[Major Problem] Attempted to add additional RAM, but fail to startup.

ezeht · 09 May 2011

Ya timings and voltage is important. It all needs to be the same as the other guys said and is best to use matching kits. A kit being a set of 2 or 3 or 4 or 6 stix in your case Id guess 2 or 4 stix kits. They have been tested to work together before they are packaged.

Some systems have probs running all 4 dimms and normally you may have to bump up the voltage to the mem a lil bit. Also it is best to put your larger set say if you have a 1gig kit and a 2gig kit you should run the larger 2gig kit in the main 2 slots or dimms on the mobo- I do not know your mobo but I will say dimms 1 and 3 if intel and 1 and 2 for amd I think it is. Saying if a 2gig kit runs at 1.6v running 4 stix you might have to bump up the mem voltage to say 1.65v. Also some mem is very funky about higher voltages. Some are sold at say 1.6v and if you up it any it can have fits.

Another thing to think about- most mem runs a lil more high than what you set the voltage at. Saying If you want the mem to run at 1.6v you actually have to set it at 1.55v. I can not explain why mobos do this but it is true. In actual use and looking at a monitoring program the mem can up or down .02 to .06 easy while running. It never really runs at 1 voltage setting.

If having probs you should run only the new set and maybe 1 at a time and run memtest86 for 6 hours or so see if it passes. You should maybe let it run and pass 8x memtest may not normally start to fault until run 4 through 7- I am saying let it run all test per run it is 9 tests per run if I remember right. But I have had it fail after 10 or 14 hours also. If so you may have to adjust the voltage a lil and or tweak the timings a lil. After they have been tested out as good then add your other mem and run memtest another 8 full runs. If probs adjust the voltage a lil and or the timings.

Like my mem in my last abit system I think it was 4-4-5-12 but my abit mobo prefers 5-5-5-15 Bamb it is dialed in and works perfect and I basically got this info from reading about general mem probs and abit mobos like mine.

a low power psu can cause probs too. I am not trying to get you to upgrade that I am just saying and dells and such systems come with weak low power psu's generally and barely run what is in the machine when you buy them. Maybe being old and or adding components can strain the psu and the psu is the only 1 thing that can ruin destroy everything in the system. I do not know you can have added 50 more hard drives or something and now adding more mem the psu can not take it.

I do think dell can or will tell ya what they know is a good matching upgrade set of memory and will work with the mem you have out of the package and no guess work- you should still run memtest 86 tho. 1 or both stix could be bad what ever..

You will get it right soon- I hope so..

Layback Bear · 09 May 2011

To the OP. After all the post you might be discombobulated. Lets go back to basics. Get your motherboard specs for now and later use. If you want to just add ram the easy way to find out what you should get is pull out the old ram, (don't touch the shinny contacts). On the side of of the ram is the specs. Speed, volts, ddr 2 or 3, and part number. The reason for this is because some manufactures stick any thing that will fit and run. If they all match buy added ram that matches. If you want to replace all the ram I would use the motherboards specs to choose the new ram. Some mismatched ram will run poorly if at all. Those online site that scan your computer and tell you what you need works for some people and doesn't for others. That is another reason why you need the motherboard specs. In my computer world mismatched ram is a NO NO. Let us know what you find and choose.

seavixen32 · 09 May 2011

If Dell are no help to you, you can download a memory scanner from Crucial, which will advise exactly what you need for a memory upgrade. I concur with dsperber, Crucial have never let me down either. www.crucial.com

dsperber · 09 May 2011

duongducminh said:

today i decided to add more ram to my computer. i have currently 3.5gb of ram with 4 ram slots. i replaced the 512mb ram with my new 1gb ram. altogether now is 4gb. when i turned the computer on, there was only a black screen...

.

Just in passing, your "system specs" only show that you have a Dell computer, but not the model number.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, if you don't already have the the detailed Dell "User Manual" documentation for your machine (either in paper or PDF form) conveniently available, you can download all of the latest drivers, software updates, documentation and manuals FOR YOUR SPECIFIC MACHINE... exactly configured including any optional upgrades you may have also purchased from Dell... by using the Dell tag number on your Dell machine.

This tag number can be used to locate the PRECISE description about your SPECIFIC MACHINE, on the Dell Support Site for home users.

Just enter one of the main area buttons on that support home page and it will prompt you to be more specific about your machine, either by model or ideally ("recommended") by entering the actual 7-character Dell tag number (which is on the side, bottom, or back of the machine).

Everything presented to you from there on will be exactly and precisely relevant to your exact particular physical computer purchased from Dell. They will know exactly what physical machine you own and exactly what is on it, and anything they subsequently offer to you will be specifically compatible with that machine.

