Ram

[John86]

Hey everyone,
I was looking to buy this: http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDetail.do?oid=108887&WT.mc_n=92&WT.mc_t=U&cm_ven=COMPARISON%20SHOPPING&cm_cat=NEXTAG&cm_pla=DATAFEED-%3EPRODUCTS&cm_ite=1%20PRODUCT&cm_keycode=92
But when I run Cpu-z, it tells me that my "channel" for memory is Single. Does this mean I need a SIMM or DIMM card, or does that not apply at all?
Thanks,
Hiji

[Xiahou]

What's your motherboard brand/model number?

[Phatose]

Specs on your machine would help a great deal.

Single channel has nothing to do with SIMMs or DIMMS. Unless your machine is absolutely a fossil, you're going to be using some kind of DIMM. Dual channel is a way of increasing bandwidth. It's requirement is mobo support, and in the case of AMD systems, CPU support. Basically, it requires you to use only matched pairs, and gets you some extra bandwidth.

You're sure your system takes DDR1 and not DDR2, right? They are not compatible.

[John86]

Well I found out what I had was fine, but after I installed the 512mb ram, my computer wont read it, any suggestions?
Heres my motherboard:
ASUSTek Computer INC.
Model: A7N266VX
Chipset: Nivida

[Xiahou]

I think it takes PC2100 or better DDR RAM- so yeah, I wouldve thought the RAM you linked was fine.

You said 'A7N266VX', but the only thing I could find was 'A7N266VM'. Was that a typo possibly?

[Geezer57]

Try moving your new memory to a different memory slot - if that fails, try removing your old memory to see if the motherboard will recognize the new RAM by itself.

[orangat]

Your motherboard is an old socket A model when 512Mb sticks were still rare. The mobo/bios is probably not compatible with that particular stick.
I suggest getting 256Mb sticks instead and updating the mobo bios.

[Beirut]

Try moving your new memory to a different memory slot - if that fails, try removing your old memory to see if the motherboard will recognize the new RAM by itself.

I had this problem. There were three slots on one of my old MB but the the RAM would only read if the strips were on the outside slots with the middle empty. Next to each other they failed to work.

[LeftEyeNine]

orangat makes a point, there is highly likely that there was a newer BIOS released for your system to recognize 512 RAMs. But be very careful and make sure of following the steps told how to update BIOS accurately -a failure is irreversible.

[LeftEyeNine]

Hiji, by the way, I did not find a model called A7N266VX on Asus website. So I clicked the most similar model which is A7N266VM. And there I found that a couple of updates were made to the BIOS and one of the updates before the last one was told to be imrpoving DDR module compatibility, which is what you're looking for.

This is the latest updated BIOS file :

http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socka/nforce220/a7n266-vm/107nvm.zip

And this is the DOS utility that uses the file above to update your BIOS :

http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/flash/aflash221.zip

But, attention. You must first make sure of the model since I already mentioned that I looked up in the most similar motherboard model to yours -not the exact one. Wrong BIOS file will irreversibly corrupt your BIOS, and so does the wrong updating. Be careful of what you are doing.

Good luck ~:)

[John86]

This is intersting...
The motherboard I wrote down was right, but apparently there is no such model...

[Geezer57]

This is intersting...
The motherboard I wrote down was right, but apparently there is no such model...
Was your mobo originally in a Sony machine? When I Googled "A7N266VX", it came up with lots of hits for Sony OEM boards. It might not be one that ASUS ever sold retail, in which case I'd be very wary of flashing the BIOS with one for a "similar sounding" model. You'd be best off contacting ASUS customer support directly http://www.asus.com/ and let them tell you if you have any BIOS options. They've been known to send updates out via e-mail directly to the customer.

[John86]

Thanks everyone for the help, Ill think ill contact Asus and get everything straightened out.
-Hiji