[juliaatgeekstogo]

I've got a FA15T mainboard which needs more memory as it only has 256MB to run Windows XP Pro (2 x 128MB chips).

I inserted a spare 128MB chip which I have and Windows refuses to load - it just restarts itself all the time. As soon as I take it out Windows loads normally.

Is this because of the speed of the RAM isn't right ?

The reason I ask is that I'd always thought that if the memory wasn't right, the system would just beep or refuse to go through the POST test.

I await your reply.

Regards,
Julia

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can you give me more system info so I have an idea?

[Computer Guy AJ]

can you give me more system info so I have an idea?

[Murray S.]

Howdy:

A quick check of your mobo states this..

This motherboard supports both PC133/PC100 SDRAM ECC/non-ECC Unbuffered, but these should not be mixed.

You have to either go all 133 or all 100.

Murray

[rshaffer61]

Using the information supplied by MurrayS it looks like your system has to have matching pairs of memory.
This would be the reason it would not boot with the odd 128 megs installed.

To see what your MOBO will handle as far as max memory

Go HERE and run the Crucial online scanner.
This will give you the exact memory configuration for your system. You do not have to buy the memory from there, but write down the information and if you need assistance in purchasing the upgrade memory GTG can assist with suggestions also.

[Computer Guy AJ]

ahhh you beat me to it just about to say that you always win so julia after you do as rshaffer has suggested make sure your system can handle at least 512 MB of ram for XP I believe thats the bare minimum for running it decently

[juliaatgeekstogo]

Hi,

Thank you to everyone who replied.

So the reason for the problem I've had must be that the RAM inside there already is probably PC133 and the chip I'm adding is PC100 - is that correct ?

If that's correct, then I should be able to add a pair of 256MB chips (to give me 512MB) whichever of the two speeds they are.

I did a Crucial scan to check the memory it takes and it can take up to 1.5GB but that would cost a whopping £120 or so, hardly worth it for an old PC !


Regards,
Julia

[Computer Guy AJ]

that is most likely the cause your MOBO can handle both but it can't be mixed and matched

[rshaffer61]

SDRAM in the pc100 and 133 form were designed to work as pairs.
They will not work as individual units.
If you have your MOBO manual or can see the memory slots there should be either 2 or 4 slots.

The memory has to be put in as 2x133 memory in either
128
256
512
1 gig
paired together

Edited by rshaffer61, 14 July 2009 - 05:21 PM.

[123Runner]

And since it will accept PC133, I would go with that if at all possible because PC133 is a little faster than PC100.