We have two almost identical Dell Inspiron desktops which are abou three and five years old respectively. We only need one of them now so before decommissioning one, I removed the 256MB of RAM and put it in the remaining machines spare RAM slot in the hope of speeding things up a bit.

However, on re-booting with the additional RAM in place the computer stops after just a few seconds.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for all advice.

If you take out the extra RAM does the machine boot normally?

Apart from the words "almost identical" in the original post (which could suggest that the RAM will not fit the 2nd computer/mobo/OS (whatever) - have you considered donating a working computer to someone who could use it, rather than decomission it?

Could you state the models of Inspiron please? They might be different?

When you say "stops after a few seconds", when exactly does this happen? On the XP/Vista boot screen? Does it blue screen and reboot, or just freeze?

Also, on the DIMM that you transplated into the machine you're keeping, can you please tell me what markings it has on it? i.e. speed such as PC3200 / DDR400 etc? Can you please post the same for the sticks that are in the machine already.

Thanks

Jamie

Whats the totalt amount of RAM your motherboard can take? Are you putting in the same amount of RAM in each slot? I.e are you other slots using 256mb card as well?

Both machines are Del 2400s.

The original machine's RAM is labelled:

Hynix 256MB DDR, 333, CL2.5
PC2700U-25330

The RAM I'm trying to add from the decommissioned machine is labelled:

Infineon 256MB DDR, 333, CL2.5
PC2700U-25330

There is one vacant RAM slot right next to the one currently in use. I've checked that the RAM is slotting in correctly.

I also swapped the RAMs around so using the Infineon in place of the Hynix
and the computer booted correctly/ Howewver, then adding the Hynix to the spare slot, it stopped booting up after about 10secs.

Many thanks

Most odd. Try going to 7dayshop.com and entering the machine details in their memory checker to see if you get offered exactly the same type of RAM.

Put your original stick back into slot 1, and then the donated stick into slot 2 as you've been doing and then try and reset your BIOS. Easiest way to do this is to take out the small circular CR2032 battery for approx. 30 seconds and then put it back in. Saves fiddling around with small jumpers....

If that doesn't work, then try both sticks in the other machine. If both sticks work together fine in the other machine, then it looks like you have an issue with the motherboard on the machine you want to continue using.

Very odd.

I had a similar issue with an older system, the motherboard said it could take up to 2GB of RAM so when I went to upgrade it from 1GB to 2GB it started doing the exact same thing.

I tried both High and Low density RAM but neither worked.

preduk,

I had exactly the same problem with an ASUS motherboard. Said it supported 2 x 1GB modules in the manual but turned out that it didn't.

ASUS admitted that they were aware of the problem, but would never do anything about it, such as provide a firmware upgrade. Perhaps it couldn't be cured by a software update. I don't remember.

But it has certainly made me think twice about buying from ASUS again.

SD

oncemorealoft,

Both machines are Del 2400s.

Strange, neither Kingston, Crucial nor even Dell websites have any mention of a 2400 inspiron model. :confused:

SD

Forget the Inspiron bitm they both say Dell 2400s. I think I'm confusing the nane 'Inspiron' with an old Dell laptop I once had.

Thanks for all the advice so far.

Ahh, Dimension 2400 -

Kingston (http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/configurator_new/modelsinfo.asp?SysID=16078&mfr=Dell&model=Dimension+2400&root=uk&LinkBack=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kingston.com%2Fukroot&Sys=16078-Dell-Dimension+2400&distributor=0&submit1=Search) and Crucial (http://crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx?model=Dimension%202400%20Series) both agree on what should work in your PC.

I'd be surprised if you have to go into the BIOS to set the RAM quantity - it should simply register it in the POST and possibly leave a message on screen until you hit F1 or something (I'm not familiar with Dell).

Either one of the modules is duff or one of the motherboards is duff (at least the second memory slot).

SD

Saab,

It's an ASUS motherboard I had at the time as well, I couldn't ever work out what the issue was but that would probably explain it.

You would have thought something like this would have been tested before they released the product.