Memory Upgrade Woes w/ Win 2000

[BarryS]

I have a Gateway M Professional Series tower PC that came with Win2k OS and 128MB RAM. I decided to add another 128MB of memory and ordered the recommended DIMM from Kingston. Once installed, I booted up the PC and got the infamous blue screen. I tried again, but could not get past the blue screen.

I called Kingston, thinking it was a bad DIMM. The support person had me boot the PC up with just the new DIMM and it worked just fine. He went on to tell me that there is a known issue with OEM installs of Windows 2000 that prevents adding more memory without completely reinstalling the OS. He said there is no Knowledgebase article yet since Microsoft isn't owing up to the problem. The problem affects all memory and PC manufacturers.

Has anyone else heard of this? If it's true, are there any other workarounds besides a clean install? Finally, if only a clean install will do it, do I perform a fdisk first, power down, install the added memory and then power back up with the OS CD?

Thanks,

Barry

[ngc457]

I have not ever heard of this problem. I have an OEM version of Windows 2000 and have upgraded ram without any problems. But my computer is a home built. I have upgraded ram in other computer with win2000 and never had any problems.

[Sterling_Aug]

Can you boot into safe mode and then let Win2K detect the hardware?

[SpookyEddy]

I once had 2 64 meg DIMM's that both worked on their own but not together on a FIC-503+ motherboard :(

I have no idea why, I swaped one & everything worked OK.

Sorry I can't be more help.

Regards

Eddy

[BarryS]

Unable to boot up in Safe Mode. When first booting up, I only get the black screen with the white progress bar at the bottom before I get a blue screen.

[Speed]

I have never heard of windows not booting up because of NEW ram. NOT BAD ram. Have you tried using the two sticks of ram together on another motherboard? To see if they work together? Slim chance but that might be it. BTW, your not overclocking are you? Kingston ram doesnt OC very well.

[cadetstimpy]

When installing the RAM did you bump or partially disconnect anything? Does the blue screen indicate INACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE accross the top?

[BarryS]

I contacted Crucial Technology(division of Micron) on Thursday and gave them the part number for the original Micron memory module that came with the PC. Based on their recommendation, I ordered another DIMM from them and returned the Kingston DIMM just to make sure this isn't a compatibility issue. I asked the tech at Crucial if he had heard of any problems with installing add'l memory in a Windows 2000 OEM install PC. Like the tech at Kingston, he confirmed that there is such an issue. He recommended that before reinstalling the OS that I change the Virtual Memory Paging File size to the lowest possible setting for all drives prior to shutting down and installing the extra DIMM. I'll give that a try once the memory comes in next week. I'll keep everyone here posted.

[BarryS]

The following is a response from Crucial Technology Tech Support to Dell Talk:

This does not change the fact this is a well known issue with
Windows 2000. When installing additional memory on an existing Windows 2000
system, in some cases you will receive page fault errors. Installing the
same module in another existing Windows 2000 system, you will receive no
errors. On the system that reports the page fault errors, you will need to
re run the installation setup on the system. You do not need to format the
hard drive and you will not loose any applications or information installed
previously. Re running the setup clears the incorrect error.
I understand that this could be a time consuming undertaking, but it
is the only solution thus far that seems to work. This situation is not
limited to any manufacture, it seems to "run the board" and is not based on
any type of motherboard, chipset or processor.
You can run a diagnostic on the module, using a utility found at
http://www.simmtester.com named Doc Memory.
This utility needs to be run using a Windows 98, 98SE, 95 or DOD boot disk.
The .txt files will give the instructions on what the diagnostic performs.
If the module does in fact show any page fault error or any other error, we
will gladly exchange the module for another.

Thomas A. Thor
Technical Analyst
(208) 363-5734
Fax (208) 363-5501
mailto:tathor@micron.com
Crucial Technology -- The Memory Experts (TM)
http://www.crucial.com