Inspiron 1720, BSoD after installing 4GB RAM

I purchased CT699854 4GB kit (2GBx2), 200-pin SODIMM from Crucial.com for my Dell Inspiron 1720 laptop. The machine already had 2GB in two 1GB chips for both slots.

When I installed the new chips, Windows Vista Home Premium refused to boot. BIOS recognized the new RAM without problems, but when Windows started to load I immediately got a 0x7b stop error. This is strange, because that usually coincides with an AHCI problem, but that's already turned on in the BIOS with Turbo Memory and works fine.

When I take ONE of those 2GB chips out, leaving an empty DIMM slot, it boots fine. When I use one new 2GB chip in conjunction with one of the old 1GB chips, it boots fine and Vista recognizes 3GB of RAM. But when I push it to 4GB, I get the 0x7b BSoD. I've used all combinations of new and old chips, and it appears the new chips aren't bad as far as I can tell.

Is there a solution for this?

 

Do you have Vista 32bit or 64bit??

 

Vista 32bit. I run the same Windows version on my Alienware desktop with 4GB and it runs just fine, so it's not a Vista issue (unless I'm missing a driver or something).

I'd be able to troubleshoot this myself except the 0x7b stop error doesn't match up to a RAM issue. So either I need to update firmware, drivers, or the motherboard is simply rejecting the RAM. Or something else is happening that I don't know about.

 

Before I continue, may I know what BIOS version are you using? Make sure you're using BIOS A09, it's the latest one.

Come to think of it, if you have BSODs on 4GB, imagine having 6GB; and I don't have any problems on my 1720. Hmm....

Just for check; it may not have anything to do with the RAM but but try this; disable Turbo Memory and see if the full 4GB installation works.

 

I've removed turbo and AHCI to no effect.

 

Hmm, so you're still getting BSODs after removing TM? Make sure you disable Flash Cache in your BIOS. I suspect that RAM could be faulty.

3GB is enough for Vista 32 bit platfoms though.... Since you mentioned that 3GB is working well.

If all else fails try installing Vista x64 to utilize all the 4GB of RAM... See if there's any more BSODs.

 

Hi

Am having excactly the same issues. Bought 2 x 2gig of ram and get the blue screen oxoooo7b stop error. tried several ways of mixing 2gig and 1gig dimms ( can only ever get a total of 3gig to work) and also dimm slots a and b with no joy. Any help appreciated.

The only other info i can give is that my 1720 had a hdd fault so when replaced i had to do a total new install from the supplied disks so in other words I am not running the original Dell install !!!!!

 

if 3gbs works fine, then use it. 32 bit operating systems cant handle 4 gigabytes of RAM, only up to 3.

if you upgrade to 64 bit and if both 2gb sticks work, then its probably a BIOS problem

 

My computer was doing the same thing after I installed 4GB or more memory in mine. My computer kept crashing. I tried different types of memory, but it kept doing the same thing. I found a fix for it on the microsoft website. I put in only 2GB of memory, installed the patch, then put the other 2GB in and it worked. Let me know if it works for you too. BTW I have Vista 64bit installed.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...B70-B709-06B2BC5B1336&displaylang=en#Overview

 

I have 4GB in my Vista 32 1720 and have no issues. Win 7 32 works fine as well.

 

A 32 bit operating system shouldn't bluescreen on more than 3.5gb of memory. I have a desktop system running xp32 and it doesn't blue screen with 5 gigs of memory.