RAM-Upgrade not working

Spartacus1811

I have an old Packard Bell desktop computer (iMedia 4709) with RAM of 256MB.(2X128MB).I know that nowadays this amount of RAM is laughable but as I planned to let the kidds use it for just going online, I tought I max out the RAM on this baby to 512MB (2x256MB). Got the RAM, installed it and hoped for at least some noticable increase in performance, but it seems to be just as slow as before. Also when I checked my "System properties" it still only showes 256MB of RAM. Do I have to tell the computer that I installed more RAM or did I do something wrong along the way, or should I just forget about it ??
Any help on this is greatly appreciated.;)

marco_polo

Spartacus1811 wrote: »

I have an old Packard Bell desktop computer (iMedia 4709) with RAM of 256MB.(2X128MB).I know that nowadays this amount of RAM is laughable but as I planned to let the kidds use it for just going online, I tought I max out the RAM on this baby to 512MB (2x256MB). Got the RAM, installed it and hoped for at least some noticable increase in performance, but it seems to be just as slow as before. Also when I checked my "System properties" it still only showes 256MB of RAM. Do I have to tell the computer that I installed more RAM or did I do something wrong along the way, or should I just forget about it ??
Any help on this is greatly appreciated.;)

It should be show the correct amount of RAM if it was working properly. As a first step I would try reinstalling it as it may not be sitting in the slot fully.

Spartacus1811

Thanks for Reply, but I tried all that by taking it out and putting it back in and switching it around, but to no avail.

marco_polo

If you try each RAM stick one at a time, in either slot you should be able to figure out if you have a bad stick of RAM or a bad slot on the motherboard.

If it is faulty RAM then send it back

Spartacus1811

I will try that tomorrow and will let you know how I got on. Thanks

Spartacus1811

marco_polo wrote: »

If you try each RAM stick one at a time, in either slot you should be able to figure out if you have a bad stick of RAM or a bad slot on the motherboard.

If it is faulty RAM then send it back

I tried what you suggested and put in one RAM stick at a time in either slot and what came up was that each RAM stick showed 128MB of RAM (they are labled at 256MB RAM), the Desktop display was, as you can imagine dreadful.
When I put both sticks back in it showed my usual 256Mb of RAM.
Surely the sticks are not 128Mb RAM sold as 256Mb ???
Do I have to tell the machine that the RAM has changed ?? Sorry if I sound a bit "Thick" but I dont know what it could be.
Thanks

DECEiFER

Spartacus1811 wrote: »

I tried what you suggested and put in one RAM stick at a time in either slot and what came up was that each RAM stick showed 128MB of RAM (they are labled at 256MB RAM), the Desktop display was, as you can imagine dreadful.
When I put both sticks back in it showed my usual 256Mb of RAM.
Surely the sticks are not 128Mb RAM sold as 256Mb ???
Do I have to tell the machine that the RAM has changed ?? Sorry if I sound a bit "Thick" but I dont know what it could be.
Thanks

Hi Spartacus,

Did you ever check in Windows before buying that second stick what the amount was showing up as, in the System Properties? You said both sticks are labelled as being 256MB each, but besides that, did you have any other indication in the past that the original stick was 256MB?

marco_polo

Spartacus1811 wrote: »

I tried what you suggested and put in one RAM stick at a time in either slot and what came up was that each RAM stick showed 128MB of RAM (they are labled at 256MB RAM), the Desktop display was, as you can imagine dreadful.
When I put both sticks back in it showed my usual 256Mb of RAM.
Surely the sticks are not 128Mb RAM sold as 256Mb ???
Do I have to tell the machine that the RAM has changed ?? Sorry if I sound a bit "Thick" but I dont know what it could be.
Thanks

You don't have to tell windows about the memory as it can autodetect it (Essentially the RAM sticks hold information about their own specs which the OS reads).

Just to confirm my understanding of the situation, you believed you were replacing 2 X 128 Mb stick with 2 X 256 Mb sticks of RAM (that are each labled with a 256Mb sticker) ?

As it is orders of magnitude less likely that both RAM modules are reporting their physical size incorrectly to windows, I would be fairly certain that you have recieved a 2 X 128 Mb Ram kit as a result of a labeling error (I would hope unintentional) or perhaps the label was intended to mean the kit size was 256Mb and somebody has made a mistake.

Just to be double check for 110% certainty download CPU-Z, it will almost definatey agree with windows, and in that case send the RAM back to the vendor.

Spartacus1811

marco_polo wrote: »

You don't have to tell windows about the memory as it can autodetect it (Essentially the RAM sticks hold information about their own specs which the OS reads).

Just to confirm my understanding of the situation, you believed you were replacing 2 X 128 Mb stick with 2 X 256 Mb sticks of RAM (that are each labled with a 256Mb sticker) ?

As it is orders of magnitude less likely that both RAM modules are reporting their physical size incorrectly to windows, I would be fairly certain that you have recieved a 2 X 128 Mb Ram kit as a result of a labeling error (I would hope unintentional) or perhaps the label was intended to mean the kit size was 256Mb and somebody has made a mistake.

Just to be double check for 110% certainty download CPU-Z, it will almost definatey agree with windows, and in that case send the RAM back to the vendor.

Thanks for that link; its a good program. Just sending you a screen print of the result.

