Win xp Not Booting When Extra Ram Stick Added

[e-dard]

Hi,

I am running winxp on a friends computer and am having a lot of trouble working this problem out! hope you can help!

Bios is Award 6.00pg

Pc has 512mb pc 133 sdram stick in slot 0.

When i add a second 256mb pc 133 stick into slot 1 the pc posts fine but wont boot winxp.. the loading screen fails to appear.

I tried booting in safe mode, and the computer hangs aswell.

The annoying thing is that the computer and winxp work fine when either stick is used on its own, the 256mb stick does not appear faulty in any way. Slot 1 is ok also because the computer boots into winxp when a single stick is placed in it.

I have even tried changing the positions of the memory sticks when they are used together to no avail.

The 512mb stick has 16 black chips in total, 8 on each side... The 256mb stick has 8 chips on one side.

I thought maybe that the bios didn't support the size of ram but from what i can see on the internet the bios can support 4gb??

I hope someone can help!!!


regards,

edd

 

[str8lazy]

its possible that he needs his slot 1 cleaned, or the BIOS is lying to you. It is also possible that the BIOS has bugs, and an update is needed. What kind of MOBO are you running on?

 

[e-dard]

Hi, str8lazy

am not sure what mobo is.... whats the best way to tell??

i presume u mean the motherboard model??

apart from that its a standard, atx sdram motherboard, got a via chipset...

running athlon xp2000

edd

 

[Lone Wolf]

its possible that he needs his slot 1 cleaned, or the BIOS is lying to you. It is also possible that the BIOS has bugs, and an update is needed. What kind of MOBO are you running on?

A BIOS lying about the amount of RAM on a motherboard... a BIOS w/ bugs... OMG what is the world coming to!!?? That is the most far-fetched guess i've ever heard of on a computer forum.

If the PC boots fine with either stick in the first slot, we can probably rule out the RAM is OK. The next thing we have to rule out is that the 2nd slot is OK. If you can, find a known good RAM and insert into slot 1, leaving your old ram in slot 0, then if the problem still persists, you can pinpoint your problem.

You don't need to update your BIOS to add more RAM, that's NOT what the purpose of flashing is for.

 

[CacheUK]

Are the two ram sticks compatible with each other? I dont know if they have to be LOL but that could be why both slots work and both sticks work, that is if it matters!!

 

[Lone Wolf]

Are the two ram sticks compatible with each other? I dont know if they have to be LOL but that could be why both slots work and both sticks work, that is if it matters!!

Cache, after reading the poster's question, I assumed both of his RAM sticks are SDRAM (because of the PC133 rating) and thus they are indeed compatible.

 

[CacheUK]

hmmmm...... yes i too agree now! funny that, it really helps to read the original post!

 

[CacheUK]

alternatively to lone wolfs suggestion have you tried booting windows with both stick off RAM in a different machine?

Also are you using onboard video? If you are i know my motherboard wont support it unless the is only one stick of ram in, there is a certain slot (although i cant quite remember which one) that cant have a RAM stick in it, also the RAM cant be above a certain speed to work? Let us know what specs he is running!

btw if it is nvidia then you can download system utility and fins out what Mobo you are using if not then usually the board model is writte4n on the actual board somewhere, it1ll be the main manufacturers name or Abbreviation and then the model....

 

[str8lazy]

A BIOS lying about the amount of RAM on a motherboard... a BIOS w/ bugs... OMG what is the world coming to!!?? That is the most far-fetched guess i've ever heard of on a computer forum.

He said that he got that from a source on the internet, I assume that I poorly worded that. There have been many cases where motherboards say that they can support a certain amount of RAM, but actually they cant. It just like a stick of RAM it might say that it is 128MB of RAM but sometimes its 119MB of RAM that is just how life is sometimes. And if the motherboard is supposed to really be able to hold that amount of RAM and it cant for some reason, that obviously means that there is a flaw of some kind, and a update can normally fix that and sometimes it cant (unfortunately)

 

[e-dard]

Hey guys,

wow thanks for the input

i haven't had chance to try the sticks in another computer but since they both work individually then i really think they are ok.

Also have tried individual stick in slot 1 which works so i guess the slot doesn't need cleaning. I havent checked yet but as the motherboard is not older than 4 years and it is running a athlon 2000 then i really would be amazed if it can't suppot 768mb of ram!

On Board graphics not being used.... Running AGP graphics card...

edd