getting all ram to be recognized

[Manster]

just removed mom's old 128 ram chip from her compaq, and replaced with two 256's, the max allowed for the machine. various boots say only 256 present. played with the seating, which seems identical. what would be the most likely problem? may i have to edit .sys files? the machine isn't ancient; it runs at 1.4 ghz. my profuse thanks in advance.

[mjc]

Nope...the RAM you put in is too high of a density for the motherboard, so it is only seeing half of it.

To use/see all of it you'll need different RAM.

[Jiggy]

If you find the make of motherboard run it through the Crucial Memory Advisor Tool at http://www.crucial.com/

[Manster]

all the info i could acquire indicated that that compaq model used two different motherboards, that both took/take the same ram: PC100 SDRAM 168 pin DIMMs. please help with the term 'ram density.' are there more specs than what i list?
again, my appreciated thanks . . .

[mjc]

http://www.fica.com/site/html/services/faq_detail.asp?c_id=240000963

That should explain it...I hope.

[saphalline]

What happens if you only install one of the 256 sticks? Have you tried resetting the CMOS?