use the other 2 slots for the first channel. But to be honest I have only built and serviced AMD's with Dual Channel, none of the Intels.

I will have a look at the manual and see if I can figure it supports otherwise.

*EDIT* After looking at the manual, it doesn't look like your Mainboard is any exception.

Edited April 30, 2006 by Pelinester

[chief23]

It sounds to me that your chips are not compatible, from my experience you need to ensure all the chips are the same type, i.e. DDR 400. Also some motherboards require that you have a pair of identical chips for each channel.

Chief

[occidentalis]

From my experience it doesn't work that way. Two of the ram slots are one channel, and two are the other. I haven't seen a mainboard that can switch the second channel off and still use the other 2 slots for the first channel. But to be honest I have only built and serviced AMD's with Dual Channel, none of the Intels.

I will have a look at the manual and see if I can figure it supports otherwise.

*EDIT* After looking at the manual, it doesn't look like your Mainboard is any exception.

It works fine with just the 512mb chip in any slot, and it works fine with the 2 256mb chips in any combination of 2 slots. When the 2 256mb chips are in a non-dual channel config, i get a message on bootup telling me the ram is in a non-optimal configuration, but it still boots and works fine. It just doesn't work with all 3 in any combination of slots.

[Pelinster]

It works fine with just the 512mb chip in any slot, and it works fine with the 2 256mb chips in any combination of 2 slots. When the 2 256mb chips are in a non-dual channel config, i get a message on bootup telling me the ram is in a non-optimal configuration, but it still boots and works fine. It just doesn't work with all 3 in any combination of slots.

I am aware of that. Obviously you don't understand exactly what I am saying.

I wish you the best of luck with it. As anyone who works with these machines very quickly realises - they rarely ever work absolutely as they were intended to, and due to the complexity of their operation, there is rarely a simple answer.

[Endrogen]

are they both rated at the same speed?

if it's not that i would guess the cas timing are running for one and the other is having a problem. If you know how to get into the bios settings at startup you can loosen the timings in there.

or they're just flatout incompatible