Memory Slot Configuration

[irregularjoe]

I recently added 1024 MB of Ram to my Inspiron 8200 to bring the total to 1536MB.

Dell says that 1024 is the limit, but they are wrong. (what else is new?)

It has the same motherboard and chipset as the Precision M50 and Latitude C840 which both allow 2 gigs of Ram.

I was running 640 MB's. I took out the 128 MB stick which at the time was in slot A. I took the 512 MB stick out of slot B and put it into slot A. Then I put the new 1024 MB stick into slot B.

Everything ran better than ever. But I did a Memtest 86 just to be sure.

It reported a few errors.

I then ran Memtest 86 on the 512 and 1024 sticks individually for 24 hours each. No errors.

So I assumed the problem was not with the new Ram, but maybe a compatibility issue?

The 512 is a Kingston Hyper(something) and the 1024 is Kingston Value Ram.

I was ready to return the new 1024 stick, but tried one more test.

This time I put the 1024 stick in slot A and the 512 stick in slot B.

I've been running MemTest 86 on the laptop for 48 hours now and have no errors.

Could just reversing the slot configuration fix the problem?

The laptop runs better than ever. I'm just wondering if I should return the Ram before the refund period, or just accept the latest PASSED test and keep it.

Joe

Edited September 29, 2006 by irregularjoe

[TheTerrorist_75]

I believe on some motherboards the larger stick of memory is supposed to go in the first slot.

[irregularjoe]

I believe on some motherboards the larger stick of memory is supposed to go in the first slot.

Thanks.

I heard that too.

But the reason that I set it up the way I did was that when I first got the laptop there was a 128 stick in slot A.

The first upgrade I did was to add 512 to slot B. I used that setup for 2 years.

Everything was OK with that. So I assumed that the logical thing to do when I just added the 1024 stick was to keep the same configuration. (bigger stick in slot B )

Kind of strange that now I have to do the opposite.

But everything works fine. I ended up running Memtest for 60 hours without any errors.

I'm satisfied.

Edited September 30, 2006 by irregularjoe