Tried to increase RAM of a nc6320.New card only works in one of 2 slots.
 

Hi. I have a compaq nc6320 that only came with 1 gig of RAM so I bought 2 of the same part number cards (2gig) that where guaranteed to be compatible.

The nc6320 has a slot for one memory card under the keypad and one under a back panel.

One of the new memory cards works but only in the back panel slot.
The other card makes part of the screen blank/blurred.
The laptop will not even load the boot up screen with either of the new cards in the slot under the keypad.

So my question is ,is there two different cards for the same laptop or is there something incompatible with these cards? The whole thing seems weird to me.

Thanks for your expertise!

Did you swap slots to see if the other card had the same symptom? At which point it's probably the motherboard / ram slot that is bad. Quite common IMO for the motherboard to be bad. And a reason why I always max out the RAM on machines I buy (not that I buy many machines). You don't know if a part of that machine is broke until you use it. Which for RAM slots can be years after the warranty expired. Also try memtest86+ and other things on it to check if RAM is the issue. If it's not hardware, and the sticks match size and clock speeds, perhaps a setting in the bios can help. Like running the ram at a step or two below it's rated speed.

^ not unlikely on a computer that age.

i have had similar problems with buying extra ram for my old mobo ; some sticks only work as a pair, have to be put in the right slots (1+3 or 2+4 instead of 1+2 and 3+4), and can only work together with certain other ram sticks...
no, this clearly isn't what you're experiencing right now, just saying that it's a tricky business and manufacturers like to throw in some extra hurdles to increase their sales.

I switched the cards around every way possible.

-The original 1 gig works any where
-One of the new 2gig cards only works in the expansion slot.
-The computer will not even dispay bios with either of the 2gig cards in the primary slot,(completely blank screen).
-One of the 2gig cards while in the expansion slot hangs on the bios screen of choosing the boot device and goes not further.The screen is also blank/blurred in the middle section.

you should also check if the mobo or bios supports more than 2GB of RAM.
i once had a 64bit laptop with, iirc, a 4GB RAM limit. not kidding.

Thanks! Bios opened a window to choose how much RAM to use. The nc6320 has a limit of 4. I got one card to work so I have 3gigs now. I'm going to leave it at that because I have a lot of projects going on.I have been told by people that build computers that they don't think one brand of RAM is better than another. Doe's this seem true?