Sorry, I am tired and forgot to add some things.
Just after you press the Power button, you should get the BIOS screen. It may give you the quantity of memory installed. If not, right click My Computer, select Properties, and on the screen that comes up it should say how much memory is installed (in one of the tabs possibly; presume you are using XP?) This is only really a formality; if the new RAM wasn't recognised you would get the beeps and blank screen you got before.
I cannot remember the technical terms, but the reason why the modules did not work in some of the slots is probably down to them preferring primary position, or maybe only those slots get full bandwidth
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(Solved) Memory upgrade doesn't work
(46 posts)- Remove Solved Status
Rick P.
Control panel/System/General Tab = 1.93GB Ram. My machine specs say it can handle max of 4GB, 1GB in each slot. But, I don't need all that, I'm just a "basic" user. I feel like a real "techie" now, having went thru all this, this is the first time I've ever poked around inside my computer, had me pretty nervous. I didn't have an anti-static strap, so I was a bit worried about that, too. Read lots of stuff and watched videos about installing memory. Not once did I ever read that you might have to switch slots to get it to work, it was always just press it in place and snap the ends into the notches, and you're good to go. This was a good experience, glad you were able to guide me thru it, now in the future if this ever comes up again, I can try switching slots, instead of getting worried I ruined something when it won't come on and I hear that awful continuous beep. Thanks alot
JH
Thanks for some good info about the speed that I now understand. How about getting rid of some programs that show in Task Manager? Someone told me that, but too hard to know which ones to delete. I have also read about "cleaning" the registry. I bought something called "RegCure" not long ago, but it seemed the more advice I followed, the more fouled up and erratic my comp became, it got worse, and slower, not better, so I returned it and got my money back.
billy12345,
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Glad I could help you. The pleasure was mine.
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I figured the memory would work and you were just apprehensive so that's why I was so "blunt" with my instructions. :)
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Since you addressed the other issues to JH, I'll bailout now and let him have the thread.
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Best Regards to You and Yours,
Rick P.
Rick P.
Don't have to bail out on the speed issue, I did tell you I thought I would see a big speed increase. Besides, I thought more input and info from different people was a good thing. I've read that a slow comp can also be helped by "cleaning" registry, but the thing I bought made it worse. And someone told me how to look in "task manager", said I will see lots of programs running that take up lots of room, and some are not needed. But I don't know if there is an easy way to know which ones it is okay to get rid of. Too risky to delete the wrong ones.
billy12345,
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I'll start posting below FREE Programs and Utilities that can download, run and will help fix your machine.
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Just keep referring back to this post as have much e-mailing going on between postings.
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Edit time will run out but will post in next spot.
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http://www.eusing.com/free_reg.....leaner.htm
http://technet.microsoft.com/e.....63902.aspx
http://www.auslogics.com/en/so.....r/download
http://download.cnet.com/Auslo.....67503.html
http://www.superantispyware.com/download.html
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/downloads.html (Spyware Blaster 4)
http://www.blackviper.com/ (SAFE SERVICES Reg File)
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/ (NTREGOPT)
http://technet.microsoft.com/e.....97426.aspx
http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html (SIW Standalone)
http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/ (Important)
http://technet.microsoft.com/e.....45027.aspx (Pick needed ones)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm (Pick Speed tweaks)
http://www.nirsoft.net/ (Pick needed ones)
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/index.html (Huge site)
http://commandwindows.com/index.html (Command Line tools and Batch Files)
http://www.howtogeek.com/latest/ (START SEARCHING HTG SITE)
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Have hundreds more. Just ask. :) :)
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Best Regards,
Rick P.
You have of course missed out the potentially most performance enhancing tool of all: Msconfig. Click Start, then Run, then type msconfig and press enter. You must be logged on as administrator. Go to the startup tab and disable all the things you don't want to load on startup. Common things you don't want are quickstarters (eg. reader_sl.exe); having a program load quickly may sound attractive but its only doing at startup, when performance is important, what it would do when you opened the program, and various other programs you may not want. If you have a system tray that extends halfway across the screen when you expand it, this could well be useful. It is recommended you do not touch the 'services' tab as it is more likely that you could break something. If you have to disable large amounts of programs, do so in groups of no more than about 5, reboot and test that things work; otherwise it can be tricky finding exactly what you disabled that caused the problem!
I laugh in the face of msconfig. Whilst it is true we sometimes suggest it for searching out some problems, far better is Autoruns,
http://technet.microsoft.com/e.....63902.aspx
JH im sorry, but what i meant is, it is acceptable if Ricky P. posted the advice some place else and you repeat it here. Ricky P. just recently posted the information here in this thread, just recently after you repeated it. anyway. your additional advice is informative, let's all be friends here :). but Ricky P. still have the credit for solving billy12345's memory upgrade problem. i saw his urges to help other, even if billy12345 is almost quitting. billy12345 was going to bed and sleepy and everything. Ricky P. is still postings workarounds. that guy is something.
I don't mind that more than one person has views on a subject, don't see what's wrong with it, unless there is some kind of "contest" for points. Is there? I don't know how you guys run the show here. For all the stuff that Rick P listed...wow, too much for me to sift thru and choose. Worried I'll end up downloading/installing/cramming too many bits and pieces onto my machine. I looked into my McAfee program (which I never really have done, ), and it seems it has more than just anti-virus. It has a spot where it says it "cleans" computer, but I'm not real sure if it does the registry optimizer/cleaner thing. A different question I was going to ask about had to do with logging on as "administrator", and then I now see JH mentions it. How do I log on that way? You happen to mention something I recently did find, clicking around a while ago. Saw two things I was pretty sure I could delete for quicker startup, but it wouldn't let me. Said I had to be logged on as administrator. One said Acer Wlan, the other was HP Digital Imaging, and under 'Location', they both said "Common Startup", but they were the only two that said that. The others all have "software/microsoft" in their titles. And, if some of these are deleted, I assume the "performance boost" means a faster restart or cold boot, and would not mean any quicker performance when you are clicking on different things.
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