[rescue] Mobo won't post with new (old) ram stick

[Phil Stracchino]

On 12/19/12 12:58, microcode at zoho.com wrote:
>> More to come after I get the battery.
> 
> The battery got me to the BIOS menu but swapping the ram back and forth
> between the two slots suggests there is one bad stick. The brands available
> locally are Kingston, Ceon, g.skill, and Patriot. Are any of these
> particularly good/bad?

Ceon I have never heard of.  Kingston is reputable.  I have a
substantial quantity of both Patriot and G.Skill RAM in various of my
machines and have never had a problem with either one.  Both Patriot and
G.Skill generally get consistent five-egg feedback on NewEgg.

> Do I need to buy two new sticks (as in does the memory have to be from the
> same company and be the same product #) or can I just get one stick with
> similar specs to the one I have now that is working and expect it to work?
> The memory I have now was supposed to be very good but it is not carried
> locally any more, so it will be hard to find an identical piece.

Provided the architecture and speed/timing specs are exactly the same,
it should be interchangeable.  Mixing RAM modules with different
architecture or different timings is generally a bad idea.  So, by all
means mix and match, but for best results, be certain it's an EXACT match.


-- 
  Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
  alaric at caerllewys.net   alaric at metrocast.net   phil at co.ordinate.org
  Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, SQL wrangler, Free Stater
                 It's not the years, it's the mileage.