Failure after upgrading Acer 1410 from 2 to 4 GB RAM

After upgrading RAM in brand new Acer 1410-2920, from 2 to 4 GB, get diag failures and occasional boot failure (Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit).

Originally two Samsung DIMMs "1 GB 2Rx16 PC2 - 5300S - 555 - 12 A3", replaced by two new http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231153

Memtest86_ v 2.11 (from an ubuntu 9.04 boot USB) shows tens of errors in tst5 (Block Move, 64 moves).

Are these defective DIMMs or was my choice of memory bad, or might it be a bad memory controller in the Acer?

Edit: Hmmm, when I tell memtest to show DMI memory info, it shows that both dimms are mapped to 0-2GB. A BIOS or EFI issue?

 

Your system supports stock 4gb ram? Everywhere I read, it says 2gb max for this model. I missed something?

cheers ...

 

Acer site http://us.acer.com/acer/product.do (click on Aspire 1410) and newegg specs page and reviews all say 4 gb.

Hmm, unit shipped with old BIOS (v3115, which is 4 versions old). Will try update to newest v 3303 (confirmed w Tech support that this was ok to try) and report back.

BIOS update did not help. Maybe somewhat fewer errors from Memtest86+, or maybe just random variation.

Acer tech support literally will not discuss RAM upgrades. They give a phone number for "Answers by Acer" which is a 3rd party which wants a minimum of US $60 to discuss the issue. I

 

Have you tried using one stick at a time? If you still get errors, you will know that the stick is bad and if not, you will know it's the configuration.

 

I upgraded from 2 to 3gigs of RAM on my 1410 without problem. And I got that 1410 the first day it came out.

 

Have you tested each 2gb on it`s own in the notebook for errors.

 

I have 4 GB (2x 2 GB DDR2 800 Patriot sticks) on my 1410 in dual-channel.

From what you wrote, I find the possibility of defective stick(s) more likely than a motherboard/chipset issue.

 

Thanks for replies. Yes, I tried each stick by itself, no problems. The consensus on irc freednode hardware was that it was probably ram problem, to get faster (800 instead of spec 667) matched pair (because of dual channel) from top brand instead of the gskill. So I ordered a pair of kingston 800s....

 

Hm ...
It seems to me that the issue you are experiencing might be related to the RAM sticks being incompatible with one another.
If you upgraded the BIOS to the latest version (which you should keep btw), then you will have to try booting the system with one stick at a time and check it like that.

If booting the system works with 1 stick at a time instead of both, there's a good possibility that the sticks are incompatible when working in union.
In which case you have to make sure that both sticks are from the same manufacturer and with same specs.
Some laptops will work with different RAM sticks inside, others, not so much.

 

Thanks, Deks, we posted simultaneously. These sticks are same mftr and specs, but (some say) may still not be fully compatible. Some ppl say that gskill not as likely to work as kingston, crucial,... I hope they are right and it's not the system.

 

Even worse results with the Kingston 800's http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104148. The machine won't even show the startup BIOS screens - nothing with either stick in either slot, nor of course with both sticks installed. I'm out of time for experimenting, will need to live with the original 2 GB for the next few weeks. After that.... I don't know. Discouraging. Ideas?