Laptop Memory Problem, Ideas Welcome :)

[Dingadilly]

Greetings. I have recently managed to get myself caught up with repairing a laptop for a friend of a friend. This involved a RAM upgrade which I spent an hour or two making sure I had the right stuff.

The laptop is a Rock - Starbook (model # uncertain) with a Clevo d400p motherboard. It was running 256mb of PC2100 Kingston Ram@133mhz

I purchased 1gb on 2 sticks of PC2700 rated at 266mhz. Which according to the manual it can support. DDR 200/266/333 upto 1024mb in 2 slots.

Pulled the old ram out. put the 2 new sticks in and system refused to boot and just beeps at me. suggesting a fatal error. (ie wrong ram) I double checked what I'd ordered and what the manual says it could support.
Then just to try it out ,I pulled one of the new modules out and put the old module back in.
It booted and reported the new ram in combination with the old one. Albeit different size modules running (according to everest) at different speeds. one at 133mhz (old module) and 166mhz new module.

In result I can't run both new 512 modules. I can run at 734 total ram with one 256mb (old) and one 512 new module.

Can anyone offer an explanation as to why this is the case?

The BIOS options do not allow me to adjust any clock speeds. I had considered a BIOS update but being unsure as to what model I actually have I'm not keen to undertake such an update.

Any ideas ,theories or perhaps even a reason as to what is going on with this laptop?

Regards

Ding

 

[KSoD]

The problem is that it cant support the 1GB total. IF you can run 512MB and 256MB but not 2x512MB that is the only answer. while the manual says it can it seems that they are wrong. Maybe it can only support 1GB of the 133MHz. But less of the 166MHz.

 

[Dingadilly]

Thanks for your response. but a further question, regarding the 133hz and 166mhz perhaps supporting a lower speed. The new 512mb module is rated at 266mhz and the same manual says it supports DDR200/266/333. hence me buying a nice middle ground part (I thought)

Is there a reason I'm only seeing speeds of 133 and 166? A motherboard limitation perhaps?

My 2 weakest areas are without question Laptops and explaining RAM speeds. I just want to make sure I'm not missing something obvious or made a silly mistake.

Regards

 

[Kharn]

If you have two sticks of ram in a machine an each stick is at a differnt speed ie one stick is 533 an the other is 667 it will only run at the lower speed.