Upgrade RAM from 1 GB to 3 GB

  • Thread starter Thread starter John
  • Start date Start date
J

John

Hi,

I have a MSI 645 Ultra (MS-6547) motherboard with 1 GB of DDR3200 RAM. This
motherboard has three memory slots and can handle up to 3GB RAM. I bought
another 2 x 1GB and filled the other two slots.

Vista Ultimate 32 bit wouldn't boot at all. I see some coloured rubbish on
the screen and then a message comes up to say it can't boot, do I want safe
mode. Safe mode also doesn't boot up. I tried booting from the Vista DVD but
the same thing happens. I removed one of the new memory sticks and the
system boots up although I still notice some odd things happening like the
icons on the task bar not refreshing.

I checked for BIOS upgrades but there isn't one. Any thought on how I can
use the memory I bought?

Thanks,

John
 
I suspect you'll need to slow the memory down, a lot of boards can't use all
slots at full speed. You may also want to try raising the voltage a tad too
(just remain in the specs).

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*
 
Unless memory is matched or very close, the system will not boot correctly..
try to get sticks that match the original..


John said:
Hi,

I have a MSI 645 Ultra (MS-6547) motherboard with 1 GB of DDR3200 RAM.
This motherboard has three memory slots and can handle up to 3GB RAM. I
bought another 2 x 1GB and filled the other two slots.

Vista Ultimate 32 bit wouldn't boot at all. I see some coloured rubbish on
the screen and then a message comes up to say it can't boot, do I want
safe mode. Safe mode also doesn't boot up. I tried booting from the Vista
DVD but the same thing happens. I removed one of the new memory sticks and
the system boots up although I still notice some odd things happening like
the icons on the task bar not refreshing.

I checked for BIOS upgrades but there isn't one. Any thought on how I can
use the memory I bought?

Thanks,

John
Click to expand...

--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/
 
John said:
Hi,

I have a MSI 645 Ultra (MS-6547) motherboard with 1 GB of DDR3200 RAM.
This motherboard has three memory slots and can handle up to 3GB RAM. I
bought another 2 x 1GB and filled the other two slots.

Vista Ultimate 32 bit wouldn't boot at all. I see some coloured rubbish on
the screen and then a message comes up to say it can't boot, do I want
safe mode. Safe mode also doesn't boot up. I tried booting from the Vista
DVD but the same thing happens. I removed one of the new memory sticks and
the system boots up although I still notice some odd things happening like
the icons on the task bar not refreshing.

I checked for BIOS upgrades but there isn't one. Any thought on how I can
use the memory I bought?

Thanks,

John
Click to expand...

Run Vista's built in memory diagnostic tool with 2 sticks installed and see
if that shows anything. Got to Windows help and support and search "memory
test", there's lots of good info and instructions.
Bob
 
The memory got nothing to do with the OS if it works fine with 1 gig then
it's definitely the memory issue. I last upgraded my laptop memory and I
had to try 4 different brand in order to get the one that worked with my
system, even though it said it's compatible with my laptop model.

Return and get a different brand, not all DDR3200 are equal, they do vary in
timing and voltage.
 
Thank you for all comments. Because I am getting that strange coloured
display for a few seconds, I thought it might be related to a conflict in
memory addresses with the video card when the third stick is installed. I
did read something somewhere about changing the video memory setting in the
BIOS.

I'll try your suggestions and let you know the outcome.

John
 
Mike,

Vista is finicky regarding RAM. I normally run with 2 gig of Corsair PC3200.
Last weekend I tried to install another stick of the same (same date - same
lot code etc.). Being as how I dual boot with XP, I first booted into
Windows XP. No problem.

I then tried to boot up into Vista after about 15 seconds I got a blue
screen warning about newly installed devices. I then thought I would
reinstall Vista with 3 gigs already installed. That way it would be picked
up in the original install, right? Wrong! After about 15 seconds the system
froze. This time there was no indication of any error what-so-ever.

I took out the 3rd stick and everything is fine again.

The Shadow knows, I sure don't.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Richard

I had two 1gb sticks on my board, and just added another, no matching or
anything, and it worked.. normally, I would say 'match', but as you and
others have found, that plainly doesn't work.. like you, I am at a loss as
to what to suggest..


