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From: The Grunt on 11 Jan 2010 08:38

I have same trouble with 320. Took 1 gig stick from my 330 and put it in
colleagues 320. The bios actually reports them both correctly. 1 gig in
each slot, but says insrtalled memory 1 gigabyte. The machine is still
under next day service agreement so they came and installed new
motherboard. Same exact problem. Never seen anything like it!


From: Christopher Muto on 12 Jan 2010 14:48
knownchild wrote:
> i have 2 completely identical ddr2 sticks except from different
> manufactures and one is double sided while the other is single sided but
> there both 1gb and the same exact speed's. They both work fine by their
> selves, both slots are working and the bios detects both 1gb sticks
> however only 1 is installed according to bios v 1.1.11; i spoke with
> dell and they told me to try resetting the cmos so i did; still it does
> the same so they said they would replace the cmos chip since i am still
> under warranty. I have been building/fixing PC's for some time now and
> have never seen a PC so picky about ram. this is why i don't buy dell it
> all proprietary BS, good thing its just a work PC. :p
>
>

fwiw i received multiple optiplex 320 in the same shipment and also had
ram problems. this was nearly two years ago and the machines came with
a single 1gb and i planed on taking some of the 1gb out of some machine
to double up in the others and then put a single 2gb purchased
separately in the others. most of the machines refused to recognize the
memory form the other systems. we are talking about the exact same chip
from the same dell production run. i recall speaking to dell about it
and they didn't have a solution. they wanted to send me more ram and
quite frankly i wasn't up to the wait and likely disappointment. the
320 definitely has problem with its memory. don't know if it is a
physical problem or a bios issue. would have thought that in two years
more complaints would have surfaced but you don't hear much about it.
good luck in sorting out your problem.
From: Father Justin on 13 Jan 2010 17:38
On 1/12/10 2:48 PM, Christopher Muto wrote:
> knownchild wrote:
>> i have 2 completely identical ddr2 sticks except from different
>> manufactures and one is double sided while the other is single sided but
>> there both 1gb and the same exact speed's. They both work fine by their
>> selves, both slots are working and the bios detects both 1gb sticks
>> however only 1 is installed according to bios v 1.1.11; i spoke with
>> dell and they told me to try resetting the cmos so i did; still it does
>> the same so they said they would replace the cmos chip since i am still
>> under warranty. I have been building/fixing PC's for some time now and
>> have never seen a PC so picky about ram. this is why i don't buy dell it
>> all proprietary BS, good thing its just a work PC. :p
>>
>>
>
> fwiw i received multiple optiplex 320 in the same shipment and also had
> ram problems. this was nearly two years ago and the machines came with a
> single 1gb and i planed on taking some of the 1gb out of some machine to
> double up in the others and then put a single 2gb purchased separately
> in the others. most of the machines refused to recognize the memory form
> the other systems. we are talking about the exact same chip from the
> same dell production run. i recall speaking to dell about it and they
> didn't have a solution. they wanted to send me more ram and quite
> frankly i wasn't up to the wait and likely disappointment. the 320
> definitely has problem with its memory. don't know if it is a physical
> problem or a bios issue. would have thought that in two years more
> complaints would have surfaced but you don't hear much about it. good
> luck in sorting out your problem.

Sounds like you didn't know how to properly install the RAM.
Sometimes you have to go into the bios and tell it it has more RAM. Or
just let the Lord take care of it and hope for the best.
Then there's latency. Some boards only accept sticks with a certain
range in latency - too high or too low and it won't recognize it.


