New Memory Card

[Johnny Rebel]

So:

My computer shit the bed today, was on the phone with Dell support for about 40 min (much shorter than I thought) and it became apparant that either one of my memory cards was fucked, or my whole motherboard was. I called up my nerdiest friend who also agreed, suggesting I probably just need a new card. So I went to best buy, bought one that the Geek Squad Guy said would work, put it in, and now my compter is working fine.

My question is, how can I find out if my computer is running with both memory cards, or just one, cause the guy also said it could work with one but would just run slower.

I have a Dell XPS Gen 3, desktop.

I did way too much before noon on my day off.

[weknowhowtolive]

Do you mean RAM?

What was it doing that made it "not work"

You can pull out one stick of ran, the one that you know works, and try it in both slots, do the same with the other, swap em both around. Also check and make sure they are both the same type (DDR, DDR2 and the same speed, 3200, 5400, 6600 whatever)

[Johnny Rebel]

RAM, yeah, whatever. I got 512MB DDR2 PC2 4300 in there now. Factory was Samsung 419, I picked up a Kingston 512MB PC2-4200.

When it wasn't working, I mean just that. I turn my pc on, the tower itself beeped for a while, and no activity on the moniter.

I swapped em (the new and the working old) around for a bit, it worked, but I think I'm gonna go back in there tomorrow to make sure.

I was just wondering if there was some program I could run or something in 'My Computer' which would tell me if I was operating on one or two-

[weknowhowtolive]

RAM, yeah, whatever. I got 512MB DDR2 PC2 4300 in there now. Factory was Samsung 419, I picked up a Kingston 512MB PC2-4200.

When it wasn't working, I mean just that. I turn my pc on, the tower itself beeped for a while, and no activity on the moniter.

I swapped em (the new and the working old) around for a bit, it worked, but I think I'm gonna go back in there tomorrow to make sure.

I was just wondering if there was some program I could run or something in 'My Computer' which would tell me if I was operating on one or two-Well, there are multiple programs that will tell you whats running in what slot. Everest Home was the best but its no longer free. CPU-Z is a good one too, and free. Also A64Tweak.

You could also download a program called Memtest86, burn it to a CD as an ISO and run it on bootup. Itll report any errors but you got to run it for about 2 hours.

Usually there are beep codes per motherboard that will tell you what the error is.


Or if all else fails you could open the "System" tab when you right click > properties on my computer and see how much ram it says you have, then take a stick out and do it again.

By the way, always make sure you're grounded when you open the case up.

[PapaSkin]

I second the CPUZ download - I love that lil guy!

[weknowhowtolive]

I second the CPUZ download - I love that lil guy!I cant believe you bought an E6300...

[BigBroMC]

When you start up your computer it should do a memory test first thing (shows up as #######KB OK)

That's how much memory your computer is utilizing (including your video card if it has its own). It should sync up with what you know you should have (so if you have 2 512 chips and no memory on your video card, it should show 1048576KB OK).

[Johnny Rebel]

shazam. Just ran the CPUZ, said single on the memory channels, opened her up, the one I put in earlier looked funny, flipped it around, booted it up, now I got dual memory channels runnin 1024 MB. Thanks to wkhtl for the recommendation and papa for the endorsement.

[weknowhowtolive]

shazam. Just ran the CPUZ, said single on the memory channels, opened her up, the one I put in earlier looked funny, flipped it around, booted it up, now I got dual memory channels runnin 1024 MB. Thanks to wkhtl for the recommendation and papa for the endorsement.You got the stick in backwards?

[Johnny Rebel]

You got the stick in backwards?


It's my day off, I partook in some herbal remedies after waking up prior to booting up my pc for the day, haha

[weknowhowtolive]

No thats just amazing...I've seen some fucked up computer shit but I've never heard of someone actually jamming RAM in the wrong way. I mean...its got fuckin slots in it.

[Johnny Rebel]

No thats just amazing...I've seen some fucked up computer shit but I've never heard of someone actually jamming RAM in the wrong way. I mean...its got fuckin slots in it.


it wasn't upside down or nothin, it went in as BA instead of AB, the middle slot is slightly ascrew from the middle and in my cautious state I didn't wanna put too much force into it and waste $57 ya know?