Ram Problem

I bought a new stick of ram for my new comp the other day. Just got it in and I'm having problems. My motherboard is an ECS RC415ST model. The stick of ram that came with it is a 1024 MB (DDR2-533 DDR2 SDRAM)... So is the new stick i bought. This is all according to Everest. Both sticks of ram work separately... In both slots. However, when I put them BOTH in, in any combination, the windows boot screen (the one w/ the little bar) starts, then pauses, then starts. I let it sit for 5 minutes and nothing changed, just kept going then stopping etc... never making it into windows. I'm running windows vista home basic if that means anything.

What would cause to ram sticks to do that if they're the exact same speed etc... both slots work :/ I have a plenty big PSU.

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820144151
is the stick if ram i purchased.

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...aq Presario SR2170NX Desktop PC&lang=en&cc=us
is basically my computer... the HD it came with was only 100gb at the time, i installed a new one, put in a 430W psu, and a radeon X1600 XT. Everything works fine as long as I only have one stick of ram...

Any Ideas?
Thanks in advance!

Charles

 

By the way... the bios says 2048mb of ram... So i guess the hardware recognizes it but windows doesn't? maybe this belongs in the windows section...

Also, just booted in safe mode and everest says 2048mb of ram then... but normal boot = no go.

I let the normal boot run for 15 min or so, it did end up getting into windows... but everything was so slow I couldn't do anything... It was like i had 0 ram.

 

Different brand sticks cannot be run in dual channel. See if there is a Bios setting to disable dual channel.

 

Never heard of that, I'll look @ it after work... where would it be under? The bios for this Mobo are pretty pathetic... I used to be able to do a lot more w/ my old computer...

 

* Motherboard manufacturer's name: ECS RC415ST-HM
* HP/Compaq name: Alhena5-GL6
* Single-channel memory architecture
* 2 x 240-pin DIMM sockets
* Supports PC2-3200 (400 MHz), PC-4200 (533 MHz) and PC2-5300 (667 MHz) DDR2 DIMMs
* non-ECC memory only, unbuffered
* Maximum HP/Compaq approved memory is 2 GB
Information from: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...s&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3340210&dlc=en&lang=en

Thats the memory specs for my motherboard... Apparently it's not dual channel?

not sure what the bold'ed section means.
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Another strange thing... I can't find the board on the manufacturer website...
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Index.aspx?MenuID=0&LanID=9
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This is an FAQ from the same type of board... socket 755 ATI chipset... but not quite the same.
Question
Why does my system become unstable or fail to boot up when 2 sticks of DDR2-667/1GB RAM are installed?
Answer
Please access "BIOS Setup" -> "Advanced Setup" to raise "DIMM Voltage Adjust Function" to [+150mV].
If that doesn't work, please update the current BIOS to "STD-8110.ROM" to fix this issue.

My ram is 533 not 667 so I'm not sure if that's relevant.

Edit: HP just told me to do a system recovery with both sticks of ram in place...

 

HP/Compaq can be demanding / picky in what memory they will accept. You have to track via HP recommended memory / HP part number. If I drilled down correctly, you computer is a Presario SR2170NX.
Motherboard lineage is as follows ....
Manufacturer: ECS
Motherboard Name: RC415ST-HM
HP/Compaq motherboard name: Alhena5-GL6

Kingston recommends the following memory .....
HP/Compaq Presario SR2170NX, provides 3 sizes. If looking for 1 GB you want this one .. KTH-XW4200AN/1G

It would be interesting to know if any of the following numbers appear on your "original" memory stick ... ?
KTH-XW4200AN/1G
382510-001 (HP/Compaq)
393394-001 (HP/Compaq)
PT955AV (HP/Compaq)
PV557AA (HP/Compaq)

 

Guess thats what I get for spending 40 bucks on "Value" ram... Still i would assume if it works by itself, which it does, it would work with both...

 

m378t2953ez3- number on the sticker

k431083qe - number on each of the black squares

 

Apparently the ram IS a little different... When i look at the SPD in everest, i get

Samsung M3 78T2953EZ3-CD
Memory Timings
@ 266 MHz 5-4-4-12 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 16-28-2-4-2 (RC-RFC-RRD-WR-WTR)
@ 266 MHz 4-4-4-12 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 16-28-2-4-2 (RC-RFC-RRD-WR-WTR)
@ 200 MHz 3-3-3-9 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 12-21-2-3-2 (RC-RFC-RRD-WR-WTR)

The Kingston looks like
Memory Timings
@ 266 MHz 5-4-4-11 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 15-28-2-4-2 (RC-RFC-RRD-WR-WTR)
@ 266 MHz 4-4-4-11 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 15-28-2-4-2 (RC-RFC-RRD-WR-WTR)
@ 200 MHz 3-3-3-8 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 11-21-2-3-2 (RC-RFC-RRD-WR-WTR)

could this be the cause? Why would it work in safemode perfectly it if was a hardware issue... Dosn't make sense to me.

 

CxFusion3mp,

Also take a look at the RAM Voltage requirement. I ran into a incident where the PC required 1.3volt Ram, not the 2.5volt usually found on some of these sticks. All the specs on the 2.5volt that the customer wanted to insert were the same as the 1.3 volt unit, except the Ram Voltage.

Hope this helps.

 

Hey, thanks for the idea, both use 1.8v. I had someone recommend that I use a program called memset in order to change the timings of the ram, but it's not supported by my chipset. If someone else ever had this problem tho, that could be a solution for them.