Laptop not taking RAM

[Beardedtractor]

Quick question for anyone who might have some insights...

I tried installing some new RAM in my work laptop. It's currently running 3gb of DDR3, so I tried two different sets of 2x4gb sticks, one at the current speed its running and one at a faster speed. Both times it starts going to bootup, and then hits our harddrive security software startup (Sophos) and the screen tears in half into black and white sections and freezes like that. This happens with either set of sticks, or just any 1 stick from either of the two sets I got.

I thought it was originally a speed issue, but could it be that my MOBO's capacity is only 3gb so its freaking out at 4+ GBs?

[asagohan]

can you provide the model number of the motherboard and of the RAM? also, have you tried just 1 stick of RAM from each of those 2 sets?

[Beardedtractor]

Yeah I've tried all the sticks in either of the two slots, no dice. I'm not sure how to find my motherboard model on this laptop, but I can tell you its a dell latitude e6410

[pikamoo]

Hi,

You should have an express service tag or code underneath your laptop. Use this code with the link below and it will show you exactly what you have on your computer. It should provide you another support link to the manual. The manual will have the exact speeds of Ram your laptop can use. The manual usually provides a troubleshooting guide. I believe your laptop can use 8 gigs of RAM


http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/us/en/19/TroubleShooting/ProductSelector


You can try changing the video mode when you boot using SHIFT+F4. http://www.sophos.com/en-us/support/knowledgebase/107781.aspx

If this doesn't work you may need to update drivers and your bios. The dell support link I provided you above should direct you to all the latest downloads.

[Philmanov]

pikamoo wrote:

Hi, You should have an express service tag or code underneath your laptop. Use this code with the link below and it will show you exactly what you have on your computer. It should provide you another support link to the manual. The manual will have the exact speeds of Ram your laptop can use. The manual usually provides a troubleshooting guide. I believe your laptop can use 8 gigs of RAM http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/us/en/19/TroubleShooting/ProductSelector You can try changing the video mode when you boot using SHIFT+F4. http://www.sophos.com/en-us/support/knowledgebase/107781.aspx If this doesn't work you may need to update drivers and your bios. The dell support link I provided you above should direct you to all the latest downloads.

Motherboards are fussy. Some will cap out on certain speeds. So even if the motherboard can support 8 GB of Ram, it may be able to only support up to 1600 mgzh for example. Which means if you have 1600 mghz already then there is no faster ram that you can put in it.

You also can't have more than 4 GB of Ram on a 32-bit version of windows. So if you are trying to install more than 4 GB of ram you will have to switch windows to a 64-bit version.

[Romanovski]

I recommend trying to reset the BIOS on the motherboard by reseating the reset pins or the BIOS battery depending on your model and instructions from dell. Though if you still have warranty on the computer i do not recommend doing it since it is a laptop and can be messed up easily. If your warranty is still good just contact Dell Technical Support and have them send out a technician to replace the motherboard.

From the RAM checks you have conducted the problem is defiantly in the motherboard and the only thing that I have seen fix this issue is BIOS hard reset as stated above or replacing the board.

I remember helping a sister in the church who had the same issue about 7 years ago and resetting the BIOS revived the laptop.

Romanovski,
CISSP, CEH, ITIL v3, CCNA Security, MCP, Security+, Network+, A+, Server+, Linux+