RAM problems

passive

hey, can anyone help me with this?

i bought 512MB Samsung 184-pin DDR1600 DRAM from here on boards last week and
added it to my pc (Gigabyte KT400 MB currently running 256Mb DDR Ram). I was sure
it was compatible but couldn't get the PC to recognise the new chip at all whether
i put it in with/instead of the old one.

any ideas? (i should add that i know nothing about any of this and my brother who tried to install it suggested it may be something to do with FSB speeds..but he also has nothing about that so if anyone can help please put it in step by step idiot instructions

joePC

OK the ram is not compatibily with your MB or any MB with the KT400 chipset,

512MB Samsung 184-pin DDR1600 DRAM -->

184-pin RDRAM1600

what you need is DDR ram PC2700 Ram that runs @ 333Mhz.

You got the wrong ram!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks joePC

passive

ah...great. i probably should have asked you first -_-
i got some bad advice from people on the for sale forum then..
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=135123

hopefully the guy will give me a refund (or i'll hunt him down)

unkel

Originally posted by passive
i got some bad advice from people on the for sale forum then..

That's me you're referring to. Let's clear up a few things

1.

Originally posted by joePC
184-pin RDRAM1600

How do you figure that out joePC? Both buyer and seller refer to DDR RAM, not RDRAM. There is no such thing as PC1600 RDRAM. Rambus is either PC800 RDRAM or PC1066 RDRAM

Originally posted by ronanp
184-pin DDR1600 DRAM

To be totally precise DDR1600 should be called something like PC1600 DDR RAM (200MHz) - this obviously was a small typo by ronanp and does not refer to RDRAM at all

2.

Sorry about your incompatiblity issue passive, but you never mentioned:
-what motherboard you have
-you wanted or did not want to use the ram with another stick

3.

Originally posted by passive
heres what i can take: Type : DDR400(PC3200)* / DDR333 (PC2700) / DDR266 (PC2100) / DDR200 (PC1600) -184pin

You posted that is what you can take. That is what you were offered. It is fully compatible with your motherboard, unless:

4.

No mention was made by buyer or seller that the ram is or is not registered / ECC

5.

The memory you need depends not only on your motherboard, but also on your CPU.

Originally posted by passive
heres what i can take: Type : DDR400(PC3200)* / DDR333 (PC2700) / DDR266 (PC2100) / DDR200 (PC1600)

I will give you an example of a compatible combination between your motherboard and your cpu with all of the above combinations:

PC1600 - duron 900
PC2100 - athlon xp1800+ palomino core
PC2700 - athlon xp2500+ barton core
PC3200 - athlon xp3200+ barton core

Note: no overclocking is taken into consideration in these examples

Hope this has clarified things

unkel

Apologies - reading my post which I believe is correct, it might not be of much help to you. Let me be more proactive

Post what CPU you are using at the moment. What do you use the PC for? What plans have you for the short / intermediate term for upgrading the CPU if any? What plans do you have for overclocking? Exactly what stick of memory do you have in the PC already (apart from your stating it's 256MB DDR)? Do you want to keep using this memory alongside any new stick you plan to purchase or not?

Based on answers to these questions I can give you options of the optimal use of ram. You might want to google yourself for reviews of ram as there are many price/performance considerations

unkel

BTW under the right circumstances (e.g. running a couple of years old silent barebones that you use as a server (ftp, linux, firewall, broadband, etc.) and probably run with a duron or t'bird and possibly underclocked as well) that price of €35 for 512MB is absolutely great

If you want to sell, I reckon you should get the purchase price back even here on boards

passive

buh.... okay..umm...i should have mentioned that i texted ronan and told him. he's buying it back next week. i did consider reselling it but because i don't understand the whole RD, DDR etc i decided it would be simpler and easier to leave selling it to him and luckily he was nice enough

i bought the pc from joe so i'll trust that its not going to work...

--what motherboard you have
-you wanted or did not want to use the ram with another stick

my brother found the list of what types of RAM i could use with it (before i purchased)
...and at present it doesn't work with or without the other stick (its an improvement on the old one, so either way was good).

thanks anyway, this is all too complicated for me though...i'll just bide my time with the 256 ram i have until something better (that i know will work for me) comes along

thanks for trying though unkel

Ronaldo7

your lucky he is letting you give the ram back. Most people wouldnt.

passive

maybe he's just less of an asshole than most people/what you think of most people

anyway as unkel pointed out reselling it won't be a problem...not like he's beng stuck with something useless...

unkel

Originally posted by passive
thanks for trying though unkel

No probs

Trying a bit more:

Ah looked up your buying the pc from joePC. Sweet deal that was indeed. Well joePC says you need PC2700 ram on this thread, I'm confident he is basing that on the ram in the system that he sold to you. It looks like he had that system running at 266 FSB which is the default for that cpu, so indeed the stick of ram you bought would not run (would run 200 FSB max). The ram actually would work on it's own or with the other stick of ram you had if you drop the FSB of your system from 266 to 200. This would slow down your pc though

So you are looking to get either a

1. 512 MB system. Get another 256 MB stick of the same speed rating
2. 768 MB system. Get another 512 MB stick of the same speed rating
3. 1024 MB system. Sell your 256 MB stick and buy 2 new 512 MB sticks. If this is your favoured route, post here or pm me for your options

I'd advise to get another stick of 256MB PC2700 ddr new or second hand. This is very cheap now and you can just stick it in beside the other one. This will work, you won't have to change any settings.

