I have a Dell Optiplex GX520 desktop (it's abount 5 yr old) PC with 512 MB DDR2 RAM. Since my computer always swapping I thought I should upgrade my RAM. I bought a Kingmax 2GB DDR2 RAM. But my system does not boot. The status leds are on 2 and 4. The user manual says 'video card failure' wtf?
I put back the original module and everything works. I tried many combinations. When I leave the old 512 RAM in and put the 2GB next to it to the other socket my system completes the POST and I'm able to enter the BIOS menu. It says my system has 2.5 GB installed, one 0.5GB and one 2GB in dual asymmetric channel mode. It's seemingly right. Exiting the BIOS setup GRUB loads successfully, but when I try to boot Ubuntu it crashes with kernel panic immediately. Trying to load Windows XP does not get past the loading screen, it crashes with 0x8E stop error.
- Does this mean the ram I bought is faulty?
- Or is it just mean that the memory module I bought is too new to be handled my computer? I this case I may exchange the RAM with my friends.
No other computer is in my house (my very old box has DDR1 ram, my systers new box has DDR3 ones. I can't plug my memory in neither one.) I'm going to return the RAM to store to replace it with a better one tomorrow.
Is there any hope to get this new module work?
Best Answer
RAM is tricky. Just because it's the right "kind" doesn't mean it'll work in a given machine.
According to the product sheet 2GB is the max for the system, and it has two slots, so I'll hazard that it doesn't support 2gb in a single slot. Dell does that a lot.
It's also non-ECC and the supported speeds are 400 and 533mhz. If you post the exact ram you bought, I might be able to tell you more.