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Thread ID: 25216	2002-09-28 22:59:00	A friend of mine only has 64mb Ram	Danger (287)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
84213	2002-09-28 22:59:00	And is haveing problems with his printer and clock. We have done everything to sort his printer out that we have found info on including swapping printers and pc's but now I feel he may need more ram. Where can I find info on what chip we need, 8 or 16 chip and SDRam etc? Or do we just have to remove the existing chip to be sure? I know when I did mine I removed the existing chip and took it to DSE and they gave me a 8 chip which was wrong. We want to put in a 256 chip, should we leave the 64 chip in or discard it?	Danger (287)
84214	2002-09-28 23:28:00	RAM type is dependent on your MOTHERBOARD. Find the maker and model of it (should be printed on it - somewhere) Then using Google, find the details.	godfather (25)
84215	2002-09-28 23:53:00	On it? What does it look like? Open up the case and find it you mean? If I'm going to do that I might as well just remove the old chip and take it to DSE. I am trying to find out if there is away to get a new chip and replace the old one in one go, of if I can use the new 256 along side the 64 chip. Do you mean to find his booklet about his mother board and get the info from that? I did take my booklet with me when I upgraded my ram and DSE still gave me the wrong one. Ok, I have just checked my motherboard booklet, I guess this is what you mean, thanks godfather. It tells me what sort of ram but not the number of chips (is that right?) eg; 8 chip of 16. Thats what we got wrong when I replaced mine. I currently have 384 mb ram, any advantage to uping this, as I see I can have up to 768 mb, what improvements if any would I see by adding more? 384 is alot more than the 128 mine came with anyway. Mine takes SDRAM by the way.	Danger (287)
84216	2002-09-29 00:39:00	best to match the ram imo, its best to use pc 133 with pc133 and pc100 with pc100, find out if your m/b supports pc133 as well. i use 768 DDR pc 2100 and have never had any probs at all, its just a matter of tweaking winblows a bit...as for taking it to dse, i'd rather take it to a real computer store and talk to a proper technician....	baldynz (1853)
84217	2002-09-29 00:53:00	Re: your system: 384MB should be enough for any operating system unless your running some pretty intense 3D apps/games. Re: your friend's system: 64MB is very minimal depending on what OS is running - you will notice slowdowns with printing, especially over a network. Just look in the motherboard manual and it should have a table of what RAM and how much you can use. eg. EDO,SDRAM PC100, PC133, DDR SDRAM PC2100. It's all very complicated to the novice but the manual should state exactly what the board can handle. PS. I agree with baldynz - go to a real store (independant) where the people know what they are talking about!! :D I recently was looking for a game and emailed a request of when a game was being released to DSE - they pointed me to an incorrect title (something they had in stock - of course) even when I supplied multiple facts and the developer of the game.	HadO (796)
84218	2002-09-29 01:08:00	The motherboard is the big circuit board that other cards (and the ram)plug into . You may find that it doesnt support 256 chips, as an example . It may only support 128's . So simply taking the existing chip to DSE and saying "I want a 256 one of these" will not always work . Often it will, but if you get it home and find it doesnt, you then don't know if its not installed correctly or faulty or what . I have one PC where that is indeed the case, it cannot be expanded above 256 Mb, (2 x 128) . The info that came with it is also very clear on the matter .	godfather (25)
84219	2002-09-29 01:29:00	Go to a tehcnician that knows your computer. He/she would be able to answer your question. I recommend you to buy the RAM on a proper computer shop not on DSE.	shockwave (1089)
84220	2002-09-29 02:18:00	We seem to be missing the point here Danger. Before upgrading RAM and getting into all sorts of technical stuff, let's go back to basics. If the computer has only 64MB ram, it is quite probably relatively old with a slowish processor and older motherboard, but those are not automatically reasons for printer problems. Up until the cheap DSE RAM came on the market in the last 12 months I was using a P166 with 64MB RAM, 2MB of video RAM and Win98 as my mainstream computer doing all sorts of graphics work and running inkjet and laser printers, a scanner, external LS120 and sundry other attachments without any great problems. Only very large graphics files were slow and everything else was quite satisfactory. It now has 192MB ram and a full house of up to date programs and is still my daily workhorse. (This is "Old Faithfull" I'm talking about here, for folks who have heard me on this subject previously.) Posting more information might save a lot of time, trouble and expense, so how about this info for starters. 1) Did the printer work ok previously? 2) What type of printer is it? 3) What is the actual problem being experienced? 4) What type and size of file are you trying to print? 5) What program are you trying to print from? 6) What operating system are you using? 7) What is the computer CPU & speed? There are other questions that might be relevant, but to leap in and blame RAM is a bit premature IMHO. Taking a step by step diagnostic approach is always beter than throwing money or technology at a problem as the latter course can be expensive and may hit targets you were not aiming for. The military call that collateral damage but unlike them, you have to clean up after yourself. Cheers Billy 8-{)	Billy T (70)
84221	2002-09-29 03:45:00	Thanks Billy, I wasn't really looking for help with the printer problem but it is appreciated. Its an Epson Stylus color 480 which has been running fine on my pc now for two weeks. His system is about 18 months old (PC Company) and is an 850 mhz cpu (sorry not sure off all the correct terms but mine is an 800) and he also runs ME like I do. His printer worked fine until a month ago, we have done the usuall, swapping leads, drivers, using my printer on his pc (sucessful at first attempt, but then his one worked again for a few days, then it stopped working ie one line of very small print if anything at all, tried mine again and was unsucessful also week later) changing parallel port settings etc, printing word, notebook all unsucessful and can only think a problem in the Bios or lack of memory could be the problem. I really didn't think upgrading the ram was so difficult when I did mine, just didn't want to make two trips to DSE who are his only local computer parts supplier and are open in the weekends when we would do this. I know that the dimm? (is that what it is called) has either 8 or 16 chips on it, just thought there would be somewhere to find this info on the start up screen or configuration info somewhere. I think we have been taking a step by step approach to sorting out the problem with his printer, and he wants to upgrade his ram anyway, so once that has been done we can move on from there. I also read in one of the threads that low memory can cause the clock to slow and loose time, this is what his pc is doing also. So far the only expence in eliminating the problem with the printer was to buy a higher grade serial cable.	Danger (287)
84222	2002-09-29 03:57:00	I have a friend with a PC Company (WinME) and an Epson 480. She is learning to fix things herself. ;-) The Epson responds to having its driver reinstalled. Frequently. The printer guzzles ink. It uses more ink each time it is turned on than it does printing. She has found reloading the cartridges gets more ink out of these expensive cartridges. If DSE is the only local shop, you are not compelled to pay their prices. It should not be expensive to get memory from a mail order/web order place. Try Pricespy (http://www.pricespy.co.nz) for better prices.	Graham L (2)
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