Windows 2000 not reading 2nd Ram Card

ironbird · 02-26-2009, 11:38 PM

My computer has Win 2000 Pro installed on it.
The computer was reading the extra Ram I had installed on it for a good year. Then I had computer guy reinstall OS. Shortly thereafter I begin to receive messages about " Virtual Memory Amount needed to be Increased"
something to do with the page swap file.

Anyhow, I called computer guy and he helped me increase the size of Ram.
He didn't go into computer hardware when he reinstalled according to him. He then suggested I reseat Ram cards. I've done that but computer still reading only 256 MB when it has/had 512 (2nd card to increase to 512).

Any feedback???? How do I troubleshoot the cards???? Specifically???

Thanks Everybody.

**blah789** · 02-27-2009, 01:10 PM

There's a lot of articles on the web about installing RAM (there's also tons of youtube videos). Here's a couple:
http://www.ehow.com/how_895_install-ram.html
http://www.build-your-own-computer-t...stall-ram.html
I know you're not installing, but there are pictures (click on them to see in high resolution) that shows you where to look, and what you want to reseat.
The important things to remember is: power HAS to be off, and you have to protect yourself from static electricity (ground yourself - touch the back of the computer case before you touch anything inside).

If you have any doubt as to how much RAM you have, when you start your computer, it should show how much RAM there is (during the POST - power-on-self-test it should run a memory test - saying nnnnnn KB OK).

If you're still low on RAM, and I think this may be what the guy did, you can try to increase the size of your page file (virtual memory). The page file is a file named pagefile.sys that uses hard disk space as if it was RAM (that's the notion of virtual memory). Of course this is slower, because hard disk access is much slower than RAM, however it allows you to use more space if you need it. To increase the pagefile size, right-click my computer, click properties, then go to the advanced tab. (I'm on XP at the moment so I don't recall exactly where it was). Then it should be under settings for performance. Then click advanced and you should get to the settings. Pick a maximum size and a minimum size, then click SET. If you don't click set it won't change anything (very typical mistake). You may or may not have to reboot afterwards.

02-26-2009, 11:38 PM	#1 (permalink)
ironbird Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 2 OS: Windows XP	Windows 2000 not reading 2nd Ram Card My computer has Win 2000 Pro installed on it. The computer was reading the extra Ram I had installed on it for a good year. Then I had computer guy reinstall OS. Shortly thereafter I begin to receive messages about " Virtual Memory Amount needed to be Increased" something to do with the page swap file. Anyhow, I called computer guy and he helped me increase the size of Ram. He didn't go into computer hardware when he reinstalled according to him. He then suggested I reseat Ram cards. I've done that but computer still reading only 256 MB when it has/had 512 (2nd card to increase to 512). Any feedback???? How do I troubleshoot the cards???? Specifically??? Thanks Everybody.

02-27-2009, 01:10 PM	#2 (permalink)
blah789 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 2,304 OS: Windows 2000 SP4 and Windows XP SP3	Re: Windows 2000 not reading 2nd Ram Card There's a lot of articles on the web about installing RAM (there's also tons of youtube videos). Here's a couple: http://www.ehow.com/how_895_install-ram.html http://www.build-your-own-computer-t...stall-ram.html I know you're not installing, but there are pictures (click on them to see in high resolution) that shows you where to look, and what you want to reseat. The important things to remember is: power HAS to be off, and you have to protect yourself from static electricity (ground yourself - touch the back of the computer case before you touch anything inside). If you have any doubt as to how much RAM you have, when you start your computer, it should show how much RAM there is (during the POST - power-on-self-test it should run a memory test - saying nnnnnn KB OK). If you're still low on RAM, and I think this may be what the guy did, you can try to increase the size of your page file (virtual memory). The page file is a file named pagefile.sys that uses hard disk space as if it was RAM (that's the notion of virtual memory). Of course this is slower, because hard disk access is much slower than RAM, however it allows you to use more space if you need it. To increase the pagefile size, right-click my computer, click properties, then go to the advanced tab. (I'm on XP at the moment so I don't recall exactly where it was). Then it should be under settings for performance. Then click advanced and you should get to the settings. Pick a maximum size and a minimum size, then click SET. If you don't click set it won't change anything (very typical mistake). You may or may not have to reboot afterwards.