[kathijohnston]

Hi,
My first post! So glad your out there! Thanks in advance!

I'm upgrading a friend's computer. I am no novice. I can do the job, as long as it goes smooth. When things go wrong, that is when I have problems. I don't know enough in that regard.

System Info:
Dell Dimension 8250 Pentium 4
Processor running at 2.4Ghz
RAM: 256
RAM Type: (2x128) PC1066 RDRAM 533MHz 184 Pin RIMM RAMBUS NON-ECC 32NS

Hard Drive: 120 Gigabyte (85% free)
Video Card: GeForce4 MX420 (Driver Version 4.17.00.45.af)
Integrated RAMDAC 64 MB
Operating System: Windows XP 2002 w/Service Pack 3

Machine Purchased: 2/4/2003 (probably "2nd generation P4")

I ordered 2 sticks of RAM-part no: MR16R1624DFO-CT9 1066 32P 102
I got one stick of MR16R1624DFO-CT9 1066 32P 102
and one stick of MR16R1624DFO-CT9 1066 32P 012

I put the RAM in and got a message that says "memory address line failure amount of system ram has changed press f1 to continue press f1 to continue f2 to enter setup". I pressed f1. It piddled around a bit, XP logo came up...then the blue screen with a bunch of stuff on it saying something changed in Hardware of software and at the bottom a Memory dump. It said if it was the first time seeing the screen to reboot, I did, got the same blue screen and this time pressed f2. I could see only in System RAM that the system saw all for sticks of 128 non-ecc, but that was about it.

I noticed that the one stick of RAM was different in the last 3 digits, so I tried the NEW stick ending in 102 in combination with the originals, that stick worked fine each time. But when I tried the new stick ending in 012, it wouldn't work.

My question is:

IS THERE A DIFFERENCE in those type RAMBUS Sticks mentioned above? The one ending in 012, is it different from the ones ending in 102???

Any help would be appreciated! THANK YOU!
Kathi

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IIRC you need matching pairs of RDRAM for it to work correctly. Non-Matching pairs are just a paper weight. I would call up the company you ordered the ram from and say Look I received a mis matched pair and need it to be matching.

[amw_drizz]

IIRC you need matching pairs of RDRAM for it to work correctly. Non-Matching pairs are just a paper weight. I would call up the company you ordered the ram from and say Look I received a mis matched pair and need it to be matching.

[kathijohnston]

Thanks! I did email them (TWICE) to get one reply-they merely said "Send back the one marked 012 and we'll send you out another". Course there is a week lost....hours of my time researching and testing each pair of the 4 sticks to confirm that the "012" stick was definitely NOT the right stick.

I know RDRAM is very temperamental and wants to be paired with exactly the SAME type, but it was the proving they sent the wrong thing that was time consuming.

Thank you for your response tho!
Kathi