As far as memory goes, again I highly recommend you go to the RAM Memory Upgrade: Dell, Mac, Apple, HP, Compaq. USB drives, SSD at Crucial.com web site and use their own "memory wizard" to find out exactly the type of memory you should buy for your particular Dell machine.

The options presented by Crucial will be for memory sticks of various sizes and speeds, and "kits" of multiple matched memory sticks to replace 2 or more of your current memory sticks. But you can rest assured that ALL OF THESE OPTIONS will be for memory cards that are guaranteed to be 100% compatible and appropriate for your computer manufacturer's motherboard.

NOTE 1: Crucial Memory is an online retailer brand name for Micron Corp., which is certainly one of if not the largest memory manufacturer in the world. So you can trust their products.

NOTE 2: You state that your original memory configuration was 3.5GB, and that you upgraded one of the memory sticks from .5GB to 1GB, raising your total memory size from 3.5GB to 4GB. To be honest, although this shouldn't have harmed anything assuming the new 1GB memory stick was compatible, I don't think you're really going to see all that much performance boost from this upgrade by only .5GB when you're already at 3.5GB installed memory. Memory upgrades from much smaller installed exisitng memory configurations (like 2GB) to 4GB will really see much more dramatic performance improvements from the memory upgrade. Your Dell "user guide" will tell you what the maximum amount of memory supported by your computer is.

duongducminh · 11 May 2011

i have scanned with crucial's memory scanner.

"the best performance comes from using matched pairs of modules", does this mean that having same DDR's will have its maximum performance?

Also, i have found out my motherboard info and manufacturer model number.

mckillwashere · 11 May 2011

Matched pairs, means they have been tested together at the manufacturer and sold together as a set. However I would recommend getting a DDR pc2-6400 memory stick instead of the 5200 because your dragging down the speeds of your other sticks.

dsperber · 11 May 2011

I'm puzzled. Your information shows some very odd and seemingly unacceptable or contradictory details.

Are you "overclocking"??

(1) That screenshot shows you to currently have 3.5GB of PC2-6400 memory installed. That is 800Mhz memory.

According to the Dell Dimension E520 Owner's Manual, your machine supports a max of 4GB of memory, not the 8GB maximum shown in that screenshot.

I've checked the Crucial web site directly for the Dell E520 and it certainly does show that 8GB is the maximum supported by the machine, but that seems incorrect since the Dell manual says only 4GB max is supported.

(2) Also, according to page 69 of that Dell owner's manual which describes the memory, and the machine specs on page 109, only 553Mhz or 667Mhz memory is supported. It does not show that 800Mhz memory is supported.

Memory
Type 533-MHz and 667-MHz dual DDR2 unbuffered SDRAM
Memory connectors four
Memory capacities 256 MB, 512 MB, or 1 GB non-ECC
Minimum memory 256 MB
Maximum memory 4 GB

Of course it would provide better performance to have 667Mhz memory installed (expecially since the price is so cheap) rather than 553Mhz memory, so given a choice choice I'd definitely recommend 667Mhz memory. But this would be PC2-5300 memory (sometimes named DDR2-667), not PC2-6400 as you show currently installed.

Have you installed your own "upgraded" memory sticks, sometime after you purchased your Dell E520? Or did the machine come from Dell that way, with PC2-6400 800Mhz memory already installed? The 3.5GB total currently present is certainly an unusual, kind of non-standard number.

(3) Just to be absolutely sure of what you're really running, can you please please download and install CPUID (sometimes referred to as CPU-Z, which was its old name), run it, and post the results of looking at the SPD tab for all four slots of memory you've got installed.

Nevertheless, as is shown on page 69 of the Dell manual:

DDR2 Memory Overview

DDR2 memory modules should be installed in pairs of matched memory size, speed, and technology. If the DDR2 memory modules are not installed in matched pairs, the computer will continue to operate, but with a slight reduction in performance.

duongducminh · 12 May 2011

dsperber said:

I'm puzzled. Your information shows some very odd and seemingly unacceptable or contradictory details.

Are you "overclocking"??

(1) That screenshot shows you to currently have 3.5GB of PC2-6400 memory installed. That is 800Mhz memory.

According to the Dell Dimension E520 Owner's Manual, your machine supports a max of 4GB of memory, not the 8GB maximum shown in that screenshot.

I've checked the Crucial web site directly for the Dell E520 and it certainly does show that 8GB is the maximum supported by the machine, but that seems incorrect since the Dell manual says only 4GB max is supported.

(2) Also, according to page 69 of that Dell owner's manual which describes the memory, and the machine specs on page 109, only 553Mhz or 667Mhz memory is supported. It does not show that 800Mhz memory is supported.

