Memory help.

[deadearth]

Hi,
I've had my current computer for about 18 months with a stick of 256 kingston DDR ram.
I bought another 256 stick from a friend and I know that it is functional. When I put his stick in, the bios didn't recognize the second stick on bootup. I tried each stick independently and they both work, but both will not work together. I tried switching them in different slots, but I can only get one stick to be recognized. I have an elite group K7VTA3 motherboard with 3 memory slots and it supports up to 1.5 gigs of ram.
Both sticks are DDR 2100.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[ditchhopper]

Reset your bios to Optimized default settings. Reboot.

 

[Jz1397-5]

there is a rest to default option, do that and it should work. if not the manual reset. there is no reason for your MOBO should do that unless you cut something on that board, but then none of the slots would work.

 

[deadearth]

I've tried resetting it to both optimized defaults and fail-safe defaults, yet neither detected the second stick.

I have discovered that using the "Aida32" hardware information software, it detects the second stick. Under motherboard-> Memory it says I only have 256 mbs installed, but under motherboard-> SPD, it shows both sticks installed. I have no clue why the bios and Windows would only see one stick, yet this piece of software would see both.
Thanks

http://www.aida32.hu/

 

[Jz1397-5]

flash bios maybe? try that and see if that helps you out any.

 

[deadearth]

I already have the newest bios revision. I had to download it a few months ago to install a tv card, but thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Jz1397-5]

if a program in windows can recognize it but your operating system and BIOS can't, thats good news, that means the stick is not dead. the program below, put it on a floppy and test your ram out.

edit: after this program is on a disk, boot from the floppy drive and it will rin tests that take around 2 hours. i am interested to see if it will detect the other stick.

 

[deadearth]

I ran the program all night last night and it only said I had 256 mb. So I guess it didn't detect the other stick.

 

[Jz1397-5]

can you swap the ram with the supplier? if you do and it still does not work it is the mobo. the sticks are in DIMM1 and DIMM2 right?

 

[deadearth]

Since the ram is used, I doubt I could swap it. The sticks are indeed in DIMM1 and DIMM2. I think I'll just buy a new motherboard when I get my paycheck from christmas break work.