[phillpower2]

The color of tabs the cards were in before were both white. Now, one is in a white locking tab slot and one is in a black locking tab slot. What do these mean?

Different colour slots could signify a differerent type or speed of Ram, please provide the MB (motherboard) details brand, model and any revision number (rev 1.0 for example) we can then do some research, the above details may be found by the processor, near or between the PCI slots and around the edge of the MB.

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dell AA D37032-304 rev a02

Here is the same one on ebay. It includes a good picture of the tabs I was talking about

http://www.ebay.com/...d-/300586467442

[elee23]

dell AA D37032-304 rev a02

Here is the same one on ebay. It includes a good picture of the tabs I was talking about

http://www.ebay.com/...d-/300586467442

[phillpower2]

Thank you for the MB picture it will help me answer your question regarding the coloured tabs.
Your MB is Dual Channel capable and what this means is for this to work when using only 2 sticks of Ram you must either use slots 1 and 3 or slots 2 and 4, this is determined by the matching coloured tabs, if you use slots 1 and 2 your Ram will only function in single channel mode and data transfer time will be slower.
Dual channel basically allows for 2 pipelines of data to go to the processor instead of 1 which helps prevent the system from bottlenecking.

[elee23]

Thank you for your help and information!

Strangely, after I tried the cards in the original 1 and 3 slots it worked again!

Thank you,
ele23

[phillpower2]

Hi elee23, thanks for the follow up.
I am happy to hear that you are back up and running, as I said back in post #12 removing the Ram, blowing out the slots and then reseating the Ram securely can sometimes sort things out as the issue can be caused by poor/dirty contacts between the gold fingers on the Ram sticks and the Ram slots, anyhow glad you got it sorted and thanks for allowing me to assist you