Computer tech question

Factual Questions
1

Recently I’ve wanted to upgrade my PC’s RAM, so, as one would do, I went and got some more. I bought 2 sticks of 512MB 266Mhz PC21000 DDR memory, and tried to install them. When I put both in I ran into a variety of problems. Either the PC wouldn’t boot, or it would only read 512MB. My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-8ST667, which is supposed to be able to handle up to 3GB of RAM. So I removed one stick, and things worked fine. Then I removed that one, and put the other in, and it still worked. So both modules work on their own, but not together.

I emailed the Kingston tech support people and they suggested I upgrade my BIOS to the latest version. I did that and it didn’t help. Their next nugget of wisdom was to buy more RAM and see if it would work. Rather than spend more money, I was wondering if anyone here has any ideas or things I could try.

2

Perhaps one of the RAM slots on the MOBO is bad? Try using each stick in each slot and see what happens.

3

Are the timings in the BIOS correct for your RAM? It should probably be set low (or default).

I’d install one piece of RAM and use memtest on it. Then switch. It’s possible one of the RAM sticks is defective. If they both check out (using different slots) try different combinations of slots (1 and 3, 2 and 3, 1 and 2).