new ram - is it DOA?

[glennl]

just got two 256 sticks of PC100 for my old dell dimension xps t. removed the existing sticks and installed the new stuff, no boot, four beeps.

tried leaving the old stuff in and adding one of the new sticks, i get boot and one beep, but an error when window tries to load. some missing pci.sys file or something like that. says to insert the windows cd to repair... but windows works fine with the old ram in there... did i get scammed and get dead ram? or is there something else i need to do?

 

[glennl]

more info...

setup screen says:

System Memory 32mb
Memory Bank 0 32mb (this is the original memory that came with comp)
Memory Bank 1 256mb (new memory, being recognized, but not working for some reason)
Memory Bank 2 Not Installed

help!

with this setup i can boot with one beep, but then i get an error. the only screen i get is "press del to enter setup"

 

[PizzatheHut06]

How many RAM slots do you have? I know for some dells, you must be the RAM sticks in slots 1 and 3. Have you tried that?

 

[glennl]

How many RAM slots do you have? I know for some dells, you must be the RAM sticks in slots 1 and 3. Have you tried that?

i just tried that... no boot, four beeps. the original memory was in 1 and 2, or "0" and "1" according to the setup screen. and worked fine, so i don't think my dell is like that.

 

[Nubius]

well assuming it's not something as simple as the RAM just not being seated right then yeah sounds like you could have gotten some bunk RAM. where did you get it from? Can you just get it replaced?

 

[glennl]

well assuming it's not something as simple as the RAM just not being seated right then yeah sounds like you could have gotten some bunk RAM. where did you get it from? Can you just get it replaced?

i did get it off ebay, so it's very likely i got scammed i suppose. does the fact that the computer recognizes it mean anything? it says there's a 256 meg card in there... it just doesn't work for some reason...

i never rule out that it's just not seated right...when i first built my new system nothing worked and it turned out just to be the processor not seated right..

still hoping there's a solution here, not bunk ram.