Hi All, My neighbor went to Off

[Sniperdude]

Hi All,

My neighbor went to Office MAX and bought a PC133 256MB Dimm (Kingston brand) to upgrade her memory with the thought we may upgrade to Win XP. Here's what happened:

1. I added the new chip (along with the original 64MB chip) and the computer says it found new hardware and installed something? When I went to check, it said only 80MB RAM was installed.

2. I then removed the original 64MB chip and placed the 256 MB chip into the "0" slot (no 64MB chip) and the computer will not even boot up.

3. I replaced the 256MB chip with the original 64 MB chip and the computer starts normally with no messages or errors.

My question is: Is this indicative of a defective memory chip?

I have a feeling Office MAX is going to give me a hard time trying to return the chip so I want to be sure before I go into battle.

Thanks...Bill

The machine is a Dell L866r
Pentium 3, 866 mghz CPU
Windows ME OS

 

[sidech]

I might be mistaken, but the specs I pulled up show that model as using pc100 ram, and the newer pc133 chips are made much denser and are no longer backwards-compatible. Try returning what you purchased and get pc100 sdram.

Memory
Architecture non-ECC SDRAM 168-pin modules DIMM sockets two; gold contacts DIMM capacities 32, 64, 128, 256, and 512 MB Minimum RAM 32 MB (64 MB for systems running Microsoft® Windows NT®)1 Maximum RAM 512 MB Frequency 100 MHz Clock cycle 10 ns (supports four clocks only) CAS latency three SPD revision 1.2 Buffering unbuffered Voltage 3.3 V Data bus width 64 bits BIOS address F0000h 1 Video memory uses 1 or 2 MB of system memory (RAM). Total RAM reported is 1 or 2 MB less than RAM installed.

Sid

 

[pudda]

According to Dell, your system supports PC100 memory. Usually PC133 memory is backwards compatable, but am only going by Crucial info. Specs on your system memory:

Architecture non-ECC SDRAM 168-pin modules
DIMM sockets two; gold contacts
DIMM capacities 32, 64, 128, 256, and 512 MB
Minimum RAM 32 MB (64 MB for systems running Microsoft® Windows NT®)1
Maximum RAM 512 MB
Frequency 100 MHz
Clock cycle 10 ns (supports four clocks only)
CAS latency three
SPD revision 1.2
Buffering unbuffered
Voltage 3.3 V
Data bus width 64 bits
BIOS address F0000h

Notice the clock cycle of 10ns, which is probably where your problem lies with the new memory.

 

[pudda]

sidech, your click is faster than mine!

 

[sidech]

Think we need to work on our timing....But hey, twice as much info is better than none at all.

 

[Sniperdude]

Hi,

Sorry, but I forgot to mention that the 64MB chip they currently have (the one that works) is a PC133 chip as well.

 

[euclid]

as stated by sidech and pudda there was a time that pc133 was backward compatible. lately memory manufacturers have stated that their pc133 is no longer compatible with pc100. so your old pc133 is compatible with pc100 but not the newer ones.

 

[pctek11]

The spec, PC133, is technically backwards compatible with PC100 motherboards. However, you'll come to find that some chips work while others don't, as in your case.

sidech is close. It is true that newer PC133 chips are more dense than older ones were. This leads to problems with on PC100 motherboards that are looking for a particular density. There's no guarantee dense chips will or will not work. You almost always have to "try and see" to know for sure.

However, one guideline to buying PC133 for older boards is to make sure it's dual-sided (modules on both sides of the stick). They are typically less dense, but are harder to find these days. You can ask vendors of this requirement before you waste your money.

One final note I must mention. Just because it's a newer PC133 "single-sided" chip doesn't mean it won't work. It just depends on the motherboard. At least that's what I've noticed in my experience

pctek

 

[euclid]

just be sure it is not a pny stick. check this disclaimer on their website...

http://www.pny.com/home/products/edo.cfm