ram ?

[GGUUSS]

my friend has an old compaq and he wanted to add some more ram. so i checked the old ram and its a 164 pin pc100. i bought the same exact type but its a 512mb stick. when turning the pc on it freezes at the main compaq screen and does not react to anything. what do u guys think this is?

 

[PZEROFGH]

that mobo can not handle that much ram?

 

[GGUUSS]

well originally theres a 256 and a 128 in there and ran okay. i try putting just the 512 in there by itself and it locks up.

 

[harobikes333]

may not support a 512 stick

 

[003]

mabey the two sticks of ram have different voltage requirements. that will screw things up. or they could have different timings.

 

[PZEROFGH]

i try putting just the 512 in there by itself and it locks up.

?

 

[Reqlis]

I would have to agree with HAROBIKES i doubt the mobo can handle 512 sticks but then again I could be horribly wrong. If it is cheaper ram it may not match timings as 003 said or it will not lower its clock speed or raise it accordingly. Happened to me with an older gateway.

 

[mike4realz]

maybe ur mobo can support up to 512mb of ram but will not support a 512mb stick of ram...ur gonna have to use two sticks of 256mb ram

 

[GGUUSS]

if the voltage is different what is the worst that can happen? or how would the mobo react with that

 

[BandwidthHogg]

Compaqs can be picky usually to force you to use their proprietary RAM. That isn't the case in all models, but some will only take HP/Compaq proprietary memory. Go to www.hp.com, look up your model, and look at the motherboard/system specs.