At 07:07 PM 10/24/1998 Denise Matarangolo wrote:
>
>Hi, I was wondering if maybe someone could help in my situation.
>I have a packard bell 120 mhz. I can't put any ram in the last 2
>banks what do you suggest? If I happen to put memory there,
>windows gets corrupted and I have to reinstall it.. other than that
>if I just run 2 banks of memory I'm ok...
>


Denise:

What model Packard Bell do you have?

Have you checked to see what type of RAM
the PB manual specifies? And you've verified
that you have the requisite RAM (whatever fast
page, EDO, parity, non-parity, package, or
speed rating).

You might try replacing the first 2 banks with
your new SIMMs to confirm they actually work.
If they work, then you have to determine if the last
two banks are bad or if the RAM sets are incompatible
with each other (in type, configuration, speed, etc.).
If they don't work, you've isolated the problem to your
new RAM.

Sometimes you also have to match the chip layout
on the SIMMs. Some single-sided SIMMs cannot
mate with double-sided. A lot of this is not well
documented and seems like voodoo, and you'll
have to use the trial and error, swap known working
components method of problem solving. Try to use
all SIMMs of a certain type.

Check your memory timing in CMOS. Try a more
conservative (slower) setting and see if that works.
Also, try disabling L-2 external cache. Check the
memory bus; it should be60MHz (providing you have
a Pentium -- a 486DX4-120 runs at 40MHz).  Try
slowing the memory bus speed. All of these methods
are intended to isolate the culprit.

If that last bank is bad, then you'll have to satisfy
your RAM needs with whatever you can install
in the first bank(s).

Good luck.

Regards,

John Chin

                                  -----
                PCBUILD mailing list -  http://nospin.com
         Bob Wright:[log in to unmask] - Drew Dunn:[log in to unmask]