I've needed to upgrade my memory from 256 MB to 512 MB. This is mainly because it usually runs out and I go into page file. I bought an extra 256 MB DDR 266 module. I put it in, start the laptop up, everything was fine. While it was loading, I noticed weird glitches on the screen, characters where appearing in different colours all over the screen. It occasionally flashed then went back to normal and came back again. It did this in the BIOS too. Sometimes the laptop wouldn't start at all with the memory. I then checked the memory for differences. I noticed the only difference was the CL. The original was CL 2 and the new one was CL 2.5 What does this mean? The RAM also won't work on its own, with the screen glitches still appearing. I thinking as my graphics board is using shared memory may have something to do with it. I can't check the RAM in anything else so I won't know if it's faulty even though the BIOS register’s 512 MB (with the exception of the portion for shared video memory) that's installed. Thanks for any help.

>> This is mainly because it usually runs out and I go into page file. << This will always happen regardless of how much memory you have. It the way Windows works. >> The original was CL 2 and the new one was CL 2.5 Column address strobe Latency. CL 2 is better than CL 2.2 Relates to how quickly the memory can supply the information once it is requested. See http://www.corsairmemory.com/main/trg-cas.html for a description of CL If you have an on-board video card it is almost certainly sharing a portion of main memory. Look like the memory module is incompatible with the computer. Laptops can more picky with memory than desktops as they often use proprietary components. Go to http://www.crucial.com/ and follow the prompts for memory compatible with your laptop. Stuart

Thanks for your help. I think this memory is a stick of generic cheap RAM. My laptop is a Compaq nx9005. From the Crucial website, it seems the stick I was initially going to buy would've worked but it was more expensive. Guess I shouldn't have been misled by cheap deals.