RAM weirdness

[U4EA]

So, I've got 2 sticks of RAM, Mushkin 2GB EM3200 Dual Kit (2 x 1GB).

I've tried them in 2 motherboards now (a DFI nf4 Ultra Infinity and a yonks old ASUS nf2 based one). They only show up as 512 MB each, 1GB total when both are plugged in.

I'm fairly certain at some stage they were actually showing up as 2GB total, I've got no idea when this happened =/

They're from a spare machine that hasn't been used in ages. I wanted to scavenge and ebay its parts, but I can't sell this RAM at half size 0o

[AmIdYfReAk]

have you checked the models on each stick to the manufacturers website?

[Foo]

The stickers on the ram definitely list them as 1Gb each, and the stickers don't look like they've been re-stuck?

Someone could have swapped out the sticks for smaller ones and cadged the better RAM?

[U4EA]

have you checked the models on each stick to the manufacturers website?

Just checked now: http://www.mushkin.com/doc/products/mem ... asp?id=184
Both sticks have 991461 on the sticker.

The stickers on the ram definitely list them as 1Gb each, and the stickers don't look like they've been re-stuck?

Someone could have swapped out the sticks for smaller ones and cadged the better RAM?

Yep, 1GB each. Stickers look fine. The RAM came straight from the website I ordered it from to my house. No tampering at all with the delivery (box/packaging was fine), or thereafter on the machine itself (it's never left home).

I used this RAM in my primary machine for about 2 years where I'm sure it showed up as 2GB. Demoted it a year and some ago to a test/fuckaround machine. Cannibalized it 3 months ago for parts, decided just now to sell some of the old bits I won't be needing anymore. Tried out the RAM to make sure it was working and was surprised to find it at half its listed capacity =x

[^misantropia^]

Does your BIOS / OS list them explicitly as 2x512MB or simply as 1GB total? Might be that one of them died. Easy to check: if you pull one stick out and you either still have 1GB or a machine that doesn't boot anymore, the (other) stick is faulty.

[U4EA]

Yea, that crossed my mind as well. I've tried each one individually, and they show up as 512MB. Also, there are no failure beeps when booting with both together, so I discounted there being a faulty unit.

I'm gonna get an HD/OS up on this and see if I can run memtest or something.

[U4EA]

Yea, looks like it's fucked. I put an OS on it, but it's very volatile. Sometimes it boots up and freezes in Windows, sometimes it doesn't even boot up. Sometimes it'll let me start up IE and browse around for a bit and then die. SiSoft Sandra freezes it if I try and access the mainboard or general system area. When it freezes, nothing short of a hard reset will fix it.

I then burned a memtest CD and tried with that, froze on Test #8, whatever that is.

Looks like it's gonna have to be a writeoff. Although I'm still flummoxed by the size thing =/

Do you think it's possible for faulty RAM to somehow try to reconfigure itself to run "safely" by reducing its own size? Or am I just a moran that never noticed I only got half the RAM I paid for? [Though, I'm 99.99% certain I remember seeing 2GB under system properties and in task manager].

Oh well ...

[^misantropia^]

Do you think it's possible for faulty RAM to somehow try to reconfigure itself to run "safely" by reducing its own size?

That's possible with parity RAM but I don't think your sticks are of that type (the link you provided doesn't mention it). Parity RAM is pretty expensive stuff, you only see it in high-end server gear nowadays.

[Scourge]

Looks like it's gonna have to be a writeoff. Although I'm still flummoxed by the size thing =/
[Though, I'm 99.99% certain I remember seeing 2GB under system properties and in task manager].

Oh well ...

Could that have been the page file or something similar?

[U4EA]

In Task Manager perhaps, but not under System properties.