TheTechGuide Forum
General Category => Hardware => Topic started by: bthrupp on August 16, 2007, 12:18:52 PM
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Hi I recently bought a dell dimension E521 and I have upgraded it with an extra gig of ram and it works fine, but I just bought another gig of ram from the same manufacturer and I get a blue screen when I install it and start windows. I am running Vista home premium with dual channel 512s and a single gig ram module, just bought another gig and and installed it in the last memory slot available and I get the blue screen but when I remove it the computer works fine again, can anyone help please!?
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Maybe a bad stick of ram this does happen a lot. Try returning it for a new stick and see what happens.
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umm i had the same problem before, usually what it is, computer mother boards usually have 2 ddr slots and the other 1 or 2 slots are somethin different but i cant remember what type of memory it was. so thats probably the wrong type of memory in that slot, but i could be wrong
oh yea and i forgot you cannot put two different types of memory in your system at the same time at once thats what i was getting at lol i just forgot to put it.
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So I gather the PC worked fine with 2 512mb modules installed and the 1gb module installed but when you installed the fourth 1gb module, the PC blue screened, correct?
This is what's happening to your PC.
With the just the 2 512mb modules installed, your motherboard is accessing them in dual channel mode. When you added the first 1gb module, the motherboard switched to accessing the RAM to normal mode (no dual channel).
Now, when you added the second 1gb module, the motherboard tried to switch back to dual channel mode, but because the RAM modules are not all the same size, the PC blue screened.
Remove the two original 512mb modules and replace them with the two 1gb modules. Your PC will access them in dual channel mode and all will be well.
Two gig of RAM is usually more than enough for most users but if you want more, you will have to either buy two identical 2gig modules, or four identical 1gig modules.
Sell the two 512gb modules.
Good luck!