£30 to change your life

[zak_swan]

i've just bought 512mb ram. what a difference.
pc was too slow but in task manager it always said i had loads of ram left.
done anti virus, ad aware, defragmented hard drive cleaned out registery still slow.
stuck in extra ram, bingo new pc!

[Capmaster]

It's a cheap way to turbocharge a PC, isn't it? I doubled my RAM 3 months ago and it doesn't even breathe hard now, even with four or five things going on at once 8)

[waheed]

yep, upgrading ram can make a huge difference.

[808smokey]

Yup, you can never have too much RAM. Until you exceed the limits of the motherboard of course

[glockjs]

my dad and my sister both still yell at me..."my computer is freakin slow, what can i do?!" and i yell at them back "RAM!" stupid dells they bought came with 64mbx2 and they're runnin xp. yup, ram is just as important as any other component in your system

[zak_swan]

have got 1024 Mb installed but only 768 showing.


have put it in according to MOBO manual, has anyone got a solution?

[zak_swan]

[waheed]

try using latest CPU-Z

Or it may be that you only have 768MB installed. the second slot is showing as 256MB stick and a completely different brand to the other one.

Slot 1: 512MB PC2700
Slot 2: 256MB PC2100

[zak_swan]

i've got two, 256Mb sticks which were running at 133MHZ so double that its 266 and 5:4 ratio takes it up to 333MHZ.

added 512Mb which is PC2700 which runs at 333MHZ.
so should have 1024Mb running at 333MHZ.

task manager says i have 768, so does system information and also when i boot pc.

dunno. still running much faster but would like to know if ram is working but not showing full amount due to combination?

[glockjs]

go into bios and set it so fsb:ram is running 1:1....and manually set the timings to match your slowest ram. your computer will run sooo much better. hopefully that pc2100 will run 1:1

[zak_swan]

i'm far from an expert on this not really sure but if pc2100 was running at 1:1 then it would only be 266MHZ and my cpu runs at 333MHZ so it would be lowering fsb.
also still wanting to know why i apparently have 256Mb missing.

[zak_swan]

is running a 5:4 ratio a bad thing?
the 2 pc2100 sticks are about 3 years old, they were in pc when i got it off my brother but i added new MOBO and cpu.
is 5:4 ratio kind of like overclocking?
i'm thinking maybe i should bin them and buy another identical 512Mb stick?

[Faustus]

I really want to goto a gig but can't afford it yet. More RAM = more gooder

[glockjs]

is running a 5:4 ratio a bad thing?
the 2 pc2100 sticks are about 3 years old, they were in pc when i got it off my brother but i added new MOBO and cpu.
is 5:4 ratio kind of like overclocking?
i'm thinking maybe i should bin them and buy another identical 512Mb stick?

well having a gap can cause probs. no need to trash em if you can get them running 1:1 stable. nah not overclocking. overclocking means making something run faster the what its rated for. which you will be doing once you fix you ram. hehe. basically the ram is running slower than the fsb right now. you want to bring the ram up to the same speed as your fsb basically giving u a 1:1 ratio. go into bios and find the setting for the ratio. right now it should be in auto. make it so its 100% or some show 3/3 4/4 5/5 6/6 but its all the same. then run memtest86 http://www.memtest.org/ and let it run through a few times. make a floppy and do it from first boot so if you do have errors it doest jack up the os. good luck. btw if you do get errors try relaxing the timings on the ram. higher number=more relaxed. so if its at 2.5 3 3 8 run it at 3 4 4 8 and just mess with it til you get the lowest numbers possible that are stable. and if you have an nforce2 board run the last timing at 11. it's been known to help.

[zak_swan]

thanks for replies but seems i've messed up pretty bad.
reason only 768 was showing was cause i have damaged 3rd dimm slot.
according to manual i need it for dual channel.
is there anyway to repair dimm slots?
or will i need new mobo.
i've just bought another 512mb stick (before i read your reply glockjs)
if i put sticks in dimm1 and dimm 2 it will only be 64mb data transfer rather than 128mb.
would this be much slower than it should be?

[waheed]

if you have physically damaged the 3rd dimm slot, then im afraid its unrepairable.

it would be helpful if you state you make and model your motherboard is. better still, fill in the computer specs under your profile.

[waheed]

to run dual channel (if your mobo supports it) use the 4th dimm instead of the damaged 3rd dimm.

[zak_swan]

only got 3 dimms.
i've cracked one end of dimm but when i push it in and hold it and start pc it works, so if i can just find a way to stick it together.
how dangerous is glue near mobo?
i'm getting desperate now lol
should of called it £30 to give yourself stress.

[waheed]

what make is your motherbaord?

Does it support dual channel?

[zak_swan]

it's a lex bnnf2 motherboard, it does support dual channel.
on dimm1 and dimm3, dimm 2 and 3, and dimm 1, 2 and 3 but i've broke 3!
how much slower is single channel?

[zak_swan]

managed to cut a bit of plastic off one of my kids toys and form it round cracked end of dimm.
everything is working fine now.
will try to come up with a better solution but just glad its working now.
will run memory test later.
thanks for replies.

[glockjs]

new nforce 2 mobos are dirt cheap these days as a last resort

[zak_swan]

ram seams to be working fine. it's just a little crack in dimm and ram couldn't of been touching dimm properly.
would a ram heat spreader go over dim and hold it together?
could'nt be bothered putting new motherboard in last time i done it it took me 3 days. might be able to get it down to 2 now lol
read somewhere u cannot activate xp online now, so during repair, after fitting new mobo how would u activate it?
or do u have to after repair?

[glockjs]

i dont think the heat spreaders would do much for u.

as for your other question:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=263243

[zak_swan]

system kept freezing so i took out ram from dodgy dimm.
any pc working fine now.
just wondering is there a chance i have damaged the stick by putting it in dodgy dimm?
i don't mean physically like scratching it i mean by short circuiting it or something.
so looks like a new motherboard for me.
just wondering what's the fastest u guys can install new motherboard and get windows up and running again?

[zak_swan]

found this a bit interesting.
http://www.computing.net/gaming/wwwboard/forum/1725.html
the bit written by jam not the other ones
http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=480&pid=1769

[glockjs]

system kept freezing so i took out ram from dodgy dimm.
any pc working fine now.
just wondering is there a chance i have damaged the stick by putting it in dodgy dimm?
i don't mean physically like scratching it i mean by short circuiting it or something.
so looks like a new motherboard for me.
just wondering what's the fastest u guys can install new motherboard and get windows up and running again?

easiest way to tell is put the suspect ram in the good slot and run it.

as far as putting a mobo in it all depends on the person and the system. im not the quickest in the world. with my big dopey hands and rather large heatsink to seat it took me about 30-45 min last time. but my windows installed in 11 min. garsh i love SATA now hehe

[Nelson37]

Many mobo's will either run flakey or fail to recognize one or more modules when mismatched RAM is installed. Always match all RAM chips, this will avoid much grief.

As for speed to put one in, depends on number of cards and size of case, number of case-cable connections, gyrations required to fit the cables, etc. 5-10 minutes would be fast but not unusual.

You may need to re-install XP and re-register with M$, the re-register is a pain but the re-install actually is a good thing, many drivers, etc. required by the old board should be removed anyway.