Hey, I've got a problem that is driving me crazy. I'm trying to install a 1GB RAM stick into my laptop. The laptop comes with a 2x256MB setup. Only one of the sticks is physically accessible. So the maximum memory in the specs is 1.25GB. The laptop is a Compaq R3000 AMD64, with an nForce3 chipset. The stick is PC2700, same as the old stick. I am sure it is installed correctly. I took all static precautions. The BIOS recognizes the RAM - 1.25GB total. But Ubuntu just won't. I've got both 9.10 x64 and 9.04 x32 installed. Neither will boot. Memtest only shows the 768k of base RAM, and NONE of the extended RAM shows up - not even the initial 256MB. I tried turning on boot logging, but the /var/logs/boot was still empty. When I turn off the splash screen, I see a whole mess of errors, which basically stem from the fact that there is no extended memory. What the hell is happening? This is the second RAM stick I've tried, so I'm pretty sure that's not the problem. I only have two days to decide whether to return it! Please help, do you have any advice? Do I need to buy RAM directly from Compaq/HP?
if the bios can see it then it shouldn't be an issue with the ram. have you tried a fresh install or live cd?
Ach, I tried that too. Here's the difference (and tell me if you can explain this): When I do a memtest from GRUB, it only scans the first 768k (in about a quarter of a second) and reboots. When I do memtest from the CD, it finds 256000 errors, starting at 1157MB and going onto the end of the memory, at 1287 MB or so. Just a screen of red. Do I just have another bad memory stick?
Memtest is good, if it's giving erros then you have a ram problem. the thing is, is it the stick you added or the 256mb that is not accessible? try memtest without the 1gb stick and see what you get.