Spartacus1811

DECEiFER wrote: »

Hi Spartacus,

Did you ever check in Windows before buying that second stick what the amount was showing up as, in the System Properties? You said both sticks are labelled as being 256MB each, but besides that, did you have any other indication in the past that the original stick was 256MB?

Hi Deciefer,

Thanks for your reply. The RAM-sticks I took out are both the original sticks that came with the computer and are 128MB each and the new ones are labelled 256MB each. Look at the attachment I send to "marco Polo". What do you think?

DECEiFER

Spartacus1811 wrote: »

Hi Deciefer,

Thanks for your reply. The RAM-sticks I took out are both the original sticks that came with the computer and are 128MB each and the new ones are labelled 256MB each. Look at the attachment I send to "marco Polo". What do you think?

Oh I see, I misunderstood. Gotcha now.

It can happen that Windows lies when you put in new hardware, such as RAM or a new CPU. If I was you, I'd do a CMOS reset on your motherboard (if you know how). It's actually quite easy, but every motherboard varies. If you have the manual handy, it'll certainly tell you in that. It's usually done by powering down the PC, taking out the mains plug from the back (or turning the power switch to off on the PSU) and letting the capacitors drain for a quick moment, until there is no sign of life in the machine at all. A jumper spanning two pins on the board will be around the bottom-right area (again, where exactly varies from motherboard to motherboard), but there will be a third pin present. At this stage you'd move the jumper over one pin to the left or right for a mere few seconds, say 10 to be safe. This shorts out the battery. Move the jumper back to its original position after that and you're set to power on. Your BIOS will report that defaults have been loaded on the POST screen. You should enter the BIOS setup to change any values you wish to change, if any. The reason you want to reset is so the BIOS can take a new hardware profile from your system, a refresh if you will. Doing this when you put in new RAM can be advantageous.

Now, if you can't do that, not the end of the world. But you're not going to like this next step. If you haven't already re-installed Windows since putting in the new sticks, I highly recommend you do. The reasons for this are simply because it'll freshen the PC up performance wise and it might sort out Windows' tendency to lie.

You should a full format clean install. Be sure to back up all needed files from the OS drive before you go to install XP again as they'll be lost otherwise.

marco_polo

Mmm windows was lying. DECEiFER gave good advice above so nothing to add.

DECEiFER

marco_polo wrote: »

Mmm windows was lying. DECEiFER gave good advice above so nothing to add.

Happened to me sure when I built my i7 and lobbed in leftovers from my Core 2 Duo rig, including the Hard Drives with my two Windows 7 installations. I was planning on re-installing a day later, I just wanted test what would happen if I procrastinated for a day. The 32-bit one picked the i7 up fine, the 64-bit one didn't have a clue what CPU was running, still showing two cores in Taskmanagers' Performance tab. :pac:

Spartacus1811

DECEiFER wrote: »

Oh I see, I misunderstood. Gotcha now.

It can happen that Windows lies when you put in new hardware, such as RAM or a new CPU. If I was you, I'd do a CMOS reset on your motherboard (if you know how). It's actually quite easy, but every motherboard varies. If you have the manual handy, it'll certainly tell you in that. It's usually done by powering down the PC, taking out the mains plug from the back (or turning the power switch to off on the PSU) and letting the capacitors drain for a quick moment, until there is no sign of life in the machine at all. A jumper spanning two pins on the board will be around the bottom-right area (again, where exactly varies from motherboard to motherboard), but there will be a third pin present. At this stage you'd move the jumper over one pin to the left or right for a mere few seconds, say 10 to be safe. This shorts out the battery. Move the jumper back to its original position after that and you're set to power on. Your BIOS will report that defaults have been loaded on the POST screen. You should enter the BIOS setup to change any values you wish to change, if any. The reason you want to reset is so the BIOS can take a new hardware profile from your system, a refresh if you will. Doing this when you put in new RAM can be advantageous.

Now, if you can't do that, not the end of the world. But you're not going to like this next step. If you haven't already re-installed Windows since putting in the new sticks, I highly recommend you do. The reasons for this are simply because it'll freshen the PC up performance wise and it might sort out Windows' tendency to lie.

You should a full format clean install. Be sure to back up all needed files from the OS drive before you go to install XP again as they'll be lost otherwise.

Thanks for all the great advice. After I do CMOS reset and the computer finally recognises 512Mb of RAM, will that improve the performance or is it just for showing the correct RAM? :rolleyes:

DECEiFER

Spartacus1811 wrote: »

Thanks for all the great advice. After I do CMOS reset and the computer finally recognises 512Mb of RAM, will that improve the performance or is it just for showing the correct RAM? :rolleyes:

The CMOS is more of a precaution and comes recommended so your system does run as it should, it may or may not be needed in your case. It's hard to tell from sitting here. :P

Installing Windows again will give it that new PC feel, and since you're 256MB up from when the PC was new, you should see some loading time improvements and browsing improvements too, for an everyday example. Even using Windows Explorer to view a large amount of files (particularly image and movie files, where thumbnails are cached) in the folder should see a marked improvement.

But truth be told, 512MB of RAM is a bit 2003. So long as you use the PC as you would have in 2003, then there shouldn't be an issue with performance. Though with the web getting chunkier by the day and tabbed browsing being standardized (as opposed to one window displaying one web page at a time), you'd have to curtail your browsing habits respective of multiple sites being opened compared to a machine with 1GB+.