Dimension 4600C Memory

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@kenneth.leiter wrote:
 recently purchased on 1-GB stick of PC3200 RAM from Newegg.  I currently have two 256-MB sticks of PC2700 RAM in the two slots in my system.  I was hoping to just remove the two 256-MB sticks and run off of one 1-GB stick until I could purchase another 1-GB stick later (broke college kid).

 

However, after removing the two 256-MB sticks and inserting the 1-GB stick (I am 100% sure it was installed correctly and I moved it between the two slots a few times) the computer would not boot up - just two long beeps and nothing.  I also tried adding a 256 MB stick into the combination but nothing would boot.

 

Interestingly enough, a single 256-MB stick would boot.  I put both 256-MB sticks back in and that is what I am running on now.

 

Why is this not working and is there anything I can do - I would rather not RMA this to newegg (I just RMA'd something last week!) but I would also like to avoid purchasing more RAM - due to lack of money at the moment.

 

Any ideas?  Thank you.

 

The ram I purchased:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820211130

In the future, by using the Advanced Forum Search on the bottom of this page, you can quite easily find the answer to this often asked question, posted nearly daily.

The 256mb stick by itself works fine because there is no reason it wouldn't.

The 1gb stick doesn't work because it's incompatible.  Cheap memory not specified for your Dell often doesn't work. 

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@kenneth.leiter wrote:

pixiekiller

 

Thanks for the suggestion.  It looks I have the most up to date BIOS on my motherboard - I had to update it a while back as there was a weird video bug that had something to do with the older 4600C BIOS when trying to run X in Linux.

 

I don't think the 400 MHz memory should be an issue - in fact dell sells 1 GB 400 mhz memory replacements on their website for the 4600C as the motherboard should support both.  I may have received a bad stick of ram - I don't know at this point.  It isn't a "cheap" piece of ram either - its latency isn't great - but I am not looking at overclocking this machine - in fact I would be looking to build a new system if I had money to spare.

 

BTW, I did search for a long time before posting this - all memory posts were referred to an overcharging crucial site that sold memory with the same specs for the 4600C as the type that I purchased.

 

I am going to call dell support and see if they know anything that could be helpful - if not I am tempted to just buy another stick - RMA both if they both don't work and just wait to do a whole system upgrade later.

 

The memory is cheap quality if not price, and if you do review posts you see that people are told NOT to buy memory on specs for a Dell as it often doesn't work.  You may want to reconsider the 2nd stick since single sticks work fine (except they disable dual channeling), and you'll pay a 15% restocking fee if the memory is tested ok but just doesn't work in your Dell.