Keefan

Hi,
My problems are a bit similar to Faded Mantis, who complained about difficulties in installign RAM, but as I did not find his thread helpful to me, and as every issue is individual, I see no possibility as to post myself as well.
I wanted to add more RAM to my old computer. At first, it had only 256, then I bought at first a 512 stick, and now another 512 stick. As was the 256 stick, so are both 512 sticks made by Kingston. And even more - they are identical KVR400X64C25/512. The motherboard is MSI 848P Neo-V.
The problem is, that both sticks function perfectly, when alone in the slot; but when I put both of them in, then the computer doesn't start - the lights and fan go on, but no beep, no nothing, the screen stays blank as well.
I tried moving the CMOS jumper, but it did not do anything. Afterwards (after stopping the experiments with both 512 MB sticks and putting only one of them in the slot) computer only told me, that CMOS settings are wrong and I asked it to use the default ones.
Any advice?
Some othe data on my machine:
Pentium (R) 4 CPU, 2.80 GHz, 2.84 GHz 512 RAM. What else should I submit?

wrench97

Here is the list of compatible Ram for your system from Kingston.>
http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/conf...submit1=Search

Keefan

And this particular one in the list is the one I use: http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/conf...R400X64C3A/512 . And exactly the same type is also the new memory I bought and it isn't working, as I described in my last post.

wrench97

Your first post refers to a different part#

Keefan

Yes, You are right! It's not on the list. But how come, one KVR400X64C25/512 works and and also one KVR400X64C25/256 worked and - as I once tried it out - a pair of KVR400X64C25/256's also worked on my computer?
Should I add, I have a TSSTcorp CDW/DVD TS-H492A device and that the video card is NVidia FX5200-T128?

wrench97

The I can tell you what is different about the ram but it's not uncommon for out of spec Ram to run 1 stick and not 2,3 or 4. It all has to do with what the motherboard/Bois supports.

Keefan

Okay. But how can I find out, what my motherboard or BIOS support?

wrench97

By the link I gave you with the Kingston tested Ram for your board
Or for Crucial >www.crucial.com, Corsair > www.corsair.com click on the upper right "Find your Product" and select "Memory" most memory manufacturers have lists or configurers of tested Ram for different boards if you board is not listed by a manufacturer just move on to the next one that lists it.

Keefan

Yep, I see, that Crucial and Corsair both say, I need C3A type of RAM instead of C25, which I'm using now. But is it explainable, how did my computer work with two 256 MB C25 type RAM plugged in - shouldn't it be impossible?

Keefan

I started pondering about the fact, that my computer could do it with two 256 chips, but did not accept two 512 chips. And so I grabbed the screwdriver again and started combining these two 512 chips again. And - voila! My computer didn't accept the combination, where the older 512 chip was in the slot A and the newer one in slot B. But it did accept the vice versa version. Now I have 1 GB RAM on my machine and I think the story proves the point, that there is no perfect thing done by human beings and so there are no two things, which are identical - as these memory chips or sticks should have been.

wrench97

If you start getting random errors or BOSD's you'll know where to look first:)