Richard Urban said:
Mike,

Vista is finicky regarding RAM. I normally run with 2 gig of Corsair
PC3200. Last weekend I tried to install another stick of the same (same
date - same lot code etc.). Being as how I dual boot with XP, I first
booted into Windows XP. No problem.

I then tried to boot up into Vista after about 15 seconds I got a blue
screen warning about newly installed devices. I then thought I would
reinstall Vista with 3 gigs already installed. That way it would be picked
up in the original install, right? Wrong! After about 15 seconds the
system froze. This time there was no indication of any error what-so-ever.

I took out the 3rd stick and everything is fine again.

The Shadow knows, I sure don't.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
Click to expand...

--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/
 
John said:
Hi,

I have a MSI 645 Ultra (MS-6547) motherboard with 1 GB of DDR3200 RAM.
This motherboard has three memory slots and can handle up to 3GB RAM. I
bought another 2 x 1GB and filled the other two slots.

Vista Ultimate 32 bit wouldn't boot at all. I see some coloured rubbish on
the screen and then a message comes up to say it can't boot, do I want
safe mode. Safe mode also doesn't boot up. I tried booting from the Vista
DVD but the same thing happens. I removed one of the new memory sticks and
the system boots up although I still notice some odd things happening like
the icons on the task bar not refreshing.

I checked for BIOS upgrades but there isn't one. Any thought on how I can
use the memory I bought?

Thanks,

John
Click to expand...
Are the two new sticks you purchased a matched pair? Have you tried with
just the two new sticks?
Try reducing the speed from 200 to 166. I had to do that with an older Asus
A7N8X motherboard when I filled the third RAM slot.
You can also try each of the new sticks one-at-a-time with your old stick to
see if one works and the other does not.

The one thing I didn't see in this thread was the possibility that one or
both the new sticks is bad. It happens.
 
Thank you. I have just run the memory test with one old stick and one new.
It reported no problems. I'll try it now with the other new stick.

John
 
John said:
Hi,

I have a MSI 645 Ultra (MS-6547) motherboard with 1 GB of DDR3200 RAM.
This motherboard has three memory slots and can handle up to 3GB RAM. I
bought another 2 x 1GB and filled the other two slots.

Vista Ultimate 32 bit wouldn't boot at all. I see some coloured rubbish on
the screen and then a message comes up to say it can't boot, do I want
safe mode. Safe mode also doesn't boot up. I tried booting from the Vista
DVD but the same thing happens. I removed one of the new memory sticks and
the system boots up although I still notice some odd things happening like
the icons on the task bar not refreshing.

I checked for BIOS upgrades but there isn't one. Any thought on how I can
use the memory I bought?

Thanks,

John
Click to expand...
What happens if you remove the old RAM and try to boot with only the new
stick?
If that fails, you probably got a bad stick. It happens, even from Crucial.
 
I upgraded mine from 2 to 4gb (dual channel so everything has to be in
pairs) and now I have an impressive (!) 2.9gb showing in both XP and Vista
(32-bit). I should have done some research before wasting the money.
Strangely, when I thought "to heck with it, I'll sell the new ones on eBay"
and whipped them out again, the system took almost 30 minutes to get past
the Intel bios splash screen!
So they are sitting there back in place adding a little I suppose.
Belarc tells me that all 4 slots are up and running at 1gb each.
 
Thanks Bob. Ran it with one old, one new and no errors. I'll now run with
the other new stick.
 
I tried to find where to reduce the speed to 166 in BIOS but 200 was the
minimum I found there.

John
 
I can boot with any combination of 2 out of sticks. i.e. New/Old, Old/New &
New/New. But as soon as I put the third one in it crashes. I tried to be
clever and schedule a memory test then shutdown and put the third stick in.
The memory test came up on the screen and disappeared very quickly, then the
computer crashed.

Unless I find it's something to do with the graphics card memory allocation
it looks like I'll have to stick with 2GB.

Thanks everyone.

John
 
Might well be the limitation that many of the motherboards which
support PC3200 memory have -- 2x1GxPC3200 is fine, but with a third
module, max speed is PC2700.
 
Hi,

Same problem with VISTA, 3 memory slots when I increased from 2 GB to three the machine won't boot. All of the memory is OK and reboots occur only when all three slots are filled. Any ideas??

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