A couple of days back I got guidance about increasing the amount of ram in my computer. It seemed easy enough but I must not have asked enough questions. I had 512mb and bought another 512mb but ran into a problem. Some applications, including Internet Explorer, would not run. In the computer are 2 256mb chips, I added a 512mb chip to it. Is that a no-no? Do all of them have to be the same size or is there something that I've overlooked?

Thanks again,

Tom

It shouldn't matter. I had that configuration on my old HP and it worked okay.
Changing (especially adding) RAM should not cause a problem. There may be something else going on that we are not seeing....
If you have a virus, this may be the cause of your woes - go to the Am I infected? What do I do? topic and see if they are able to diagnose a problem...

Good point JPHarvey. Although, it may also be possible that the newly bought ram was (is) the incorrect speed, or type (ddr/sdr etc.) for the motherboard, which would sometimes cause instability.

Tom804, you'll need to ensure that your motherboard can recognize/utilize the ram that you've just installed. If your motherboard won't recognize anything higher than 333mhz, and you've installed 400mhz, then there's problems.

You can post your specs (motherboard, and the newly purchased ram) and we'll try to help find the manufacturers specs on them, which will hopefully help to resolve this for you

I agree stevealmighty.
Another item to bring up is "Dual-channel memory" controllers require "pairs" of memory modules.
See the Wiki article Here.

Oh, boy, some things never change. The simplest of tasks always end up being a problem for me. Heck, I always get in the slow line at checkouts, too.

A couple of days back I inquired here about memory. The question was basically how much ram will my motherboard support. I got quick responses and a link to a site for memory. I wrote the specifics down and went to a local place. They ordered it for me and I installed it today. That's when my problems started. Originally I had two 256mb sticks in there. All I did was add the 512mb chip. At that point IE and my sim racing game would not run. I took the new stick out and the apps that failed to run before will now run. However, I've had the computer restart when I click on IE and it has even restarted with no prompting! I've done absolutely nothing else except install and then remove the 512mb chip. My AVG says I'm clean. What the heck do I have going on now and am I going to be able to use that 512 stick?

Sorry to be a bother, honest.

Tom

With RAM clocks though, won't the MoBo down clock to a recognised speed?

Mismatched CAS (Column Access Strobe) timing will cause the problem that you are describing.

if your motherboard supports ddr 400 (pC3200), which has 3.0 CAS, all the memory must have this timing.

so, if your old RAM is PC2700 or PC 2100 (CAS 2.5), the mismatch causes this problem on some mainboards.

Very true, what everyone said. The fix to this is to match your ram (assuming that you know for a fact that your new ram can be recognized by your mother board).

The quick fix it to take out the old ram, leave in the new. If your motherboard recognizes the new ram (without the old ram installed), then you know it's safe to buy another stick and install it. Alternately, you could take out the new ram and leave in the old ram.

You're not a both Tom804! That's why we're here!

Thanks again, gang. I'm going to do the ram-switching thing Steve mentioned and go from there.

PS I made a small donation when I signed up on this site.....next month I'll make a bigger one. This is just a great site. I look at it every day, read people's problems, read the tutorials.....ask for help :-)

Thanks for being here.

Tom

Glad to hear it Tom804! We're here to help, so post back any time you want!

another thing u might try is putting the 512 in the first slot

All's well that ends well. After changing the sticks around everything is fine. The durn 'puters sure are weird.

Thanks again.....I'm sure I'll be back.

Tom

Well, seems like everyone is about finished in this topic (darn I got here late) but this also sounds exactly like the problem you can have when you put high-density ram into a non-supporting motherboard. (detects half of what you have, crashing, etc)
Just so everyone knows....