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| Thread ID: 60880 | 2005-08-16 09:31:00 | RAM upgrade question | mark c (247) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 381646 | 2005-08-16 09:31:00 | I hoiked a RAM chip out of an old dead computer and with the help of the net identified it as Dimm 64 meg gold contact SDRAM 168 pin. I want to upgrade my RAM on this comp so got Everest (thanks to the recommendations of PressF1'ers) and it tells me I have 31 meg SDRAM. (Probably should be 32 but a meg seems to often get lost. Maybe it's what RAM uses to remember itself.) Anyway the point is should I worry about the other characteristics of the RAM? The type of contact, whether it's DIMM, SIMM, or RIMM, number of pins etc or should I just go ahead and try it? TIA............................m :) |
mark c (247) | ||
| 381647 | 2005-08-16 09:52:00 | You need to make sure it has the same number of pins as your current RAM. This is easy to do, just whip out the current RAM and make sure the notches and lenght of the straight pieces between the notch are the same. The RAM will not fit in the motherboard RAM slots otherwise. If you current RAM is 32 MB's, chances are the RAM from the old PC should fit going from the age of the systems. You will probably find that your missing 1 MB of RAM is being used by onboard video. |
Jen (38) | ||
| 381648 | 2005-08-16 10:14:00 | Thanks very much Jen. Hadn't thought that the pin no. would've been significant. Will try it on Friday and get back with the results. (And the tip about the missing 1 meg, that makes sense.) All the old comps I deal with (and I only deal with old comps) have onboard video.................:)................m | mark c (247) | ||
| 381649 | 2005-08-16 10:19:00 | You need to make sure it has the same number of pins as your current RAM. This is easy to do, just whip out the current RAM and make sure the notches and lenght of the straight pieces between the notch are the same. The RAM will not fit in the motherboard RAM slots otherwise. If you current RAM is 32 MB's, chances are the RAM from the old PC should fit going from the age of the systems. You will probably find that your missing 1 MB of RAM is being used by onboard video. And you might want to know if single sided or double sided as well. You don't say if SDRam. If you try it and it works OK. Some older computers needed matched ram and two sticks. |
Elephant (599) | ||
| 381650 | 2005-08-16 10:31:00 | Isn't that SIMM or DIMM? And AFAIK it's DIMM. Thanks though...............m | mark c (247) | ||
| 381651 | 2005-08-16 11:30:00 | the 72pin simms, and the very older style 30pin simms needed two to work.......but anywy....basically if your 'new' ram fits the slot then stuff it in you wont do any harm and at the worst the pc simply wont boot up .....if that happens just change it back to the old one......dont bother counting pins.......the older simms had 30 or 72 pins and compared to the newer dimm modules are quite different.....just a quick glance will tell you if i'ts gonna fit........however one thing,,,,,,,,be aware that ALL ram only fits its type of slot ONE WAY.......so make sure you got it in the right way round or you may kill the motherboard.......just take a good look and take care.........i'ts not hard..... | drcspy (146) | ||
| 381652 | 2005-08-16 11:59:00 | Thanks Doctor Spy ,will be carefull. (Ugh, got to say that yr comment that the "comp won't start up" was very unencouroghing) but that's cool. | mark c (247) | ||
| 381653 | 2005-08-16 20:12:00 | OR IT'LL just say beep beep beep beep...........that's an indication it' dont like that ram......or it just will have a black screen and that's all.......or it might run but only recognize half the ram..........just stuff it in so long as you put it in the right way it wont do any harm if it's not 'compatible'......... | drcspy (146) | ||
| 381654 | 2005-08-17 04:45:00 | Thanks very much for the info everybody. I've set aside some time on Friday to do it. I know it's a 'five minute job' once you've done it often enough but this is the first for me and I don't want to mess it up. | mark c (247) | ||
| 381655 | 2005-08-18 03:44:00 | It worked! It worked! I've just trebled my RAM! :thumbs: (yes I know it's still low but that's not the point.) Thank you all very much for the info and the guidance and the tips and the encouragement. Great exercise and the speed has noticably improved. :cool: |
mark c (247) | ||
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