Issues with installing RAM, please help??!!

[flynnflynn]

Somebody please help me, I am pulling my hair out over this. I bought some new RAM for my desktop, two sticks of SAMSUNG 512MB PC2700. I already had one MOSEL 512MB PC2700 stick in there and have two slots so I intended to remove that and install the two SAMSUNG sticks. A two minute job, or so I thought. Here I am six hours later and still not done it.

Basically, windows will not boot with two sticks in, it will only boot with one,. It will boot with any of the sticks in slot 1 with nothing in slot 2, and it will also boot with the MOSEL stick in slot 2 with nothing in slot 1.

I have tried it with both SAMSUNGS in and with a SAMSUNG and the MOSEL in either combination but it still will not boot.

I find it vey strange that only the MOSEL will work in slot 2 but not a SAMSUNG??

When I boot with two cards, they are registered in the BIOS as 1024 but when I carry on, I get to the Windows XP loading screen and then it goes on to CHKDSK. If I cancel it, the computer reboots after a few seconds of a blank screen, if I let CHKDSK run, it freezes on stage 2.
I did manage to get into safe mode once but not anymore. When I did, I checked 'System' in 'Control Panel' and it registered as 1.00 GB of RAM.

When I run it with any of the three sticks in slot 1 or just the MOSEL in slot 2, the computer boots fine. One thing I have noticed though is, when using one stick the BIOS menu differs slightly from when I use two sticks. There's two menu items labelled "LANGUAGE" and "HALT ON" which are not present when booting with two sticks.

If I run with one of the samsungs in slot 2 and nothing in slot 1, I just get a long beep when I boot.

Before I ordered the Ram, I checked that my Motehrboard could handle it and it can.

My P.C. spec:

Sony Vaio PCV-RZ221
Intel Inside Pentium 4 HT
160GB HD
500GB HD
Motherboard - ASUSTek P4S533VL

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

[flynnflynn]

Ok say now I have used my recovery disks and completely reinstalled windows (which I could only do with one 512MB stick in) and now when I boot with two sticks in, it logs on to windows successfully but I can't open any applications and after a few minutes I get an error report that says windows has 'encountered a serious error'. When I click 'don't send', the computer just reboots. So now I'm back to one stick again.

[Blencogo]

Hi flynnflynn and welcome to Club Vaio.

Not sure what to suggest here - it sounds a bit of a mystery.

Just check the exact specification of the Samsung memory you have bought. Make sure it is "non-EEC" memory as your Vaio cannot use EEC memory.

[flynnflynn]

Hi flynnflynn and welcome to Club Vaio.

Not sure what to suggest here - it sounds a bit of a mystery.

Just check the exact specification of the Samsung memory you have bought.  Make sure it is "non-EEC" memory as your Vaio cannot use EEC memory.

 

Thanks for your reply. It is non - ECC RAM, and the new RAM does work in slot 1 if I only use one stick. Someone has suggested on another forum that my slot 2 maybe faulty but slot 2 will work with the original Mosel RAM but not with the new RAM. When I manage to boot up with two sticks, it registers as 1 gb of RAM in the BIOS and Control Panel/System. It always shuts down after a few minutes though. Computer works fine with one stick.

I've tried reformatting and installed Vista but the problem is still the same.

Could it be a setting in the BIOS?