I am trying to upgrade memory to the max of 2GB for my Emachines T3104. It currently has 1, 256k DIMM. I purchased 2, 1 GB K-Byte brand DIMMs and installed them, but have had several issues with boot and application installation. I removed the new memory, and after re-nstalling the original 256k DIMM lets me install just fine. Having read several similar questions relating to memory installation on various machines with various OS, I'm still not sure what the best steps should be in order to do a memory upgrade? Do I neded to mess with the BIOS? Should I just upgrade/add only 512 or IGB off additonal memory?

I suggest you go to Crucial.com and use thier online configurator.

All RAM should be tested for errors before being put into service. It's not uncommon for brand new RAM to be defective. Do you have a floppy drive on your system? Try running memtest86 or memtest86+. Any errors indicate bad RAM & the RAM should be returned/replaced. I suggest testing the sticks individually... you may find that only one stick is bad. If no errors are found individually, run the test again with both sticks installed. http://www.memtest.org/ BTW, I had a look at Crucial.com & your system definitely supports 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC3200.

Trying ram in this mboard that works in another mboard , or trying any ram you buy or have lying around, may not work properly - it has to be compatible with the mboard and it's chipset. See response 5 in this for some info about ram compatibilty, and some places where you can find out what will work in your mboard for sure: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... Correction to that: Mushkin www.mushkin.com A common thing that can happen with ram, even ram that worked fine previously, is the ram has, or has developed, a poor connection in it's slot(s). This usually happens a long time after the ram was installed, but it can happen with new ram, or after moving the computer case from one place to another, and I've had even new modules that needed to have their contacts cleaned. See response 2 in this - try cleaning the contacts on the ram modules, and making sure the modules are properly seated: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... If you run a ram test, do that AFTER having cleaned the contacts, and making sure the modules are properly seated, otherwise the results of the memory test may be INVALID. If any ram module is incompatible with the mboard chipset, it is likely to FAIL a memory test - that too is INVALID - the ram probably works fine when installed on a mboard with a chipset it is compatible with. If you run a ram test, make sure it is a very recent or the latest available version. Some older versions can't test more recent modules properly and will generate FALSE errors. E.g. an older version of memtest86 produced false errors for me efor DDR2 ram meant for a NVidia AM2 mboard chipset (on an Asus M2N-E SLI) .