Inspiron 660, memory upgrade failed

Below are the Dell validated 4GB memory =
P382H 4GB, 1333MHz, DDR3, 512x64, 8K, 240 Pin, 256x4, Dual Rank, Unbuffered, 1.5v, Non-ECC
60KD4 4GB, 1333MHz, DDR3, 512x64, 8K, 240 Pin, 256X4, Dual Rank, Unbuffered, 1.5v, Non-ECC
VT8FP 4GB, 1600MHz, DDR3, 256X64, 8K, 240 Pin, 256x8, Dual Rank, Unbuffered, 1.5v, Non-ECC
531R8 4GB, 1600MHz, DDR3, 512x64, 8K, 240 Pin, 512x8, Single Rank, Unbuffered, 1.5v, Non-ECC

What was the part number of the original Dell 4GB memory?

M378B5273DH0-CK0 1203
4GB 2Rx8 PC3-12800U-11-11-B1

Those are the numbers on the label so I guess one of them is the part number. Please see photo of label here:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Xwstqkg0aSZKcdlHhhiHsMoEOPfNs8nj

No. Look at the memory stick for a label.

Hi Chris,

You wrote "That appears to be the one that you bought from the supplier? I meant the original Dell memory stick that was installed by us."

The photo is of the original Dell-supplied memory stick.

(I'm replying to your email because I can't see your post in this thread.)

Then the supplier removed all of the original Dell memory and installed the retail Samsung M378B5273DH0-CK0 1203. My advice, contact the supplier and ask them to sell you either a matching retail Samsung M378B5273DH0-CK0 1203 4GB memory stick. Or buy two 4GB of the above Dell memory sticks.

I'm sorry Chris, I haven't explained my situation clearly. The history is as follows:-

* in 2012 I bought the pc from Dell with 4GB of memory
* no modifications have been made to the pc since, so the photo I have supplied is of the original Dell-installed memory
* I now want to upgrade to 8GB so I contacted a memory supplier and bought a 4GB memory stick to add to the existing memory
* I have tried various memory sticks provided by the same memory supplier, none of which have worked. All the experiments are detailed in my previous posts.

But - although I have tried to be very careful with the swapping of memory sticks, I guess there is a very small chance that I have made a mistake and have accidentally left a new memory stick in the pc and have sent the original Dell one to the memory supplier. I will contact him on Monday and ask him to confirm, but I would be very surprised if I have made such a mistake.

I don’t know why you’re getting heartburn over this. All you have to do is go here: http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Dell/inspiron-660 and select the memory you want. It’s that simple. I’ve used crucial to upgrade many PCs and they have never failed me. Good luck!

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give them a try. I won't close this thread though, until I know that their service works.

I switched to a new supplier (Crucial) for the RAM as recommended, but continue to have the same problem, namely that the upgrade from 4GB to 8GB fails.

Crucial support said that the problem was probably caused by the pc not having up-to-date BIOS firmware and/or Chipset Intel Management Engine Interface driver software.

So I found the "Dell Support for Inspiron 660s" page, typed in my Service Tag, and used the Support Assist analyzer to check the currency of my BIOS and drivers. It found that my BIOS and a number of drivers were out-of-date, so I used the automatic feature to update them.

After the update and restart, I ran the Support Assist analyzer again and it found only one issue, namely that the Intel chipset driver still needed updating. So I then did a manual download of the update software and ran it, successfully according to the completion message. After restart I repeated the analyzer process and got the same result, namely that the Intel chipset driver still needed updating. I then repeated it yet again with the same result.

I then tried again to install the Crucial 4GB memory module, but the pc started beeping immediately.

I'm guessing that I need to resolve the chipset driver update before attempting to install the extra RAM, is that right?

Aha! You didn't tell us that you had a 660s; your prior posts talked about a 660, a different beast. You should run Crucial's memory configurator and use what they suggest. I would replace ALL of the RAM in your system rather than doing this piecemeal; RAM is very cheap nowadays and, if you can afford it, it would be worth getting all 8 gbs from Crucial. That, in itself, might solve your problems.

If Crucial also suggests that you update the chipset drivers, then by all means do so. Micron - the parent company of Crucial - is an extremely competent company, so you should have a workable solution from them. Good luck!

So it's not certain if the chipset driver problem is related to the RAM upgrade problem.

The RAM upgrade isn't urgent, so I'm happy to put that on the back burner for the time being. But I'm not happy about having a problem with the chipset driver which could possibly become a bigger problem down the line. What I'll do is put this thread on hold, and start a new one to resolve the problem of the chipset driver update.

Once that's resolved I'll come back to the RAM upgrade - thanks for the suggestion, yes that's probably the best way to fix the RAM upgrade problem, namely to buy two matching modules from Crucial.

I've bought 2 matching 4GB memory modules from Crucial which they recommended after analysis by their configurator. I installed them but with the same result, the pc beeps and doesn't fire up. Each memory module works fine on its own, but they don't work when installed together.

Where do I go from here?

As a test, Crucial support suggested that I transfer the Dell-installed memory stick from slot #1 to slot #2 and leave slot #1 empty. They said that the pc should work in that configuration, but when I powered it up it started beeping. Crucial said that it looks like there is a hardware fault with slot #2. 

I bought the pc new from Dell 5 years ago so it would appear that this fault has been in the pc since then. Is it possible that Dell will help, even thought the pc is out of warranty?