RAM problems

[Dreadraven]

Ok.. when I bought my computer, it came with 96 meg of PC100 ram... (one 64 stick and one 32 stick)
Then, I switched out the 32 stick with another 64.. and I had 128 meg of PC100 ram.. and everything was still fine and dandy..

Now.. I bought a stick of 256meg PC133 Ram.. and tried putting it in.. and I got this error that said "Memory Type Mixing Detected", and it required me to press F2, and then everything worked fine.

However, this little error still bugs the hell outta me, so I thought ok.. don't mix the memory types. So, I took out the 64 stick, so now I only have ONE stick of 256 meg of PC133 in there.. and I still get the message.. I just need to press F2, and then everything works just the same. What's the deal? Can someone help me? Thanks

~Dreadraven

 

[redbeard1]

Some systems are specifically told to only "like" certain ram types. Some older hp's and dell's will not accept pc133 ram. The other possibility is if your ram might happen to be ecc, and your board may only use non-ecc. Or your new ram is "high-density", which can be cheaper, but it has alot of problems in older systems, especially intel based systems. We've had a number of issues at work lately with 256 meg ram only being seen as 128 meg because of the high-density thing.

 

[Dreadraven]

Well, my computer IS an older HP with a celeron...so you hit it right on the money with that...
But it's still accepting the pc133 ram cuz after I press F2, the computer goes without a hitch..
And that high density thing.. it's still showing up as 256 meg when i right click "My Computer" and clicking on properties, so I don't think it's that...

Personally I think the RAM is fine, but it's that stupid error message and causing me to press F2 Thanks a lot though

 

[Dreadraven]

Can anyone help?

 

[BurnItDwn]

Personally .. I dont think there is a simple solution to this problem.

You MAY be able to flash your BIOS to a newwer version .... but that may or may not help, and may or may not exist

Honestly,
Your best solution is to continue to hit F2. Or dont reboot it, just leave it on 24/7.

Any other solution that I can think of would be costly ... ie ... buy 2 128MB chips and sell the 256 ... or buy a new MOBO/CPU .....

Good luck

 

[kursplat]

have you tryed going into the bios and making sure it's set to pc133 ?
good luck

 

[Dreadraven]

Ummm I realize that I'm gonna sound like a total newb by asking this but...

How do I go into the bios?

 

[AbsolutDealage]

there should be a little prompt that you can catch when you reboot. It will say something to the effect of:

Press <Del> to Enter Setup

It is probably delete, but it may be insert or some other key. Anyways, hit delete when you are first booting up (and you hear the beep), and it will most likely take you there.

 

[redbeard1]

I think on HP's you have to hit the F1 (?) key to get into the bios. When you first turn on the machine, and you see the HP screen on, there may be a small message somewhere on the screen saying hit a certain key for setup, setup being the bios settings. Or if it doesn't display any message, then when it is on that screen hit the escape key. This should clear the HP graphic, and give you a text screen, and somewhere on that screen will be the message as to how to get into setup.

Now that I read your first post a little closer, a couple of different thoughts come to mind. The "mixing" error message is probably what you thought. You are mixing two different kinds of memory and probably won't get rid of that message even in the bios. So If you really don't need it, leave the 64 meg out. The other thing is when you have the 256 meg in, you may need to go into the setup/bios once to have the bios save the new setting of a higher amount of ram.

If your new to working with bios settings, be careful. Though it is not as critical as it once was, changing some settings in there, can goof things up for you. Then you'd have to get back in and undo those changes, or load setup defaults if that failed.

 

[Dreadraven]

Umm thanks for getting me into the bios...
but when i get to the spot where its "Memory"
it shows my two slots.. and shows the size in the slots..
but i cant scroll down to it.. its like just a display... rawr I hate my hp
I don't see a spot to change it to pc133 anywhere

 

[kursplat]

i'm sorry but i just noticed that your trying to use BOTH memory speeds (100 & 133). if your MB suports PC133 then i would suggest ONLY using the 256 stick of pc133.
if you do set the bios to 133 then the pc100 memory will probably give you problems.
try booting with just the pc133 . it might be happy then and you will be better off.
good luck