RAM problem!

Hey all,

I purchased two MicroX 1 GB RAM modules for my Gateway MX6627 laptop, and for some reason a few minutes after loading windows, my system craps out, the graphics become choppy, and everything freezes.

Anyone know why? Or how I can fix this?

since you have 2 sticks of RAM this is going to be super easy to see if RAM is the problem or not. Did you change anything else on the system? Also take out all PCMCIA cards. Does your laptop have on board RAM that you cannot remove?

PRE_STEP 1 : try your old ram only, see if it works. if that works you have Bad RAM or did something to break the new RAM, or you have a bad slot.

FIRST: Take out one stick, put it in slot one, start the system. If no problems exist, shutdown properly.
SECOND: Take out the first stick and put in the stick we left out during the first step. Boot.

Third: Diagose: If the second stick was stable and the first was not you know the first stick is bad, get a refund (or visa versa). If both sticks failed or if both sticks passed (by not crashing), go on to step 4.
Fourth: take all RAM out, and put the first stick in slot 2 (leaving slot 1 empty), leave the second stick out. Boot, see if it crashes.
Fifth: Try Stick 2 in slot 2 and leave slot 1 empty. Boot, see if it crashes.
Sixth: If no combination of sticks in slots or slots in sticks does not crashes then your problem is most likely somewhere else, and not your RAM(old or new).


If you can get your system to load and remain stable, try this.
Do this :

Go to this website and download the appropriate version for your OS:
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

After that open Prime95 and run the torture test under options. Just select the blend test.

Run that for 8 hours or so and see what happens. If the system crashes or if you get an error in Prime 95 you have an issue somewhere.


BTW I could be entirely wrong, I'm not very good without seeing the actual system myself :D but none of these steps will do any damage to your system if done properly.

I'm currently running my laptop on my older RAM, two sticks of 512 megs. It's working as fine as it was before. I tried 1 stick of 512 megs with each stick of 1 gig and both responded fine. It's ONLY when both sticks are in at the same time.

And to be honest, it appears as if the computer runs SLOWER with 1.5 gigs of ram than it does with 1 gig...

Seems to me that the quality of the new RAM is the problem...

assuming this happened after you dropped your laptop.....

The only combination that doesn't work is the two 1 gigs together?

If it is running slower with the 1.5 installed, check system information to make sure it is recognizing the 1 gig. Sounds like it is running slower becuase you are actually running 512. That would lead to the chips being bad. I don't know much about micro-x, I usually buy Kinston, simpletech, or Crucial when purchasing memory.

Ya I've learned my lesson, I'm going to return the two modules, and but Crucial instead.