Memory

[nyernga]

I have an 8 year old Dell Dimension 8300. It was recently hit with a virus that took Norton to remove. I've been told by them, as well as when trying to download that my memory is inadequate. The system says 256mb so I went out and bought an additional 512. When I opened the computer, I noticed all 4 memory slots are filled. I think at some point I had already increased the RAM.

Question 1: The OEM sticks say 128mb. The newer ones are also 128mb. Why isn't the total 512 when I check the system using control panel?

Question2: Is removing any of the 4 sticks recommended?

Thanks.

[Spoiler]

Sounds like some of your old RAM isn't the right type and not showing up in your system or some of it is bad. Try to put in one stick at a time and boot your machine. If you can't boot or it doesn't show up in the post then you know you have some bad RAM.

You can also try to take the RAM out and re-seat it to see if it is all the way in the slot.

[2x3i5x]

or maybe you have RAM sticks of different brands, which may not like each other oddly even though they may have same specifications.

[patio]

Question:
Where is the RAM amount being reported ? ?

[nyernga]

Question:
Where is the RAM amount being reported ? ?

When I right click on my computer, properties, general tab.  That must be what the original config is huh?

I'll try the other suggestions tomorrow......

Thanks folks

[2x3i5x]

go to the start menu --> click on "run" and then type in winver into the box.

What does windows report under "Physical memory available to windows" in the about windows box that appears on your screen?

That should be the amount of memory that windows is reading.

[nyernga]

go to the start menu --> click on "run" and then type in winver into the box.

What does windows report under "Physical memory available to windows" in the about windows box that appears on your screen?

That should be the amount of memory that windows is reading.

It says 261,132kb physical memory.   Can you translate that into MB?

[BC_Programmer]

256MB.

[Spoiler]

The system says 256mb so I went out and bought an additional 512. When I opened the computer, I noticed all 4 memory slots are filled. I think at some point I had already increased the RAM.

You have 2 ram chips that are bad or the wrong kind.

[nyernga]

You have 2 ram chips that are bad or the wrong kind.

Then I will assume the two OEM chips are good. I will remove the other two and just put in the 512 I bought this week.  Thanks guys, I'm narrowing it down..........

[2x3i5x]

Good luck, but I'd hold onto those two ram sticks in question in case somehow you get them to work. 

[nyernga]

UPDATE:

I went to Dell's site and had them run a system check based on my service tag number. It showed 256mb of ram with two OPEN slots. The sticks I put in years ago never worked. I noticed on the new 512 I'd bought that even though it had the correct number of pins, it had only one "notch" instead of two. I went to best buy and spoke to the geek squad guy and he told me that on older dells, they used a proprietary memory stick that isn't sold in stores. A regular DDR type memory stick won't fit my motherboard.

The good news is I contacted dell and for less then the cost of the one 512mb I bought locally, I was able to buy TWO 512's.