K7AMA PC133 SDRAM Problem

[LbJustinTime]

Okay guys i just setup this new system and now i have somewhat of a prediciment. Okay here is the deal. First here are my specs:

1ghz Athlon Tunderbird Processor
ECS K7AMA Motherboard
2 256mb Sticks PC133
Windows 2000 Pro

I think that is all the information that is necessary. Now i have two 256 sticks in the sdram slots. STick (A) boots up fine singely (sp?). Stick (B) is kind of iffy. I put it in slot two it doesnt boot up, put it in slot 1 it boots up. Now when i put both of them in it shows i have 400mb of ram, which i should have 512 (256 +256). I just bought these sticks from a guy on the AT forums and have contacted him. I think somethign is physically wrong with stick b. Now what do you guys think? I believe that there is a chance that there is a part of chip B that is bad. Should i ask for a refund? Should i request a new stick to be sent? I bought all together 2x 256 sticks and 2x 128 sticks. The other 3 work just fine, but then again the reason why stick (b) doesnt work because my mother board. I have a 2 gig RAM max on my motherboard, so i doubt it is that. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[SwampsterFL]

Short of having a RAM tester, which is a fairly expensive piece of test equipment for an individual, your method of testing is sufficient to justify asking for a refund or replacement.

 

[altonb1]

One last option, and depending on where you live, this may or may not be a realistic option, is to go to a local Computer show. Find one of the numerous memory vendors, and tell him you are thinking about selling your RAM. Ask him to give you a price. He will take the RAM, put it in his memory tester machine, determine size/speed/etc, and give you an offer. If you truly have no interest in selling it to him, tell him it is worth more to you to keep, get your chips back and walk away. When he tests the chips, he'll tell you immediately if any of them are flaky.

Now, since you have mentioned your tests thus far, you indicate that both chips work fine if they are left as stand-alone. Only when you put stick b in do you lose mem count. If I had to guess, I would say the memory is not faulty and instead your 2nd RAM slot on the motherboard is bad.

If you put the good 256 & 128 sticks together, what is the total ram count? Should be 384MB. Now replace with the "iffy" 256MB stick and try again. Still 384? Maybe your 2nd RAM slot is not supporting the 256MB chip for some reason. Good luck!