Ive got an HP Pavilion a1130n. It has 1 gig's worth out of the factory. today I bought another gig of ram, installed it, and now my computer wont run. It either just doesnt boot and beeps, or it freezes up at startup. Can my computer just not support another full gig of ram, or am I doing something wrong?
Im not incredibly tech savvy so dont flame over this if im just doin some idiotic thing wrong. lol

2/23/2007 4:00:03 PM

your computer can handle up to 4GB of RAM ... however the problem you're explaining leans heavily towards bad or incompatible RAM. for starters, where did you get the new RAM that you installed (yourself?)

2/23/2007 4:10:35 PM

Quote :

"...bad or incompatible RAM..."

2/23/2007 4:22:00 PM

And what type of RAM did you get? There are all sorts of types of RAM (SDRAM, DDRAM, RDRAM) different speeds, dual channel compatible, etc.

2/23/2007 4:22:40 PM

I got it at best buy. I had a guy help me find the right type. Looking back he probably didnt know what he was talking about. Its optima memory DDR PC3200 DDR-400/333/266

Oh and another thing, when i took out one of the 512mb sticks, and put the new ram in its place, the computer works fine! It registers the new amount of ram and everything. But it just wont work when the new 1gig ram is in along with the two original 512 mb sticks.

2/23/2007 4:23:39 PM

Think that series requires pairs of memory. Crucial's configurator seems to agree.

2/23/2007 4:33:42 PM

The ram is compatible I believe. Try putting the larger sticks in slot 1 and 2 and the smaller ones is slot 3 and 4. If that doesn't work, just put one of the larger sticks in slot 1 and take all other memory out and try to boot. Do the same with each stick. When one stick doesn't boot, then you know you have a bad stick of RAM. Otherwise it's a compatibility problem.

2/23/2007 4:36:05 PM

Pairs? that mean i need another one gig??

2/23/2007 4:36:44 PM

no it means you two memory sticks that are "paired" or guaranteed to work well with each other. He's saying you need a dual-channel pack instead of 2 regular sticks.

2/23/2007 4:40:24 PM

Ah jeez

2/23/2007 4:49:43 PM

Wait a minute. . . you have two 512 sticks and a 1 gig stick? Doesn't the largest RAM need to be in the first slot?

So if you removed a stick, did you remove the first one and put the larger in its place? Try putting the 512 you took out into the 3rd slot and see if it works.

2/23/2007 4:50:21 PM

yea like they've said, install this way:

slot 1: 1 gig
slot 2: 512
slot 3: empty
slot 4: 512

and of course, if that doesn't work try putting the pair of 512 sticks into slots 3 and 4.

2/23/2007 5:28:08 PM

Thanks fellas I got it workin finnally

2/23/2007 7:16:54 PM

Ahh great. Now the ram works but, my computer will randomly turn off in the middle of use! it freezes alot of programs as well. This has become some kind of pain in the ass.

2/23/2007 8:07:20 PM

don't use the optima ram.

I'm sorry the guy sold you bad stuff.

Get the kingston.

2/23/2007 11:03:12 PM

sounds like you'll be needin to review Best Buy's return policy.

2/23/2007 11:08:40 PM

It's cruicial to research quality/price point with ram.

2/24/2007 12:08:51 AM

Ok, so i think your HP ram likes to run at 1.8v and the PNY Optima ram's lowest voltage is 2.5v. So to stop the freezes and crashes you will need to go into your BIOS and manually set your memory voltage to 2.5v. It will probably give you a warning that it is dangerous. If you do this, the HP memory may die, if not, then it will decrease how long it lasts. Or you can pull the HP memory and just use 1 GB Optima at 2.5v which will run faster, but you won't have the capacity you want.

Basically, you should really buy memory all at once for the future because it can be a pain getting things to cooperate later.

2/24/2007 5:19:11 PM