Ram Issue

Giarc86

Giarc86

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Toady I opened up my pc to clean it, as I do from time to time, and after I'd finished I switched on I got beeps. Now I have had this problem before with ram being the culprit, so I didn't take the Ram modules out this time to clean. I have two 1GB's in my machine but of different brands, Kingmax and Apacer. Normally I take one out and then start up, switch off, put the one back in and it works fine but not today.

The Apacer seems to be the problem as the Kingmax works fine in both slots, but as soon as I put the Apacer in, either with the Kingmax or by itself, I get beeps.

Does anyone know why suddenly they wont work together?
They were working perfectly fine together before.

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Most likley somehow you damaged it. Are you using different slots, or putting the sticks back into their same slots? One slot might be dusty or failing...
 
That's what's strange because the Kingmax works in both slots, and the Apacer in neither of them. Apacer wont work by itself or with Kingmax.
The Apacer module is working because I put it in my sisters machine and it was fine. She also has Apacer in her machine. I then put her 533 512MB in my machine and it also wont work.

It is as if my motherboard isn't compatible with Apacer and it's only just realised that.
 
My breath and a cotton bud lol I Just blow most of the dust out and then use the cotton bud to get the dust between the CPU fan and heat sink out as it's a mission to get the fan off.
 
I wonder if the cotton bud could have built up static...

Also, breath isn't ideal as it contains moisture. Best to use compressed air, you can get a can of it from photography shops.
 
OK thanks I shall do that in future.

Both memory slots work though because the Kingmax works in both and the Apacer module works because I tried it in my sister's PC.
Could static build up prevent a certain module from working in a pc while another module is fine though?
 
PseudZ said:
OK thanks I shall do that in future.

Both memory slots work though because the Kingmax works in both and the Apacer module works because I tried it in my sister's PC.
Could static build up prevent a certain module from working in a pc while another module is fine though?
Click to expand...
Yes. You can damage a single module with static electricity.

I've just had 2x Corsair Value Select DDR400 modules RMA'd successfully (by Rectron). Now I just need to go and collect them from the shop. :D
 
If the module "works" in another PC, then I'd suggest that you run memtest x86 to ensure that it's not faulty.
If the memtest x86 test was successful and didn't find any faults with it, then just clean out the RAM slots of the other PC and try the module in different slots.
 
I think the problem is possibly with your bios. What motherboard do you have?
It could be that you need to change the fsb (Dunno how it would have changed though) or set some compatibility thing for your memory speed..
 
nakedpeanut said:
I think the problem is possibly with your bios. What motherboard do you have?
It could be that you need to change the fsb (Dunno how it would have changed though) or set some compatibility thing for your memory speed..
Click to expand...
+1

It could very well be a timing/voltage issue, especially if you're mixing different modules!

See if you can get it working with just that one "faulty" one, and the move on from there.
You might want to loosen the memory timings such that it matches the timings of the slowest module.
 
Thanks for all the help guys. I finally got it sorted out. It was the DRAM timing setting in the BIOS. It was on auto and looked as if it had chosen DDR400. I changed it to DDR800 and they are both working perfectly.

Just seems strange that it was always working on those settings and suddenly not.
Thanks :)
 
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