Vista Only Shows 1GB of RAM with 3GB installed

Shulgin

I bought a couple of 1gb sticks of ram for the dell vostro 200 in bargain alerts but they don`t show up in vista.

The bios shows "3gb memory installed" but only "1gb available"
CPU-Z shows the 3gb as being installed.
Vista still only shows 1gb.

Any idea how to fix this?

partyatmygaff

i have the very same problem with my memory, by any chance did you get it off ebay?
I got the 1gb stick from fastmemoryman.
Says 2gb installed 1gb available in bios and task manager but vista shows 2gb in my computer
Crysis hasnt been affected either nor has bf2 in load speeds etc which really is worrying.
cant try it out properly since im at work, maybe you can try removing the 2 x 512mb sticks and see what happens.

Shulgin

Yeah, I got it from fastmemoryman. I have tried installing the ram in all ways possible, but it still wont get recognised in vista.

With the 2 original 512mb sticks out and either or both of the 1gb sticks in the system won`t post/boot

Looks like they`ll have to go back :rolleyes:

partyatmygaff

yeah good luck with that this guy looks to be a pro in not issuing refunds, makes you pay postage to send back to him and likewise makes you pay for shipping to you

Shulgin

Yup,
Looks like its not worth sending it back to him. Bummer!

partyatmygaff

Im gonna try it, no way am i spending 20 euro of my hard earned money on something that doesnt work especially if i make 20 euro a day

If he doesnt refund me 100% of the money ill file a claim or something and say its Dead on Arrival(Its not working).

If you do the same we might have a chance to get a refund, say that abc_games has bought the ram too and it doesnt work in his pc either and we will spread bad publicity about him if he doesnt refund us the money we paid(Dont threaten him though since he might just refuse to spite us)

lol this better work,
Ill have a look for some better ram

partyatmygaff

actually on second thought update your bios on dells website and see if it makes a difference, no point throwing a way 2 stick of rams especially if they are being detected but not being used, could be simple as a bios update, give it a shot and run memtest86 to see whats wrong

Shulgin

It was the first thing i tried

CPU-Z sees the memory while in windows, the system just won`t use it.

partyatmygaff

memtest86?

partyatmygaff

apparently some motherboards are picky on module sizes, try taking out all the sticks and put in 2 x 1gb in dimm slots 1 and 3 and the 512mb in 2 and 4.

Shulgin

Tried all that, it doesn`t boot at all without one of the original 512mb fitted.

Not tried memtest

partyatmygaff

wont hardly make a difference i suppose, memtest only proves its crapped out, wont solve anything...
Well mine does show up in my computer where it says the cpu is an e2180 running at 2.0GHz and the memory
mine says 2gb, yours?
I got the same issue in bios though and games have not been affected

Shulgin

Mine just says 1gb whether extra ram is installed or not. :rolleyes:
Not a good sign! Notice that CPU-Z shows the extra ram?





Google doesn`t seem to bring up much either.

The bios says 3gb installed but only 1gb available so there is a problem starting there I suppose.

partyatmygaff

eh it shows as 2gb for me in vista but 1gb in bios, im confused
Can't do too much to troubleshoot though only had it in my hands for 30 mins in the morning before work, will try and find a solution to it though!!
Seems to be a working stick of ram but has some compatibility issues, try and install chipset drivers in windows from intel and write back

daftdave

partyatmygaff wrote: »

Im gonna try it, no way am i spending 20 euro of my hard earned money on something that doesnt work especially if i make 20 euro a day

If he doesnt refund me 100% of the money ill file a claim or something and say its Dead on Arrival(Its not working).

If you do the same we might have a chance to get a refund, say that abc_games has bought the ram too and it doesnt work in his pc either and we will spread bad publicity about him if he doesnt refund us the money we paid(Dont threaten him though since he might just refuse to spite us)

lol this better work,
Ill have a look for some better ram

if you google him on the net, there are lots of stories about him being a bit of a gangster regarding bad memory modules,

heres one !!

http://www.ev4.org/wordpress/2007/04/23/more-people-screwed-by-fastmemoryman/

and another ,
http://voxluna.org/sellers/fastmemoryman.html

buyer beware

partyatmygaff

to be fair to the man, he has 300000+ positive feedback so he cant be all that bad but at a price that low, you really do expect problems like this.
Anyways will try my luck and see if i can get a refund or if i can find a solution i will share it.

Shulgin

I just went and bought some real memory from corsair, Its hardly worth the negative feedback that joker will give if I open a dispute.

:mad:

If you do come up with anything in the meantime let us know Partyatmygaff.
Also, I`d say the ram is probably working but Vostro doesnt like it. 2x1gb sticks Going cheap lads!

partyatmygaff

will sell mine for 15, apparently its the foxconn mobo in the vostro with the problems, tried the ram in my other DDR2 pc and its working grand, hardly the seller's fault dell has ****ty motherboards

anyways up on adverts it goes

partyatmygaff

how much is the corsair? gimme a link

Shulgin

Sorry, it was crucial memory i went for

http://www.crucial.com/uk/

daftdave

Shulgin wrote: »

I just went and bought some real memory from corsair, Its hardly worth the negative feedback that joker will give if I open a dispute.

:mad:

If you do come up with anything in the meantime let us know Partyatmygaff.
Also, I`d say the ram is probably working but Vostro doesnt like it. 2x1gb sticks Going cheap lads!

i thought sellers cant leave bad feedback anymore, didnt they change the way buyers / sellers operate

Shulgin

daftdave wrote: »

i thought sellers cant leave bad feedback anymore, didnt they change the way buyers / sellers operate

Cool, thanks

eirman

daftdave wrote: »

if you google him on the net, there are lots of stories about him being a bit of a gangster regarding bad memory modules,

heres one !!

http://www.ev4.org/wordpress/2007/04/23/more-people-screwed-by-fastmemoryman/

Supposedly his own words .......

fastmemoryman said,

June 28, 2008 at 12:42 am

I must confess I am a crook. I buy huge quantities of reject/obsolete/unwanted stock from large manufacturers. All CPU, RAM, chips are tested and graded. In any manufacturing process batches are sample tested and if the batch has more than a certain number of failures then the batch is either downgraded to a lower quality or rejected. This was how floppy discs were sold as high density - they were the same as normal discs but their test results were higher so they were guaranteed to be able to store more data. I buy all the crap the computer world throws out and, because a lot of it works OK or the faults are not noticed by the user, I get away with some good feedback as I sell the items dirt cheap and claw back money on delivery charges and by witholding carriage and transaction fees on faulty goods. The name brand manufacturers reject anything with a certain percentage of errors or failures and I buy all the rejects up for peanuts and sell them to you suckers because over 60% of the reject stock seems to work in some fashion. Because ebay and Paypal encourage and harbour dishonest traders like me by making it so hard for punters to complain and get recourse for small value items I am making a very nice living. Thanks guys and keep on buying my tat because I think I’ll need to find a good laywer soon. FMM

witnessmenow

eirman did you know that gullible isn't a word in the dictionary!

There is no way he'd come out and say that