problem adding memory to a gateway laptop

March 27, 2006 8:05 PM

ok so my girlfriend's laptop was rediculously slow and infested with spyware, viruses, and who knows what else. I couldn't even work on it it was so slow. .. Checked the memory .. it was only 256.. got 1024 from crucial.com in two 512 sticks. Should have no problem wiping the spyware .. problem is with the memory!!

Took out her old 256 stick and added in the two new sticks. Computer decides not to start.. Powers on but nothing ..

So i take out ONE of the 512 sticks .. powers up just fine . . this behaviour is repeatable .. why is it that when i add the second stick, the computer powers on but that's it . . the laptops monitor doesnt even light up.. no sounds of the harddrive churning .. nothing ..

i can put either 512 stick in by itself and everything is fine ...boots up with 512 kb memory installed. .. so the chips appear fine .. any ideas??

its a gateway laptop running winxp 400 series ( 400SD4 )

posted by jason9009 to technology (5 comments total)

Have you checked to see if the laptop's motherboard can even use 1 GB of memory? Check the specs online. Many motherboards only support up to a certain amount of system memory.

Failing that, perhaps the second memory slot is bad.
posted by rachelpapers at 8:11 PM on March 27, 2006

from here:

"The Gateway® 400SD4 notebook comes with two 200-pin industry standard DDR-SODIMM sockets that can accept PC 1600 DDR memory modules. The modules are available in various capacities, and any module can be placed in any available slot. The memory is expandable up to 512 MB."

so it looks like rachelpapers was right.
posted by clarahamster at 8:24 PM on March 27, 2006

aaahhhh! i should have thought of that .. thanks for the insight .. you think crucial will take ONE of the sticks back if i were to ship it back ? i guess i need to just call them, huh ?
posted by jason9009 at 8:25 PM on March 27, 2006

If you email me at my profile email, perhaps we can discuss me buying it from you as a possibility. I've been thinking of upgrading my laptop's memory for a while. Just an idea. (Would have emailed you but it's not listed in your profile.)
posted by mojabunni at 8:29 PM on March 27, 2006

thanks :) ..i think im just gonna return the two 512 sticks to crucial and order a 256 to match the one she already had, though ...
posted by jason9009 at 10:08 PM on March 27, 2006