Memory
Type 533-MHz and 667-MHz dual DDR2 unbuffered SDRAM
Memory connectors four
Memory capacities 256 MB, 512 MB, or 1 GB non-ECC
Minimum memory 256 MB
Maximum memory 4 GB

Of course it would provide better performance to have 667Mhz memory installed (expecially since the price is so cheap) rather than 553Mhz memory, so given a choice choice I'd definitely recommend 667Mhz memory. But this would be PC2-5300 memory (sometimes named DDR2-667), not PC2-6400 as you show currently installed.

Have you installed your own "upgraded" memory sticks, sometime after you purchased your Dell E520? Or did the machine come from Dell that way, with PC2-6400 800Mhz memory already installed? The 3.5GB total currently present is certainly an unusual, kind of non-standard number.

(3) Just to be absolutely sure of what you're really running, can you please please download and install CPUID (sometimes referred to as CPU-Z, which was its old name), run it, and post the results of looking at the SPD tab for all four slots of memory you've got installed.

Nevertheless, as is shown on page 69 of the Dell manual:

DDR2 Memory Overview

DDR2 memory modules should be installed in pairs of matched memory size, speed, and technology. If the DDR2 memory modules are not installed in matched pairs, the computer will continue to operate, but with a slight reduction in performance.

when i bought it 2nd hand, yes i installed my own RAM.
i have 2 questions?
1.In my case, is having 3GB RAM faster than 3.5GB?(i have a feeling that taking my 512mb ram out will be better)
2.When i have 4 RAM slots, but only decide to use 3 slots leaving 1 remaining, is it faster? i heard my friend saying that if i use all slots, then the motherboard uses more effort.

thank you!

dsperber · 12 May 2011

duongducminh said:

when i bought it 2nd hand, yes i installed my own RAM.

Well apparently it's been working, with three out of four slots filled with three identical 1GB 800Mhz memory cards and the remaining fourth slot holding what I guess is a 512MB 553Mhz (or a bit slower?) memory card.

However as I understand things, all of the memory would be SLOWED DOWN BY THE BIOS to conform to the slowest memory present. So I don't think you've been getting the performance you'd hoped for with those three "fast" cards. You've actually been getting the performance of those three cards limited by the slowest card, i.e. the 512MB fourth card.

Again, 800Mhz is faster than Dell says the machine can support... although apparently it's physically working. But this may be because you actually have that slow fourth card, so this may be what has "saved" you in the first place. Don't really know, but it's really not right.

My recommendation is to spend $64 and buy this 2x2GB kit from Crucial which is guaranteed to be perfect for your Dell XPS E520, and which will be the proper 667Mhz faster memory that Dell states is supported by your machine.

Remove all four of your current memory cards, and place these two 2GB cards in slots 1 and 2 of the machine. This will give you the 4GB you want, in just two matched memory cards... and at the fastest speed Dell states can be used.

i have 2 questions?

1.In my case, is having 3GB RAM faster than 3.5GB?(i have a feeling that taking my 512mb ram out will be better)

I wouldn't spend much time trying to argue one way or another.

My honest recommendation is to spend $64 and be done with it. Toss your current four memory cards and replace them with the two new ones from Crucial. 4GB is better than either 3.5GB or 3GB. And, your machine's memory will actually be running at the max 667Mhz speed it can run at, rather than the 553Mhz it is currently probably running at because that's the slowest card of your four.

2.When i have 4 RAM slots, but only decide to use 3 slots leaving 1 remaining, is it faster? i heard my friend saying that if i use all slots, then the motherboard uses more effort.

Well.. "more effort" is not really an appropriate description.

But personally I would NEVER not use pairs of matched memory cards in pairs of memory slots. Also, I would fill either 2 or 4 memory slots, and never 3.

As Dell said:

DDR2 Memory Overview

DDR2 memory modules should be installed in pairs of matched memory size, speed, and technology. If the DDR2 memory modules are not installed in matched pairs, the computer will continue to operate, but with a slight reduction in performance.

GeneO · 12 May 2011

duongducminh said:

hi,
today i decided to add more ram to my computer. i have currently 3.5gb of ram with 4 ram slots. i replaced the 512mb ram with my new 1gb ram. altogether now is 4gb. when i turned the computer on, there was only a black screen...

. i waited for 5 minutes but still black screen. i then arranged my rams around the ram slots. Some of my rearranged ram order resulted in the machine to beep several times and sometimes twice only.
can anyone help me? i would like to play my windows with 4gb ram.

thank you

You know, with the E520, I don't think you will see any gain going from 3.5 to 4 GB even though you have a 64bit OS. I don't believe that DELL supports memory remapping so your PCI/Graphics card will use some of that 4 GB and you will only see 3.5GB at best. So 3.5 GB is probably the optimal amount for your E520.