RAM question

Scoliosis · 08-20-2005, 02:50 PM

yea i went and bought another 512 kingston DDR ram today and when i tried to put it in my computer booted up and it said read memory letters (it actually said that in a womans voice

) when i took out both peices of ram one of them looked different. The one I have been using has little black things on both sides the ram while my new one only has them on 1 side. What the difference and what are the official names for them?

EDIT: If i am to use 2 sticks of RAM do they have to be identical in every aspect as far as Mhz and RAM size go?

**UncleMacro** · 08-20-2005, 05:26 PM

One of your RAM sticks is double-sided and the other is single-sided. If you want to run in dual-channel mode then your sticks should match. Many motherboard chipsets can run non-matching sticks just fine but it won't run at its maximum possible speed.

What was the exact message given by the tiny lady inside your computer?

What kind of motherboard are you running? You can get the motherboard info (as well as info about everything else) with Everest. You can get the motherboard info by clicking the "+" to the left of "Motherboard" in the list on the left, then click "Motherboard" in the sublist which opens up. The "Motherboard Name" and "Company Name" tell you what kind of motherboard it is.

If you want to test your RAM you can run MemTest86.

Scoliosis · 08-20-2005, 07:01 PM

first the Little lady sais "this ram is no good, memory error" over and over untill i power down the computer

i have an a8n-sli deluxe mobo with the following

Bus Type: AMD Hammer
Real Clock: 200 mhz
Effective Clock: 200 mhz
Hyper Transport Clock: 1000 mhz

Bus Type: DDR SDRAM
Bus Width: 64-bit
Real Clock: 201 mhz (DDR)
effective clock 402 mhz
Bandwidth: 3216 MB/s
Ram Slots: 4 DDR DIMM
Company name: ASUSTeK Computer Inc

and there ya go, there are the mobo specs

**UncleMacro** · 08-20-2005, 09:49 PM

The memory controller in an Athlon 64 is in the CPU and the RAM compatibility rules vary a bit depending on which version of the CPU you have (Clawhammer, Winchester, Venice, etc.). You can find the version of CPU with CPU-Z. I think you should be able to get two completely different modules working on any Athlon 64 by putting them in the same memory channel. That will force it to run in single channel mode. Your problems could come from trying to run one single-sided and one double-sided panel in dual-channel mode. On your motherboard I'd try the single-sided stick in "DIMM_B1" (the blue slot farthest away from the CPU) and the double-sided stick in "DIMM_B2" (the black slot farthest away from the CPU). If that doesn't work then you could try other slot combinations to see if both of the memory sticks will run together. Running in single channel mode will slow down your machine somewhat. You'd be better off running a pair of matched modules in dual-channel mode although you don't really lose all that much running in single-channel mode.

08-20-2005, 02:50 PM	#1 (permalink)
Scoliosis Registered User Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 46 OS: XP SP2	RAM question yea i went and bought another 512 kingston DDR ram today and when i tried to put it in my computer booted up and it said read memory letters (it actually said that in a womans voice ) when i took out both peices of ram one of them looked different. The one I have been using has little black things on both sides the ram while my new one only has them on 1 side. What the difference and what are the official names for them? EDIT: If i am to use 2 sticks of RAM do they have to be identical in every aspect as far as Mhz and RAM size go?

08-20-2005, 05:26 PM	#2 (permalink)
UncleMacro TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: San Diego Posts: 2,133 OS: Vista SP1 My System	One of your RAM sticks is double-sided and the other is single-sided. If you want to run in dual-channel mode then your sticks should match. Many motherboard chipsets can run non-matching sticks just fine but it won't run at its maximum possible speed. What was the exact message given by the tiny lady inside your computer? What kind of motherboard are you running? You can get the motherboard info (as well as info about everything else) with Everest. You can get the motherboard info by clicking the "+" to the left of "Motherboard" in the list on the left, then click "Motherboard" in the sublist which opens up. The "Motherboard Name" and "Company Name" tell you what kind of motherboard it is. If you want to test your RAM you can run MemTest86.

08-20-2005, 07:01 PM	#3 (permalink)
Scoliosis Registered User Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 46 OS: XP SP2	first the Little lady sais "this ram is no good, memory error" over and over untill i power down the computer i have an a8n-sli deluxe mobo with the following Bus Type: AMD Hammer Real Clock: 200 mhz Effective Clock: 200 mhz Hyper Transport Clock: 1000 mhz Bus Type: DDR SDRAM Bus Width: 64-bit Real Clock: 201 mhz (DDR) effective clock 402 mhz Bandwidth: 3216 MB/s Ram Slots: 4 DDR DIMM Company name: ASUSTeK Computer Inc and there ya go, there are the mobo specs

08-20-2005, 09:49 PM	#4 (permalink)
UncleMacro TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: San Diego Posts: 2,133 OS: Vista SP1 My System	The memory controller in an Athlon 64 is in the CPU and the RAM compatibility rules vary a bit depending on which version of the CPU you have (Clawhammer, Winchester, Venice, etc.). You can find the version of CPU with CPU-Z. I think you should be able to get two completely different modules working on any Athlon 64 by putting them in the same memory channel. That will force it to run in single channel mode. Your problems could come from trying to run one single-sided and one double-sided panel in dual-channel mode. On your motherboard I'd try the single-sided stick in "DIMM_B1" (the blue slot farthest away from the CPU) and the double-sided stick in "DIMM_B2" (the black slot farthest away from the CPU). If that doesn't work then you could try other slot combinations to see if both of the memory sticks will run together. Running in single channel mode will slow down your machine somewhat. You'd be better off running a pair of matched modules in dual-channel mode although you don't really lose all that much running in single-channel mode.