PC detects 512MB RAM only

[virtzya]

Hello, so basically I'm in trouble as I'm working for a company administrating/moderating their site and products etc. and in our second shop/store there's a PC that is probs like 412093781029381029381029 years old and for some odd reason it's case etc. is used for servers not for PCs but whatever that's not the case here.

Erm so the problem is that the PC is working like proper **** after an unknown to me moment - idk what happened, I'm not and I wasn't using that PC as I work somewhere else, my friends (WOMEN - so yeah they have no idea what happened or what they did), opening Mozilla takes like 2 minutes or more, loading through the sites also takes loads of time, having 1 app running in the background then launching firefox makes the PC run slower than a snail, I've used Malwarebytes - removed all the crap, used CCleaner - removed all the crap aswell but still didn't help at all. I've checked all I could (I think, I'm not a specialist whatsoever, but just used common sense). At first I realised that there's only 256MB RAM so my first thoughts were:

1. PC is like 10 years old or even more so yeah probs running out of life (idk if that actually makes sense that if its older then it will run slower etc.)
2. Needs more RAM coz 256MB is way too low.
3. PC might've been dusted etc. but that's not the case.

Okay so I've opened the case and saw 2 RAM chips in there, apparently both of these are 512MBs, so automatically that makes no sense that there are 2x 512s and PC detects 256MB only. Both of them were inserted properly so that's not the case but when launching the PC there was an alert that the memory is limited to 256MB so had to turn that off in BIOS although that made PC detect only 512MB even though there are 2 chips of 512MB. So yeah maybe the chips are from different companies/have different values etc and may mismatch or something. I've used a specific site that automatically looks for a proper RAM for specific PC and I've bought 1 chip of 1GB and inserted it into the case and still nothing happened - didn't detect more than 512MB anyways. I'm no expert in these cases so I've asked my friend to take screenshots of CPU-ID/CPU-Z (screenshots and she took photos with her phone xD) and I'll just post them here for you guys so you might be able to break down what's wrong, if the memory is mismatched and what should I try/do. Btw. for some strange reason I can't get into BIOS (they use wireless keyboard+mouse but I took my wired keyboard that works on my PC and for some reason I still can't get into bios by F2ing).

Here are the screenshots - sorry for the **** quality (imgur album):
http://imgur.com/a/DFXpM

Oh and by the way when I'm launching the PC it says "Memory mismatch, DIMM1 and DIMM3 (not quite sure which one, either DIMM2 or DIMM3, can't remember), Please populate memory in pairs" - something like that, I haven't been there for like 2 weeks so I don't remember everything, sorry.

OS:
Windows XP 32bit SP3

I would appreciate any help.

 

[BSOD BSTD]

you cant mix and match RAM, as you can see the computer wont accept it. you need to try just the 1GB stick by itself to see if it works.

You need 2GB (pref 4GB) RAM minimum to even browse the web these days.

 

[mbarnes86]

Hi

If this is server hardware with error correcting ram
Then at startup the bios may detect faulty ram and lockout faulty parts of ram modules

It is time the old PC is replaced asap
Using someone who knows what applications are on the old pc and knows what they are doing
Since a xenon cpu used server hardware is likely

Regards
Mike Barnes

 

[virtzya]

you cant mix and match RAM, as you can see the computer wont accept it. you need to try just the 1GB stick by itself to see if it works.

You need 2GB (pref 4GB) RAM minimum to even browse the web these days.

Yeah well, two of these 512MB sticks are next to each other and I've been told that pairs work by getting same sticks @ either 1+3 slot or 2+4 slot is that right? Because if that's true then yeah someone put the sticks in wrong order, if that won't work then I'll try inserting only one 1GB stick.

 

[BSOD BSTD]

you cant mix and match RAM, as you can see the computer wont accept it. you need to try just the 1GB stick by itself to see if it works.

You need 2GB (pref 4GB) RAM minimum to even browse the web these days.

Yeah well, two of these 512MB sticks are next to each other and I've been told that pairs work by getting same sticks @ either 1+3 slot or 2+4 slot is that right? Because if that's true then yeah someone put the sticks in wrong order, if that won't work then I'll try inserting only one 1GB stick.

yes thats right, the slots should be the same colour on the mobo (unless its ancient). mixing RAM is very hit and miss, you really need the same make, model and size in each slot, even then its not guaranteed to work, this is why RAM is sold in tested kits of 2 sticks.

 

[copper12]

May be the maximum memory supported is that much only, just a guess

 

[Pinhedd]

Hello, so basically I'm in trouble as I'm working for a company administrating/moderating their site and products etc. and in our second shop/store there's a PC that is probs like 412093781029381029381029 years old and for some odd reason it's case etc. is used for servers not for PCs but whatever that's not the case here.

Erm so the problem is that the PC is working like proper **** after an unknown to me moment - idk what happened, I'm not and I wasn't using that PC as I work somewhere else, my friends (WOMEN - so yeah they have no idea what happened or what they did), opening Mozilla takes like 2 minutes or more, loading through the sites also takes loads of time, having 1 app running in the background then launching firefox makes the PC run slower than a snail, I've used Malwarebytes - removed all the crap, used CCleaner - removed all the crap aswell but still didn't help at all. I've checked all I could (I think, I'm not a specialist whatsoever, but just used common sense). At first I realised that there's only 256MB RAM so my first thoughts were:

1. PC is like 10 years old or even more so yeah probs running out of life (idk if that actually makes sense that if its older then it will run slower etc.)
2. Needs more RAM coz 256MB is way too low.
3. PC might've been dusted etc. but that's not the case.

Okay so I've opened the case and saw 2 RAM chips in there, apparently both of these are 512MBs, so automatically that makes no sense that there are 2x 512s and PC detects 256MB only. Both of them were inserted properly so that's not the case but when launching the PC there was an alert that the memory is limited to 256MB so had to turn that off in BIOS although that made PC detect only 512MB even though there are 2 chips of 512MB. So yeah maybe the chips are from different companies/have different values etc and may mismatch or something. I've used a specific site that automatically looks for a proper RAM for specific PC and I've bought 1 chip of 1GB and inserted it into the case and still nothing happened - didn't detect more than 512MB anyways. I'm no expert in these cases so I've asked my friend to take screenshots of CPU-ID/CPU-Z (screenshots and she took photos with her phone xD) and I'll just post them here for you guys so you might be able to break down what's wrong, if the memory is mismatched and what should I try/do. Btw. for some strange reason I can't get into BIOS (they use wireless keyboard+mouse but I took my wired keyboard that works on my PC and for some reason I still can't get into bios by F2ing).

Here are the screenshots - sorry for the **** quality (imgur album):
http://imgur.com/a/DFXpM

Oh and by the way when I'm launching the PC it says "Memory mismatch, DIMM1 and DIMM3 (not quite sure which one, either DIMM2 or DIMM3, can't remember), Please populate memory in pairs" - something like that, I haven't been there for like 2 weeks so I don't remember everything, sorry.

OS:
Windows XP 32bit SP3

I would appreciate any help.

Hi,

The two 512MiB DIMMs have ECC but are not registered. The 1GiB DIMM has ECC and is registered.

Generally speaking, it's not possible to mix registered DIMMs with unregistered DIMMs.

Try booting with the third 1GiB DIMM only and see what happens.