If you don't understand anything that has been posted in this thread, just read the last three lines above this paragraph and go ahead. It won't hurt you either to pm / phone joePC, that sold you the rig

Hope that helps

unkel

Originally posted by Ronaldo7
your lucky he is letting you give the ram back. Most people wouldnt.

That is a fair point - he made clear that it is caveat emptor all the way

Originally posted by passive
(or i'll hunt him down)

Now that is not necessary now, is it passive?

This board is about people helping people. If you buy something without knowing what you are at, you can't really expect other people to pay for your mistake. If in doubt, post a thread on the tech forum and people will help you there

passive

i was kidding about the hunting of course. the guy said to let him know if i had any problems

thanks again..good bit of advice to think on there

passive

you can't really expect other people to pay for your mistake. If in doubt, post a thread on the tech forum and people will help you there

ahem...while i thank you for the great amounts of help you've given now let us not forget:

passive:so yeah...my bad, can't buy that

If you can take DDR200 (PC1600) -184pin as you state, then you are ok. That is the memory that is offered

though yes...i do acknowledge i was wrong in the reason i thought i couldn't buy it.
and, as a final thought:

The ram actually would work on it's own or with the other stick of ram you had if you drop the FSB of your system from 266 to 200. This would slow down your pc though

how much of a slowdown are we talking about? and how would that be done?

Ronaldo7

Passive most people wouldn't.

passive

okay, i see where you're coming from. but the guy only had the ram himself because he made a similar mistake. and he told me to let him know if there was a problem...

and i myself would be as helpful in the same situation! and, more to the point, you weren't being helpful :mad:

Ronaldo7

I am being helpful. Dont make the same mistake again.

unkel

Originally posted by passive
how much of a slowdown are we talking about? and how would that be done?

Not that much. Go into bios and switch FSB to 100. It is now set to 133 so that would be down 25%. At the same time, increase the multiplier from 15, to maybe 18 or 20 if your motherboard allows it. If you get it to 20, you don't loose any speed at all really. If you are unsure, read the manual of the motherboard. If you don't have the manual, download it from the manufacturer's website

With FSB at 100, you will also be able to use the 256MB stick you had already as well at the same time, giving you 768MB

Stop whining about bad advice and people not being helpful cause that is clearly not the case

passive

okay, thank you very much. i'll give that a try. i was only joking regarding you being unhelpful, sorry to have offended. my first impression was you said it would work then it didn't...i now see theres much more too it than that. apologies and thanks for the advice

though ronaldo was just being a dick...ie: he's trying to say "serves you right and he shouldn't be taking it back".

unkel

No offence taken

I'm glad you understand memory a bit better now and that you'll try some suggestions. Keep us posted with the results

passive

hate to keep you posted so soon but just opened bios.
fsb wouldn't go below 133. i also couldn't find the multiplier setting? where is that (though i'd imagine theres no point if the fsb won't go down..unless that needs to be set first to allow the fsb to drop? *crosses fingers*)

i'm searching for a manual now anyway

unkel

Originally posted by passive
i'm searching for a manual now anyway

Do that first and study it

Originally posted by passive
fsb wouldn't go below 133

Unlikely. It could be a jumper on the motherboard instead of a BIOS setting. Get the manual and take it from there

Ronaldo7

Originally posted by passive
okay, thank you very much. i'll give that a try. i was only joking regarding you being unhelpful, sorry to have offended. my first impression was you said it would work then it didn't...i now see theres much more too it than that. apologies and thanks for the advice

though ronaldo was just being a dick...ie: he's trying to say "serves you right and he shouldn't be taking it back".

I'm not trying to say anything. I have said it before; it does serve you right. its your own fault for buying something and not having the slightest idea about it. Your lucky the guy you bought it from was decent enough to take it back because the reality is, most people wouldn't. I bet you won't make the same mistake again.

passive

I bet you won't make the same mistake again.

ditto to you regarding the child porn incident ronaldo.

but really, **** off....everyone else was giving helpful advice and you were being obnoxious. as you can see yes, i don't know much about it but i looked around and asked and when i bought them RAM i believed, with reasonable grounds, that it would work for me.

as it turns out it still may work for me if i can figure some things out so yes, maybe i was being a bit pessimistic/silly at the start but that doesn't invite you to be a patronising dick now, does it?

unkel

Originally posted by passive
ditto to you regarding the child porn incident ronaldo

Whah?

Originally posted by passive
but really, **** off....everyone else was giving helpful advice and you were being obnoxious... as it turns out it still may work for me if i can figure some things out so yes, maybe i was being a bit pessimistic/silly at the start but that doesn't invite you to be a patronising dick now, does it?

I don't know about the first bit, please provide evidence passive. Ronaldo7 was perfectly right in his remarks about your attitude and that the person selling the ram to you is not at all obliged to refund you. You have to change your attitude anyway m8

I have spent quite some time and attention advising you about your situation and I would appreciate if you would try and adopt a mentality that is more in line with the boards's spirit. I was hoping that after you'd obviously realised most people's intentions on this forum are good, you'd cool down a bit. Chill man. More people than you realise are reading this thread. Why don't you return the service and be good to someone else?

Ronaldo7

:rolleyes: to passives stupidity.

Edit: Unkel i pm'd you.