The Sinclair QL Forum

While my son attempts to upgrade my PC to 4GB RAM (and it failed to start up at all on first attempt so we are swapping the RAMs around to try to isolate which is bad) I thought I'd pinch his PC to give you all a laugh about how I can't touch a PC without something going wrong.

Before anyone says anything, it was a matched set specifically for that PC! Ho hum. Now to start swapping and mixing the 2GB ones around to see what works, what doesn't and what only works in one of the slots and not the other.

Is PC RAM upgrade normally this troublesome? So far, we can get any combination except the supposedly matched pair to work together.

Could it be the speed of the ram? Is the bios up to date?

...and also: check if there are memory chips in both side or only one, sometime the dimm's with chips in both sides of them don't work with single sided

Looks like one of the 2GB ones is faulty or incompatible, it doesn't work in either slot with either the old or other new 2GB.

Using the other new 2GB and the old 2GB seem to work together, so I will have to use the PC for a few hours now to ensure those two work reliably together. At least the PC says I now have 4GB, so fingers crossed

Back to QLing for a bit (to get back on topic)

What make, not all RAM is born equal, stuff like Kingston is aweful.

By far the best memory chips etc come from crucial.com/UK. That's in lower case but keeps converting to upper. Sigh.

Tell it the machine and it will tell you how much, how to fit it, what speed etc. Don't know your exact machine? Download a utility hat will scan your machine and tell you what you need.

I wouldn't buy anywhere else.

Cheers,
Norm.

XorA wrote:What make, not all RAM is born equal, stuff like Kingston is aweful.

The 2x2GB new RAM is Crucial, while the original 3GB is Kingston.

Mind you it's a Packard Bell PC, before you say anything (sigh).

The only combination which we've been able to get working is the Kingston 2GB plus one of the Crucial 2GB ones.

NormanDunbar wrote:By far the best memory chips etc come from crucial.com/UK. That's in lower case but keeps converting to upper. Sigh.

Tell it the machine and it will tell you how much, how to fit it, what speed etc. Don't know your exact machine? Download a utility hat will scan your machine and tell you what you need.

I wouldn't buy anywhere else.

Cheers,
Norm.

Exactly what I did Norman!

Hi,

No need to get fancy applications to scan ram, all you have to do is read the motherboard user manual or download it from the manufacturers web site. This should tell the type or ram required.

In my experience it is the combination of ram that causes problems, check the latency and speed of the ram. If the motherboard is going too fast for the ram, it will cause issues.

The on-line RAM selection systems sometimes are not accurate. Especially for machines/motherboards that don't often get upgraded by users.

The timing of modern RAM is critical, and having two different types, or even two of the same type, but from a different batch sometimes will fail to work.

If your machine supports a single card of RAM, check it will work with just one of each to see if you have a non-functional RAM card. It may also be worthwhile carefully cleaning the RAM card connector if it has accidentally been touched or has become dirty..

Then, as you have done, try combinations. In theory you want two of exactly the same. But some systems are happy with different RAM cards.

Generally, if it works for three hours, the system will be reliable. You may also want to download and use a RAM tester. I have used an older version of this Memtest86 http://www.memtest86.com/ but have not used the newer version on the web site. I burnt a copy to a bootable CD. I then let it run for three to four hours.

Good luck

Mark