Memory incompatibility

[paulsiu]

Recently, I tried to upgrade my mom's eMachine T1221. It had only 128Mb. According to eMachine, all I need is a PC133 CL3 unbuffered RAM. I purchased the 256 Mb RAM according to spec and installed it. However, whenever the DIMM is in the slot, the machine refuse to boot. It would display the eMachine screen for a minute and go blank. I didn't get a POST code or anything. I tried it with just the DIMM, with the original SIMM and just with the original SIMM. Whenever the new SIMM was install, the machine refuse to boot.

I search on the net, another person purchased DIMM from Egghead and got the same problem. Apparently, some memory brand are incompatible with the machine?

 

[mechBgon]

I looked up the specs on that model. It uses the Intel i810E chipset. The probable issue is that your new module has high-density chips on it, which isn't a brand-specific problem, and your motherboard doesn't know how to handle it.

For guaranteed compatibility, try Crucial.com's memory picker. Here's their selection for the T1221: link. Technically you might as well use PC100 in the system, because the i810E chipset always runs the memory at 100MHz no matter what the bus speed of the CPU is.

 

[paulsiu]

Thanks, I would have never thought of the high density RAM/chipset incompatilibility. This explain why emachine said the RAM should be double-sided. I am not sure why I need 133 Mhz either since the CEleron runs at 100 Mhz, but eMachine insisted.

 

[paulsiu]

Geez! 16x8 low density memory is ultra-expensive. I am wondering if I am better off just replacing the Mb or something.

Paul