New Ram not recognized, help...

[PUNISSHER]

Hey Ladies and Gents,

I have a VPR Matrix 180r PC that has two 256mb memory sticks. I was upgrading my wife's laptop and figured why not upgrade the PC. So I picked up two 1GB sticks. Threw em in last night and the PC is only showing 384mb of ram. So I upgrade from 512mb to 2GB and I end up with only 384mb?? What's up with that?? Any help will be tremendously appreciated. Thank you!

 

[Baez]

What are the system specs?

CPU, Motherboard, RAM, Video Card. Brand and Model.

 

[PUNISSHER]

What are the system specs?

CPU, Motherboard, RAM, Video Card. Brand and Model.

CPU = Intel Pentium 4 1.80GHz

Motherboard = Intel D845EBT AAA92334-304

RAM = was 2 x 256mb =512mb, with the two new sticks it's now 384mb.

Video Card = Radeon 9200 Pro Family

 

[Baez]

And what is the speed of the new RAM you bought?

 

[PUNISSHER]

Two 1GB sticks, so ideally it should be 2GB.

 

[Baez]

No by speed I mean DDR200, DDR266, DDR400 etc.

 

[PUNISSHER]

Woops... DDR 400/333

 

[Baez]

Okay. One last question. Is your video card standalone or integrated. Meaning is it part of the motherboard or a card plugged into the motherboard?

 

[PUNISSHER]

It's plugged in.

 

[Baez]

Alright. Take a look at this page: Intel® Desktop Board D845EBT - Tested memory

It looks confusing but I'll explain what's happening. Your motherboard only supports single sticks of up to 512MB double-sided memory. It also only supports speeds of up to DDR266.

Therefore it's taking what it can from the memory. You're lucky the computer runs at all. It's grabbing 256 from the first stick and 128 from the second. When motherboards using DDR (not DDR2) can't handle the speed of the RAM it reduces it's memory size to compensate, giving you only 128MB on the second stick.

Just ask if any of that confuses you.