--
http://www.vatican.va
From: Ben Myers on 13 Jan 2010 18:40
Father Justin wrote:
> On 1/12/10 2:48 PM, Christopher Muto wrote:
>> knownchild wrote:
>>> i have 2 completely identical ddr2 sticks except from different
>>> manufactures and one is double sided while the other is single sided but
>>> there both 1gb and the same exact speed's. They both work fine by their
>>> selves, both slots are working and the bios detects both 1gb sticks
>>> however only 1 is installed according to bios v 1.1.11; i spoke with
>>> dell and they told me to try resetting the cmos so i did; still it does
>>> the same so they said they would replace the cmos chip since i am still
>>> under warranty. I have been building/fixing PC's for some time now and
>>> have never seen a PC so picky about ram. this is why i don't buy dell it
>>> all proprietary BS, good thing its just a work PC. :p
>>>
>>>
>>
>> fwiw i received multiple optiplex 320 in the same shipment and also had
>> ram problems. this was nearly two years ago and the machines came with a
>> single 1gb and i planed on taking some of the 1gb out of some machine to
>> double up in the others and then put a single 2gb purchased separately
>> in the others. most of the machines refused to recognize the memory form
>> the other systems. we are talking about the exact same chip from the
>> same dell production run. i recall speaking to dell about it and they
>> didn't have a solution. they wanted to send me more ram and quite
>> frankly i wasn't up to the wait and likely disappointment. the 320
>> definitely has problem with its memory. don't know if it is a physical
>> problem or a bios issue. would have thought that in two years more
>> complaints would have surfaced but you don't hear much about it. good
>> luck in sorting out your problem.
>
> Sounds like you didn't know how to properly install the RAM.
> Sometimes you have to go into the bios and tell it it has more RAM. Or
> just let the Lord take care of it and hope for the best.
> Then there's latency. Some boards only accept sticks with a certain
> range in latency - too high or too low and it won't recognize it.
>
>

"Sometimes you have to go into the bios and tell it it has more RAM."
What? On which systems? Not on any recent Dells... Ben Myers
From: Father Justin on 13 Jan 2010 23:22
On 1/13/10 6:40 PM, Ben Myers wrote:
> Father Justin wrote:
>> On 1/12/10 2:48 PM, Christopher Muto wrote:
>>> knownchild wrote:
>>>> i have 2 completely identical ddr2 sticks except from different
>>>> manufactures and one is double sided while the other is single sided
>>>> but
>>>> there both 1gb and the same exact speed's. They both work fine by their
>>>> selves, both slots are working and the bios detects both 1gb sticks
>>>> however only 1 is installed according to bios v 1.1.11; i spoke with
>>>> dell and they told me to try resetting the cmos so i did; still it does
>>>> the same so they said they would replace the cmos chip since i am still
>>>> under warranty. I have been building/fixing PC's for some time now and
>>>> have never seen a PC so picky about ram. this is why i don't buy
>>>> dell it
>>>> all proprietary BS, good thing its just a work PC. :p
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> fwiw i received multiple optiplex 320 in the same shipment and also had
>>> ram problems. this was nearly two years ago and the machines came with a
>>> single 1gb and i planed on taking some of the 1gb out of some machine to
>>> double up in the others and then put a single 2gb purchased separately
>>> in the others. most of the machines refused to recognize the memory form
>>> the other systems. we are talking about the exact same chip from the
>>> same dell production run. i recall speaking to dell about it and they
>>> didn't have a solution. they wanted to send me more ram and quite
>>> frankly i wasn't up to the wait and likely disappointment. the 320
>>> definitely has problem with its memory. don't know if it is a physical
>>> problem or a bios issue. would have thought that in two years more
>>> complaints would have surfaced but you don't hear much about it. good
>>> luck in sorting out your problem.
>>
>> Sounds like you didn't know how to properly install the RAM.
>> Sometimes you have to go into the bios and tell it it has more RAM. Or
>> just let the Lord take care of it and hope for the best.
>> Then there's latency. Some boards only accept sticks with a certain
>> range in latency - too high or too low and it won't recognize it.
>>
>>
>
> "Sometimes you have to go into the bios and tell it it has more RAM."
> What? On which systems? Not on any recent Dells... Ben Myers

I've seen it. It wouldn't surprise me of Dell regressed back into the
days of manually setting clock multipliers.


--
http://www.vatican.va
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