On 29 Dec 2001, at 6:51, Jim Prettyman wrote:

>  A newly purchased stick of memory does not seat in older socket 7
> and slot 1 motherboard. It will fit in the newer models. Are the
> memory slots different on the older boards or is the new memory a
> bit thicker? Has anyone ran into this problem? The stick that I am
> replacing and the new stick look exactly the same.
> Jim
> [log in to unmask]

  You see those two notches on the lower (contact) side of the stick?

  One of them can be in either of two positions, and the other in any
of three.  (The difference bertween the positions is about half the
width of the notch, so you might not notice this difference.)

  I don't recall exactly what each position signifies, but I believe
one selects between 3.3v and 5v and the other has to do with whether
the RAm is registered/buffered/etc.
  The details aren't really important -- the important point is that
memory sticks and their sockets are keyed to prevent your inserting
an incompatible (in some spoecific ways) stick of RAM into a
motherboard.

  I *have* encountered 168-pin sockets that just needed an incredible
amount of force to insert the stick, but before I'd resort to such
force, I'd make absolutely certain that the notches line up
precisely....

Dave Gillett

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