I have a Dell Vostro 1500 ..It came with default 2 Nos of 512 MB DDDR2 RAM 667 Mhz from the factory. The memory make is "Hynix"

I bought 2 GB DDR2 Transcend 667 Mhz,,(single chip)

One of the RAM slot is located at the base of the laptop (which is sort of easier to access) ..The other slot is located underneath the keyboard , wherein you have to ply the plastic case open and then change the RAM.. I thought that anyway since this is a single bar , I might as well replace it with the RAM from the base of the laptop...

I have installed as instructed ( There is nothing special apart from pushing the knob, taking out the old and inserting the new one)

Initially , the "A" (caps lock) indicator on top left corner was blinking on and off. I read that you have to reseat the chip and I did that

On boot , BIOS gave a message that the memory settings might have changed press f1 to continue or f2 to run setup.. I clicked F1 and GRUB loaded


The problem now I find is that the 2GB is not at all recognized ...CMOS is showing 512 MB RAM when it should be 2.5 GB

PL help!

It's wise to do some online research before you add more ram, especially on a laptop.

Many current motherboard chipsets can run in dual channel, and in that mode they will be slightly faster than in single channel. For dual channel they will want the same size ram in both slots. However, your problem here may be that your single stick of ram is too high density for the chipset to handle correctly. In the past this has often meant that the stick of ram has a smaller number of larger Mb chips and an older chipset can't address all the ram. Some online sellers like crucial.com will guarantee that the ram they sell will work in your computer and replace it if it doesn't. You might pay more for this. I often check their website to see what they sell for a particular laptop or motherboard.

Removing the keyboard to get at the second ram slot is not that hard if you look up instructions and follow them. Briefly, most recent laptops will have a plastic cover above the keyboard that pries off, uncovering a couple of screws holding the top of the keyboard. The keyboards usually have a couple of tabs that hook under the cover below the keyboard. There will be one or two ribbon cables at the bottom of the keyboard. You can probably just hinge the keyboard up to get at the ram slot. If you want to remove the little ribbon cable(s) pull up the little tabs on each end of the connector to remove. To replace the ribbon connector, push it in and then push down on the tabs on each end of the connector while keeping the ribbon pushed in.

Well in fact I checked some sites online and it mentioned that for my model the max ram supported is 2GB per slot..So I went ahead and bought the RAm ..I just ensured that the FSB is 667 Mhz which matched with the original...What is this High Density Stuff?? Neither the computer stores guy mentioned it (or even gave me a choice of Low density or High density)

Does this mean this Chip is useless?...

Ok .. I got the matching part , you mean to say for Dual slot , the size shld be identical ...In that case I will remove the 512 under the keyboard and just use the 2 GB..Will this work?

Crucial's spec :

http://www.crucial.com/store/listpar...Notebooks&cat=

Nothing specific mentioned about density

Dual channel is a mode that runs slightly faster, but a computer should still run fine in single channel mode. So yours ought to run with a 2G stick in one slot.

The density issue may or may not be a factor. It used to be during the P3 and early Athlon eras. Larger sticks would come out with a smaller number of higher capacity chips on the stick, and some of the older chipsets would only see half the ram or not see it at all. I don't know if this is still an issue with DDR2 as it was with DDR and sdram, but this is what I meant about density.

Thanks Danceman ... I am sure there is some minor thing that needs to be taken care of (Like the sequence perhaps , remove battery , remove both the old RAm sticks , replace , Put Battery and then plug on) Currently I have not opened the second slot ...Maybe there is some incompatibility ......I dont think there is any hardware issue or something wrong with the new stick per se...Anyway will try and revert.

Just a thought wave ....I checked the memory in Win 7..If I am not mistaken , Windows relies on CMOS for Info....I ran OPENSUSE and it looked a bit fast....Could it be that the memory upgrade has in fact actually happened but the CMOS has to be reset or something for the new size to reflect??
I looked for the program memtest86 , but YAST was taking a long time...So didnt see the memory in Linux....

"press f1 to continue or f2 to run setup"

You may have hit on the answer. Press F2 to get into the bios and see if that updates the amount of memory.

Have you checked out your user manual? You can download the pdf from here:

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...0/en/index.htm

Under memory it says: so it would appear that it dosn't enable the dual channel memory unless you have two DIMMS fitted. Therfore you'd only see your original 512Mb.

Play Bonny!

If you pop the module in the slot under the keyboard I almost bet you you will see it appear. Put a 512 back in the bottom, generally you have a main slot and a secondary usually the larger RAM module needs to be installed in the main slot, The primary slot is probably under the keyboard. Further you can use different RAM sizes in Dual channel but it will impact performance, you might end up being better off with one RAM stick.

Test the memory with "free" (in Linux) or Memtest86+ (is there on many Linux live USB / CDs)

Try to install only one of the modules at a time + install both 2 G modules and see what happens

Sometimes to remove the "press F2" message (usually works for notifications like "settings changed", not real stuff like "X does not work") you have to change some other unrelated setting (e.g fan speed), save and exit, then change it back. If ths did not help : restore defaults, save and exit, change some setting, save and exit again



My experience : Dell Inspiron 1300 (both slots in bottom of computer), Gone up from 1x256MiB DDR2 533 (IIRC Infineon) --> 2x512MiB DDR2 667 (IIRC Hynix) (Celeron cpu probably still runs at 533 though), worked for me without any issue

Yes, to get the maximum benefit of dual channel (which I've read is slight, not a large difference) both slots should have the same size ram. However that has nothing to do with not seeing your 2G stick of ram, and would not affect that.

This refers to an integrated video chipset (rather than a separate video card or module with its own memory) using part of main memory for video memory. It would never, ever, consume 2G of ram. 128Mb or something, certainly not above 512Mb and even that figure is unlikely.

I'd try Latios' suggestions: try and refresh the bios (cmos) to see if updates the amount of ram, and if not, then if you're comfortable lifting the keyboard, try using only one slot at a time and see if your 2G stick is recognized.

Thanks Danceman and all of you.. Removing ALL OF THE OLD RAM and inserting the 2GB afresh worked!

In Tech support forum someone mentioned that 512MB and 2GB have different strobe latency values (CAS or something not sure)and hence they may not work in tandem.. I wasnt able to appreciate the technical point which he was referring.

But the suggestion of just trying out the 2GB (single channel) worked