RAM upgrade won't take.

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Hi all

this has really stumped me....
I bought some extra RAM to upgrade one of the desktops in my workplace but it won't take, i just get beeps and a red light flashing when i switch it on. Its definitely seated right in the correct slots. I tried the sticks in another desktop and they worked so the sticks themselves are fine. Both the pcs are the same model (HP Compaq d330) because they were bought at the same time so there's no reason it should work in one and not in another. Then i noticed the problem pc had an older BIOS than the other so i thought upgrading it would be the answer but no, its now got the latest BIOS version and it still doesn't work. Can't really think where to go next with this

any suggestions?

 

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If you remove the existing ram and just put in the new sticks that you have bought - does it boot up?

NB

 

try ^ first

when you flashed the new bios did you reset it to default or did it keep the original settings ?

try resetting the bios and then setting it up using the working machine as a reference

if that fails just swap the memory around in the machine that it works in

GRim

 

thanks for the suggestions and sorry, i should have been more specific, my fault. The two new RAM sticks i put in were'nt added to the existing two, they just replaced them. So 2 x 1GB sticks replaced 2 x 128MB sticks in the problem PC. (the pc that worked had already had an upgrade a while ago so i replaced 2 x 256MB sticks with the 2 x 1GB ones)

Also no, i just flashed the BIOS, didn't change any settings, but i did look through the BIOS to see if anything needed changing and couldn't see anything. I think I'll double check this though because i can't see how it can be anything other than a BIOS setting

thanks again

 

Check the motherboard manual that came with the computer to determine the meaning of the beep-codes (and the red light location) when you start up the PC. This may help to provide you with more accurate information which you can then relay back to us.

Else, my only other suggestions are - make sure that you're seating them in the correct banks and compare the BIOS/MOBO details for the two PCs, make sure they match.

Let us know how you get on!

Qs

EDIT - Because I'm nice I found you the beep-code list for the aforementioned PC - http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00274415

 

Hi Beaker,
Just found this in the manual:-

Memory Frequency---------------Required Processor Bus Frequency
266 MHz------------------------------400 MHz, 533 MHz, or 800 MHz
333 MHz------------------------------533 MHz or 800 MHz
400 MHz------------------------------800 MHz

If a memory frequency is paired with an unsupported processor bus
frequency, the system will run at the highest supported memory
speed. For example, if a 333 MHz DIMM is paired with a 400 MHz
processor bus, the system will run at 266 MHz, the highest supported
memory speed.
✎ The system will not start if you install unsupported DIMMs.

Have you altered the fsb in the bios to suit the mem speed?

NB

 

From the above, it sounds you have two banks... Leave one of the 128mb RAM on one bank and add one of the other 1GB RAM on the other bank. The old 128MB RAM will act as a starter for the new RAM(strange huh). Had a problem similar to this last week with a friends laptop who wanted to upgrade his 128MB RAM to 1GB RAM by just replacing the 128MB RAM with the 1GB RAM, the system wouldnt come up at all, was not even able to access the BIOS, but when i place back the 128MB RAM in one bank and placed the 1GB RAM in the other bank the system came up.. The system runs perfectly well now with a total RAM of 1.2GB...

 

Thanks for all the replies, I think NB might have hit on something with the bus speed there. Comparing the BIOS's of the 2 machines only really shows one difference:
(good PC) Processor Speed : 2800/800 MHz
(problemPC) Processor Speed : 2800/533 MHz

and the new RAM is DDR400.

I ran a little program called CPU-Z on both machines which gives detailed hardware information and it does show a few little differences between the machines, even though they're the same motherboard model. Things like:

Mulitplier x bus speed:
(good PC) 14.0 x 199.5 MHz
(problemPC) 21.0 x 133.0 MHz

The hp BIOS for these is really basic though, no option to change any settings like this so i guess i'll have to try and get some slower memory sticks.

great work guys, thanks a lot!

 

That does sound odd - although the problem PC should still boot, albeit at a slower RAM speed.

Nevertheless, so long as you're happy its been resolved

Qs

 

After you try the slower RAM, post back your results. I'd love to see the final resolution. Thanks.

 

i think i jumped the gun a bit there, i thought getting some PC2700 RAM instead of PC3200 would be the solution but it turns out that the working RAM thats in there is PC3200 (400MHz), same as the new sticks so i turns out that the speed wasn't the issue. As Qs said it should have still booted at a lower speed. I found this in the Manual

In addition, the computer supports:
- 128Mbit, 256Mbit, and 512Mbit non-ECC memory technologies
- single-sided and double-sided DIMMS
- DIMMs constructed with x8 and x16 DDR devices; DIMMs
constructed with x4 SDRAM are not supported


As these are 1GB sticks I thought that could be the problem, although it didn't explain why it worked in one of the PCs and not the other. Sure enough i took my 1GB sticks back and bought 4 x 512s and now its working happily with 2GB of memory

I was under the impression that all our PCs were bought at the same time but apparently there is a couple of older ones still left in the office. It turns out that the problem PC is a slightly older version of the same compaq model, the case, model number and spec are the same so its tough to tell but this must have been one of the small differences.

thanks again for all the help on this

 

Happy to help Glad it's sorted.

Qs

 

its all experience, you wont have that trouble again

Grim

 

I've been having the same problem with me parents computer- really old E-Machines though. Had to purchase some PC2700 for it because it only likes certain ram