Do I have a bad DIMM slot or video chip?

[roosterwes]

Dell Inspiron 1501 AMD Mobile Sempron Came with Vista

My buddy asked me to fix his computer. I erased everything, added Win 7 and and bought some memory from Mushkin. Below are the links to Dell and Mushkin to see the exact thing I replaced, and what Dell specifies for the 1501.
I also knew that since I was using Win 7 on an older machine, I would have to find a compatible ATI driver. I have used many; various drivers from Dell, other online sources that claim to be for Win 7, and also DriverMax.
The problem is, when I use both pieces of 1 GB RAM, the screen goes crazy with lines. It has three vertical lines and tons of horizontal lines spread btween them. When I use one piece, it does fine, but will sometimes start the lines again.

I cleaned the fan and everything that could over heat and put it back correctly. Is there a way to physically test the slots? Multimeter? I also upgraded the bios, but like the AMD Sempron drivers, there is no official Win 7 driver that I know of. Please help. Thanks in advance.








http://www.mushkin.com/Memory/Essentials/996949.aspx

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/category.aspx?c=us&category_id=6436&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&mfgpid=186167&chassisid=8452

 

[COLGeek]

Are both of your SO-DIMMs identical?

 

[roosterwes]

Are both of your SO-DIMMs identical?

Both are identical from Mushkin. The links to the ram are in the first post. I havent checked to see if they are buffered or not. The computer was bought used and had one piece of pc2-6400S 800mhz Samsung ram in it. Out of the three pieces, including the matched pair from Mushkin, only the one piece of Samsung will work mostly. Sometimes, it will start the lines with the one piece of Samsng ram in by itself. I hooked it to an exterior monitor, and its the same thing. Ive tried a lot of the drivers for the ATI Xpress 200m as well. I just cant figure out what it is causing the problem. If I could, Id fix it. I dont think there is an actual Win 7 driver for that chip, and it wont work with Catalyst program either. I currently have the one from DriverMax installed. I have heard of many people running win 7 no problem on this machine.

Thanks for the reply

 

[COLGeek]

Laptops (especially on older models) can be VERY picky about the memory they will work with. Your video adapter shares the main memory with the system and seems to not like (compatibility issue) with the Mushkin memory you installed.

While the specs may look identical (very similar), they aren't. I think you need to return the memory you have and replace it with Dell approved memory. Check on getting directly from Dell.

I have personally been through this very situation with an older Dell and it was the only solution (went through 3 sets of supposed compatible memory first).

 

[roosterwes]

Laptops (especially on older models) can be VERY picky about the memory they will work with. Your video adapter shares the main memory with the system and seems to not like (compatibility issue) with the Mushkin memory you installed.

While the specs may look identical (very similar), they aren't. I think you need to return the memory you have and replace it with Dell approved memory. Check on getting directly from Dell.

I have personally been through this very situation with an older Dell and it was the only solution (went through 3 sets of supposed compatible memory first).

ColGeek, you were right. Yes, both of the laptop memory from Mushkin were identical. The Inspiron 6000 just didnt like them. I also tried some infineon. I was fixing that computer in my shop, and was posting to see if maybe someone had experience with that model before. It finally took some Samsung ram.

 

[roosterwes]

I work on computers and use this site for reference all the time. I just thought Id see if someone knew about things that go wrong with that model. I know there isnt actually a Win 7 graphics driver for it, so I knew it was the driver or the ram or who knows what else.