[jdjtcagle]

Hey guys I'm having a problem.

I'm running Windows 7 64bit with 4gigs of RAM and my computer froze; my mouse couldn't move, no Ctr-Alt-Delete, nothing.  So I shut off my computer and when I turned it back on I got BIOS beeps for my HP system which I believe uses AWARD.  1 Long beep and 1 short, which HP said was probably a RAM problem.  So I took out one of my 1 gig RAM sticks leaving me 3 and it would start up.  But only to the blue HP screen so I took out another 1 gig stick and I'm back in business with only 2 gigs.  Has anybody heard of something like this before?  Was it a new update or something?  I've been using both these sticks fine until now.  I will admit that the sticks I took out were bought of Ebay... but what is the chance that BOTH would fail??

Any ideas?

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Are you sure the memory doesn't need to be installed in pairs? 

[redsniper]

yeah, check the documentation on your mobo. If you can run with one stick at a time, then try each stick individually to find the bad one.

[jdjtcagle]

Are you sure the memory doesn't need to be installed in pairs?  

I believe so, maybe you can help me understand pairs more.  I have 4 RAM slots each with a 1 gig stick.  Two 1 gigs came with my computer and I added 2 more one gigs.  All have matching RAM speeds, can't remember right now what the speed was.  

If this constitutes installing in pairs then I have done just that.

The 2 RAM pieces I bought are a little different looking but I'm not sure if that matters forgive my ignorance if it does  

yeah, check the documentation on your mobo. If you can run with one stick at a time, then try each stick individually to find the bad one.

Alright.  But shouldn't my computer still be beeping if I hadn't removed the bad one yet?  Because after the first one I removed I was no longer beeping but it wouldn't go any further than the blue HP loading screen until I removed the second.  Sorry, I don't know if I'm making any sense.

EDIT:  I looked at my Mother board specs and I have 4 DIMM slots so I'm guessing that since they are DIMM and not RIMM they don't have to be installed as pairs right?

[FUBAR-BDHR]

If it does require pairs then removing the good chip could have caused it not to check the other at post but it caused a lockup.  Same possibility the other way around but good chip and bad configuration not allowing boot.

[jdjtcagle]

Ok I see...

So are RIMMs the only ones that need pairs? because I have 4 DIMMs.

[redsniper]

Yeah you can generally run off of one DIMM, and it won't hurt to find out exactly which stick is bad.

[BrotherBryon]

It may not be the sticks themselves but one of the slots they mount in could be bad as well. Try moving the sticks around to test this.

[jdjtcagle]

Yeah you can generally run off of one DIMM, and it won't hurt to find out exactly which stick is bad.

Ok great!  I'll test this out later today.

It may not be the sticks themselves but one of the slots they mount in could be bad as well. Try moving the sticks around to test this.

It may not be the sticks themselves but one of the slots they mount in could be bad as well. Try moving the sticks around to test this.

I'll look at for this too.

Thanks for the help guys I'll get back to you soon.

[Nuke]

this sounds like one of those times you need to re-seat all your ram. the infamous "wiggle it" technique.