Installing ram

[sinisterpanda]

I recently bought a computer for 150 dollars, pentium 3, windows 2000 yaddah yaddah yaddah. Unfortunately, the ram is REALLY low, and when i tried to place a larger ram thing, it gave me these funky symbols and wouldn't let it load up. What do i need to do to load new ram??

[hooligan]

you need to find out what kind of ram it takes. you might have put in a wrong/incompatible stick.

[sinisterpanda]

okay, i've looked at both sets of chips, and their both SDRam, when i put in the new one, it just shows a blank screen...i'm so confused.

[Chester]

When adding SDRAM, you sometimes will need to match up:
- Speed (e.g. PC100 or PC133)
- ECC (with or without)
- Single or Double-Sided

The latter is a very common culprit. Try doing searches on the model number of your motherboard and see if people are recommending anything in particular.

[sinisterpanda]

where do i find the model number of the motherboard?

also, what does ram do exactly?

[Chester]

where do i find the model number of the motherboard? If it's a brand-name system, you're going to be more concerned with the model number of the system as a whole. You ought to find it in a manual or sales documentation or whatever.

If it's a "generic" system, you can just open up the case and take a look on the motherboard to find the model number.
also, what does ram do exactly? You can think of it as your computer's short-term memory. More RAM will, in a nutshell, allow you to have more applications open at any given time, and have them running faster.

You should probably just bring the system down to a place that does service and have them pick out and install RAM for you. Shouldn't cost more than $30 for the service.

[hooligan]

www.crucial.com is where i get my ram. it's the best place.

[kitty]

yeah, som older motherboards can't handle extra ram or better parts. so if you have an older computer, you can't just stick more or newere ram in there...

that was a problem i encountered.