Memory in wrong slots

mtroxmtrox Minnesota
edited January 2007 in Hardware
Bought two identical HP dc5700's with 1 Gig of RAM and Intel Core 2 Duos....don't remember the number....and its not important. Since the point of this was to get some horsepower for two Adobe CS users (see this thread), I asked the well known Internet retailer to add another Gig of RAM so we'd have two Gigs.

I told CD.....I mean, the major Internet Retailer to just throw the 1 Gig in the box and I'd install. To my surprise both computers came with empty packages for 1 Gig sticks. So I booted up and saw 1.99 Gig RAM in System Properties and assumed all was OK.

One computer was/is fine. The other, after installing over 100 updates with autopatcher, attaching to the domain , installing Office 03, McAfee Enterprise, blah, blah blah, I started getting the same exact memory error for the same exact memory location. I opened the case and found the new 1 Gig stick on mmx1, an HP branded 512 in slot 2 and the other HP branded 512 in slot 4. The other (healthy) computer had the HP 512's in slots 1 & 2, and the new 1 Gig in slot 4.

So my weak knowlege of hardware puts it all together like this. Everything I did yesterday with the screwy memory configuration was crap. I used System Restore to go back 3 hours and it ran like a champ. No problems.

So I don't think I even need to reinstall the Op Sys to be safe. I think I'm right back where I was at noon yesterday and if I install the memory correctly, (512s in 1 & 2, 1 Gig in 4) and start over with everything I'll be OK.

Right?

Comments

  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    you should be......
    Chipsets and memory size/location mixtures is a funny business.
    It sounds like you have this one figured out.
  • mtroxmtrox Minnesota
    edited January 2007
    Thanks for reading ed. If anyone else thinks we're wrong please speak up. I'll be there in about an hour and would rather not waste a day again.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    Mismatched memory should be on the same DIMM channel, at the very least, to minimize the chance of timing/signalling errors. It should, however, be avoided at all costs at best.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    You talking about ram correct? why would you need to reinstall programs? and start over? just move the ram chips in the other slots...
  • mtroxmtrox Minnesota
    edited January 2007
    You talking about ram correct? why would you need to reinstall programs? and start over? just move the ram chips in the other slots...

    I'm not a hardware expert Sledge....what I know is that when Sys Restore took me back to square one, I was fine...no memory errors. So my theory was that the memory problem might have screwed up everything I had installed yesterday afternoon.

    But forget it all. I now put the other new dc5700 on the domain, installed a few things and have the exact same memory error from the exact same memory location. Cleary there is a software problem here. I was so frustrated I walked away. Might go back in tomorrow. This is really Fgg'n bugging me.......:banghead:
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    Can you get them to give you two 512s in place of a 1GB stick?
    Running all 512s will be a little slower than 2x1GB, but it might be nicer on teh controler.
  • mtroxmtrox Minnesota
    edited January 2007
    ed my problem's not the memory. Thought it was yesterday when I found the way someone had upgraded the first machine, but now that I've got the exact same error in the same mem location on the other machine......there's no way its hardware. I've got bigger problems to figure out.
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