Dell 1501 laptop doesn't recognize added ram

Hi,

I'm sure this has come up for discussion but I need a little help. I have a Inspiron 1501 laptop that had 1 GB ram. I purchased from Dell two 1GB sticks of ram, number SNPP102C/1G and it has module upgrade and 1GB on the labels.

I've followed instruction and installed the 2 sticks of new ram but when I go to "computer", right click and check the memory it still lists 1 GB of ram. What am I not doing? Thank you for your help.

 

Perhaps one of the sticks is defective? Did you try reseatting the RAM?

 

Look for cpu-z on google and download it. Switch to the memory tab and see what it says for dimm 1 and dimm 0. Then switch the memory modules and see what it says. If the first time it shows one dimm being populated and the other not, and the second time it is switched, it is likely that one of the sticks is bad. If the same one shows up as being populated both times, and the other not, it is likely that there is a problem with the motherboard or processor.

 

He also could have a defective second DIMM if it wasn't populated (unlikely though as Dell tends to populate DIMMS)

 

DIMM stands for Dual Inline Memory Module, aka the stick of ram. The ram slot is simply the ram slot. A problem with that means bad motherboard or possibly processor, as in the second scenario I posted. A purposefully non-functional ram slot would be a new one, especially considering Dell says you can use it to upgrade your memory.