Knowledgeable Computer People: RAM question

mustangmike · 12-23-06, 09:24

A little background - I'm not a computer expert by any means but I do pretty good at keeping mine going, for an old guy anyway. I have an HP Pavilion 331n, 1.3GHz, 128Mb RAM, 40GHz HD, about 3 1/2 yrs old. Works good for the email and surfing that I do. I have cable internet.

A friend and I were discussing how much memory Windows XP required to run efficiently, one thing led to another, and I decided to upgrade my RAM to 512Mb which is the limit according to my instruction manual. Not knowing any better I Googled up a good price on some 168 pin DIMM unbuffered RAM and bought 2 - 256 Mb Kingston sticks from Newegg. I install it and it makes an amazing difference in the speed of my computer, everything works faster and better from email to forums to surfing.

I notice that my computer is only showing 256Mb of RAM when it should show 512Mb. I go to Kingston's site and discover that they have an application chart which shows that my computer should have different sticks than what I bought. Oops. Duh. My computer is not fully recognizing the RAM because of minor differences in the technology of the different sticks. I emailed Kingston tech support and asked if they think I should get the right sticks, they say yes, the sticks I have are untested with my computer. I can't return the sticks I have because Newegg's policy is once they are opened they are unreturnable.

My question is should I ditch the generic sticks I have and get the right, correct for my computer, ones? My computer is working better than it ever has with no problems with the incorrect sticks and I hate to change anything. I don't want to screw anything up either. Would it hurt to run the incorrect sticks until things settle down after Christmas or for a longer time span? What say ye?

Eliot Ness · 12-23-06, 09:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by mustangmike

.......My question is should I ditch the generic sticks I have and get the right, correct for my computer, ones? My computer is working better than it ever has with no problems with the incorrect sticks and I hate to change anything. I don't want to screw anything up either. Would it hurt to run the incorrect sticks until things settle down after Christmas or for a longer time span? What say ye?

*I* would change them just because it bothered me not having everything reported correctly, plus if it isn't reported correctly I'd be concerned about speed and stability issues.

But if you're happy with how it runs I don't see any damage that it would cause. What you might find, using incorrect memory, are system lock-ups, boot problems, BSD's (blue screen of death), possible kernel errors, memory dumps, etc. . Unless you have problems like those mentioned you really don't need to be in a hurry to replace it. I would get in the habbit of saving documents a bit sooner than you normally would just-in-case.

Setec Astronomy · 12-23-06, 09:52

+1 for Eliot's response. Always good practice to go through a configurator to make sure you are getting the right DIMMs cuz they are always tweaking the memory architecture and bus speeds (from SIMMs to DIMMs to Rambus to Dual Channel, from pairs to single to pairs, etc.)

paul34 · 12-23-06, 09:55

Yes, if you think the jump to 256 is good, wait until you get to 512

What I'd suggest is that if you have the money, go ahead and get the proper sticks. Just to make it a little easier, you might be able to sell your current incorrect RAM on eBay. You won't really get all of your money back, but at least something is better than nothing (that's my humble opinion anyway) ... good luck

mustangmike · 12-23-06, 10:18

Thanks for the input guys.

The discrepancy in the RAM reporting does bother me, like you say it does possibly open the door to other problems, like stability.

I can afford the correct sticks even though my credit card is still smoking from Christmas purchases, LOL. I did have the thought that what if I spend more money and get the correct sticks and the computer slows down? I would feel even worse then, but I could always put the incorrect sticks back in, LOL.

Yup, if getting to 256Mb makes this much difference I can only imagine how 512 would be. Good point about selling the incorrect sticks, maybe they will fit my friends computer, gotta check that out.

Thanks again.

Setec Astronomy · 12-23-06, 10:20

Nothing like plenty of memory, and it's so cheap now compared to the old days.

Sludge · 12-23-06, 11:28

mustangmike,

Before I spent more money on memory I would first check and make sure your second stick of memory is seated completely in the memory slot. The plastic tabs on either end should fit into the little notches on the end of the memory sticks. If it is properly seated I would swap sticks between the first and second slots and make sure one stick of memory is not dead. I can't see why incompatible memory would allow one stick to be identified and not the other. Finally I would check my bios and make sure there is no memory setting left unchecked in the bios. I've built my own computers for years and am not familiar with the HP bios. I had incompatible memory in my HP notebook and experienced problems like the blue screen of death and not being able to install Windows XP, but no problems with identifying the memory.

Hope this helps and good luck!

PS: Merry Christmas

BlackElantraGT · 12-23-06, 12:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sludge

mustangmike,

Before I spent more money on memory I would first check and make sure your second stick of memory is seated completely in the memory slot. The plastic tabs on either end should fit into the little notches on the end of the memory sticks. If it is properly seated I would swap sticks between the first and second slots and make sure one stick of memory is not dead. I can't see why incompatible memory would allow one stick to be identified and not the other. Finally I would check my bios and make sure there is no memory setting left unchecked in the bios. I've built my own computers for years and am not familiar with the HP bios. I had incompatible memory in my HP notebook and experienced problems like the blue screen of death and not being able to install Windows XP, but no problems with identifying the memory.

Hope this helps and good luck!

PS: Merry Christmas

+1 on his advice.

It seems like you have a very basic computer and I'm going to assume that since it's 3 years old, you're system is probably using built-in video and using shared ram. I recently added more RAM to a friend's laptop and the built in video went from using 8 mb of ram, to 128 mb on its own without me actually changing it in the BIOS. So check your BIOS to see if the missing 256mb is possibly going there.

In any case, if it turns out you actually did get the wrong memory, I wouldn't waste my money on buying more ram. RAM is the opposite of most things when it comes to price. It's usually the cheapest when you have newer technology RAM. As the technology gets older, less and less are made and older RAM technology will often cost more.

IMO, you're better off spending that money towards another basic ho-hum $400 desktop system. You'll get a faster computer, more hard drive space, and maybe last you another few years.

mustangmike · 12-23-06, 12:18

OK, pretty sure the sticks are seated, the clamps locked in place. I could swap the sticks in the slots though. My thought was that the computer was recognizing part of each stick because they are the wrong part number for my computer.

Not sure how I would check the BIOS. Could you give me a hint on how to do that?

Thanks, and Merry Christmas to you!

jasonmac · 12-23-06, 01:10

What happens when you reboot the computer -- you should see a RAM "counter", a quick RAM test that displays how much the PC recognizes.

Try looking at the text when you start the PC and watch for a quickly changing number.

Sludge · 12-23-06, 01:19

I went to the HP website and checked out your bios. The information there is generic (applies to all HP & Compaq models). To enter the bios you press either F1 or Esc when the computer is booting (you will see the screen which tells you which key to press when you turn the computer on). The bios should display the memory banks and the amount of memory in each memory bank. This will tell you if each memory slot is working. Don't change settings in the bios unless you know what you are doing. Just look at the main screen, check your memory and exit with no changes.

Good luck and hope it works for you.

Sludge

mustangmike · 12-23-06, 01:23

My computer does not display a RAM counter during boot up. Nor is there a place to click "set up" and get into the BIOS area like I have seen on other computers.

On the plus side I can't get over how fast it boots up now. What used to drag out to a 5 minute process now takes about 60 seconds.