[cofe]

word.

so i acqiured a bit more RAM for my 'computer' - only about 64mb but it would have bumped it up to a whopping 192mb.

however, although the 'computer' recognised the RAM etc and booted up as normal it took bloody ages and actually ran slower.

so, i took out the extra 64mb and now the 'computer' won't boot at all (gets to screen where says "loading IDE-0...OK" or similar). deeply irritating.

two things:
1 - i want my 'computer' to boot again.
2 - i want the RAM to work so my 'computer' is a bit quicker.

help?

[Bubba]

- Were the two sticks of RAM the same speed?
- Maybe you've dislodged the original stick of RAM :: try reseating it.

If it's an old motherboard it's possible that you may have to use identical pairs  - ie 2x 128 and not 128 +64

[cofe]

it was 1 x 128 and 1 x 64. the motherboard is probably about 98/99.

sure the original RAM is back in right  - but won't boot...

[Bubba]

Ho hum, not an expert on this stuff by any means - I know that lots of old systems needed matched pairs of RAM (ie same speed/size/etc) but dunno whether this was motherboard or bios specific - anyone know?

Have you put the original RAM back into the same slot it was in before? Double check it's seated ok and if it is then your PC is probably fucked. Well no, but it doesn't look good for that stick of RAM.

If you get desperate I'm sure I'll have some old sticks of RAM lying about that you could have, but dunno whether they'd be compatible with your m/board.

[JR]

it was 1 x 128 and 1 x 64. the motherboard is probably about 98/99.

sure the original RAM is back in right  - but won't boot...

by not booting do you mean that it doesnt turn on at all or you get beeps in the first black bios screen (if so how many beeps) or windows wont load.  If its the latter then its possible youve corrupted the windows installation by using incompatible pairings of RAM.  Otherwise you probably shafted the ram or the motherboard when you installed it.  Although its rareish you might have bust it with static.  Did you ground yourself first?

[cofe]

Did you ground yourself first?

you know me JR. hardly.

think it's windows not loading cos it pauses on the screen where it tells you all about your machine, drives etc.

am i screwed then?

[Jim]

can you get into your bios settings? if so try resetting them.

[JR]

Did you ground yourself first?

you know me JR. hardly.

think it's windows not loading cos it pauses on the screen where it tells you all about your machine, drives etc.

am i screwed then?

its freezing in your bios then.  If so, youve probably bust some piece of hardware or not seated somethign properly.  The system speaker should beep a few times and tell you.  It probably beeped once when it was working.  If it does then that will tell you what is wrong with it by the number and length of the beeps.  Or at least give you an idea.  Do you not get a message on that screen saying something like "memory test fail"?

As a first step, you could reset the bios to the default like jim said.  But that might not do anything if youve actually spannered something.  

Im back in shef next monday, if you can wait that long then ill come and have a look in return if you dont get it sorted before hand.

[cofe]

how do i reset bios?

[JR]

left you an answerphone message word...

[Johnny Brown]

A bit like Cofe above, (having just received a 'surprise bonus check' from VG for my Tube photo) I was thinking of bunging some more RAM in my PC.

There are two spare slots, the existing ones have 2 x 2 GB DDR2 PC2-8500.

Was planning on getting another pair of 2GB sticks (think the mother supports 8GB max). Do I need DDR2 or can I get DDR3? DDR3 seems cheaper. Does the 6400/ 8500 bit make a difference?

The slots are in two banks, currently with one stick in each bank. I'm a bit confused as to whether the new ones would go in the spare slots (ie one in each bank), or whether I should move them around so each bank is a matched pair.

Thanks.

[tomtom]

Are you running 64 bit? (assuming its windoze) else it wont see/use more than 3.5gb...

[Johnny Brown]

Sorry, should have said. Yes, I'm on Windows 8 64-bit, its 2011 dontchaknow? Makes Cofe's 64mb seem a long time ago...

[Jim]

do you need the extra RAM? dont think it will make that much difference with your set up. you'll need to find out what the mb supports. probably better putting money towards ssd or new computer o recon

[tomtom]

do you need the extra RAM? dont think it will make that much difference with your set up. you'll need to find out what the mb supports. probably better putting money towards ssd or new computer o recon

Yup, do you need the memory? I run some pretty hefty sims for work and 4gb does me fine...

[Tom de Gay]

Upgrading from 6 to 8gb ram on my laptop has made the heavy photoshop work much more bearable. Well worth it. For the money, ram has to be a better upgrade than an expensive ssd...?
I think you need cs4 or above on 64bit to access all that ram though.

[Johnny Brown]

Christ on a bike. What Tom said, except I'll be going from 4 to 8.

Yes I have CS4 and a 64 bit OS. Scans come in at 5000 x 7000 px, ie 35 megapixels. I then add layers. RAM intensive, no? For £50 I'll get a quick, cheap performance improvement. And I'll have 8Gb to stick in a new motherboard in a years time.

Am I correct in thinking an SSD would cost £140, require a fresh OS install, and mean faster loading programmes but little effect on getting big files off my data disks and juggling them in photoshop?

[tomtom]

The ssd would help a lot with the in-photoshop juggling I suspect, and tends to make the whole machine more responsive. You may not need to do a full install - not 100%. But sounds like you're using memory hungry shizzle so go for it, but back to your OP... Sorry I'm no memory expert.. jim's normally spot on with hardware & prices..?

[Johnny Brown]

Where did you get your MB/ CPU bundle from tomtom?

[tomtom]

Envisage.com

They were ok, but were a bit crap with a later order from work... So mixed review from me. We got the stuff ok and it all works fine though etc..

If you google amd phenom and bundle you'll get loads of offers. I read that amd have slashed the price of some of their procesors this week so there may be some bargains about. We bought a few 6 core 3.0 phenom bundles with 4gb memory for c.£300 each a couple of months back.

[slackline]

If you've already got DDR2 in there, its unlikely that your Motherboard will support DDR3 because each of the incarnations of DDR/DDR2/DDR3 have the notches between connectors in different places (see diagram here.

The 6400/ 8500 number is the module name and is basically the maximum MB/s transfer rates you can expect.  Ideally you'd need to know what your Motherboard supports to be able to say whether its worth getting the higher spec, but if you've already got two 6400 and bung two 8500 then it will probably all run at the lower spec.

Suspect you can access the hardware settings under the "Control Panel" somewhere, but have no idea where to look I'm afraid (alternatively you could just open it up and read it directly off the board itself).

As to which slots to put them into, that again depends on the Motherboard, the manual will tell you how this should be done, can't advise without knowing the model.

[mr__j5]

I am fairly sure that there is only one memory bus clock so that has to run as the speed of the slowest memory that is installed.

So buying faster memory won't work any faster than the existing memory. Also the motherboard manual should say what types of memory it can handle.

I am fairly sure that if you have DDR2 in at the moment, then you will have to buy more DDR2 to go with as the mobo won't take DDR3, but it won't matter if the new memory is rated faster than the existing memory, it will just run underclocked.

[Johnny Brown]

Cheers guys, that was just what I was after. Will probably just get two more the same as the existing two. £45 nicker. Could do with upgrading screen before I get into processors and drives...

[Jim]

you are well out on the price of ssd.
with regards to the memory, get same as what youve got. make sure you dont buy any stuff with big heat sinks on so they will fit in. also make sure youve got 4 slots on your mb for it to go in

[Johnny Brown]

Ta. Where in Jimland would I get this bargain SSD for a couple of fuck-alls then? £140 was the cheapest 120gb one on Microdirect.