Still the best memory testing utility:

MemTest86 - Download now!

If there's a memory problem, Memtest will find it.

SD

Indeed, but its no good if you cannot boot. But, yes SD it will be of interest to keep a regular check on memory.

Just a bit of interest on the problem.


I installed both strips of memory only to find that I was back to my original problem. No Boot! I tried various ways using each individually but it was useless. For the money I paid I did not expect a generic pieces but that is what I got.


I am returning them, another pain, and expect some quick results - will I get them? Probably not.

:ok:

When I was an electronics techie in the 50s I carried a LOT of duplicate valves, especially for tuners. Some would work in some sets and not in others. Not assuming new = working is a fundamental part of fault-finding.

Another swap is clearly called for, but what if that doesn't do the trick? What could limit the system to looking at 1 strip?

I suppose there is the remotest chance the computer is zaping the memory . . . sometimes. Maybe this is what your supplier will suggest. 1 gig strips are as cheap as chips (erm, they are chips) because people swap them for 2 or more gig strips. Any forum member got some used 1 gigs to test it with?

What does it do it you put each chip into the different memory slots?

I could envisage a "dead slot", or I could envisage an addressing issue in the memory controller where it can't go above a particular address, regardless of chip position.

I could also envisage the "that one doesn't work in this machine" that LR mentions with valves. I have a perfectly good RF pentode that won't work in my Quad FM tuner.

I haven't changed any memory chips in a long time, so the ones in my "bits" drawer in the workshop are prehistoric/obsolete (like me, I suppose).

It could be some FOD stuck in the slot. You could also have a bad slot (a friend has a unibody MBP with such an issue, only 1 memory slot usable).

Many years ago I learnt a valuable lesson through causing a small but intense fire by putting RAM that was too new in a slot that was too old... once the smoke cleared the damage was virtually unnoticable to the untrained eye, but the slot was (literally, to a certain extent) toast. :sad:

I think you've fried the motherboard by letting the CPU get too hot. AMD laptop CPUs are a pain for that