Computer Upgrade Headache (Geek Speak Inside)

[WackyT]

I have an Athlon XP 3000+ system that's been running fine for 4+ years with 1GB of memory in dual channel mode on an nForce2 motherboard (Asus A7N8X Deluxe Ver. 2). I've been seeing memory prices dropping and dropping, so I decided to buy 2 1GB sticks to bring her up to 2GB before the old DDR modules become rare. The old 512MB modules have been in memory slots 2 & 3, the 2 blue colored slots, since I built the system. So when I got the new DIMMs I just popped out the 2 512MBs and popped the 2 1GBs into the same slots. This is where the headaches start. I started getting various bluescreens after that. I ran Memtest86 a whole night with no errors, but I couldn't get rid of the bluescreens :reallymad: . Last night I decided to read the manual and found out dual channel mode can run in either slots 1 & 3 or slots 2 & 3 :thwap: . So I switched the DIMM in slot 2 to slot 1 and it's running great again, and in dual channel mode :AOK: ! Moral of the story is to always question your own instincts. There is a reason hardware manuals are written.

 

[just strum]

or get one of these

 

[markb]

RTFM generally works. When I did this for a living it was always a tossup whether a particular machine wanted its RAM in adjacent or alternate slots. It can certainly keep you guessing.

 

[SuperSwede]

 

[WackyT]

Apples are no fun. Very limited tweaking possibilities out of those.

 

[just strum]

Swede, is there a message in that post???

Don't recall ever seeing that here?

 

[Ch0jin]

RTFM generally works. When I did this for a living it was always a tossup whether a particular machine wanted its RAM in adjacent or alternate slots. It can certainly keep you guessing.

Thats why they are almost all colour coded these days

But yes. RTFM