i got two sticks of sdram, each 512mb, and when i checked in the control panel it said i only had 512mb, rather than the 1gb that i actually have. i tried to fix the problem in the bios screen but that only led to more problems (which i only managed to fix because of these forums). any surgestions?

If the ram is placed on both sides of the sticks check if your board supports double sided ram or only single sided ram!
That may explain the difference!

I also read here about newer high density ram chips that aren't supported by all older boards. In one of the post I read the same problem was described!

yes my board does support dimm, but it is old. a kt-133m epox. would that support newer ram?

Memory, SDRAMS, come in 3 flavors- Low density, High density, and Ultra-High.

Low is supposed to work with anything, and is a one-one addressing scheme to the CPU

High is is supposed to work with a mobo which supports it, else the mobo will see "HALF" of the SDRAM because of its doubled pairs of dram chips.

And Ultra-High If i'm not mistaken is for Athalon mobos (that is unless it's a subset of high density and works like high-density)

Go to www.1stchoicememory.com for more info.

If you have different Density RAM then you will get the effect you are experiencing, Or it may be that your motherboard doesn't support High Density RAM

Good Luck.

ahh...thanks!

just one thing... whats a mobo?

Mobo=Motherboard.

i know my mobo ;), supports sdram and it has two dimm slots so how do i find out if my sdram is high or low density?

The correct term is mainboard or its shortened form ie. mb. The terms motherboard and daughterboards went out a long time ago. But then my teenagers listen to Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and this music is considered "classics" now.

Pull the RAM card out in question and read the label. Then go to the Manufacturers website and look up the specs on it. If no joy there then do a search on Google for the Specsheet for the RAM. You may also want to do a search on Google for Aida32 hardware identifying software. Download it an run it. It too may be able to tell you what you have and it will list any problems it sees in your system. Plus it will provide you with links to the manufacturer's website.

hmmmmm....

i took out one of the sticks of ram and it still says that i have 512mb.

i guess that rules out combatibility promblems, but what else could it be?