Problem with RAM upgrade

[eggs]

hello, i bought a ram upgrade for my hp (i have SDRAM i used to have a 128 stick and i replaced it with a 512 stick)

i have installed ram dozens of times so i kind of know what im doing but im no expert on hardware


anyway i have 1 dvd rom, 1 cdrw drive, 1 floppy and 1 hard drive, i had to unplug the cables from the back of the 2 cd roms to access the ram slots (turns out i ddint actually have to do that becuase aparently hp cases have removable sections and now i feel like an ***)

i tired putting everyhting back together and my computer turns on but there are no BIOS beeps and it freezes at the blue "HP" screen (before it even shows the BIOS system check screen). i put my old ram stick back in to see if it was just the ram, but i still have the same problem

all the master/slave IDE cables are connected correctly and there is power running to all 4 drives, however there are a few random wires just kind of hanging around and im not 100% sure if they were being used or not before i pulled them, but i had two of my friends check it out and they said they thought everything looked ok

i pressed the num lock key to see if it lights up (to check if its frozen) and it works for about 4 seconds before it freezes up)


any ideas what may be causing this?

 

[eggs]

i found this info about my model computer:

Base processor and speed
AMD T-bird 900 MHz processor (Slot A)
Maximum HP supported replacement: AMD T-Bird 1 GHz
Chipset
AMD Irongate Chipset

Memory
Component
Attributes

RAM (standard)
128 megabytes (MB) PC 100

Maximum
512 MB (2 x 256 MB DIMM)

Speed
100 MHz synchronous

Sockets
Two 168-pin DIMMs

Free DIMM slots
1

Size
16, 32, 64, 128 and 256 MB DIMMs

Pairs required
No

Type supported
SDRAM, 100 MHz,
Intel PC SDRAM unbuffered DIMM specification,
revision 1.0 compliant






someone please tell me a didn't fry my mother board by putting in the 512 stick...

 

[rmay635703]

I doubt you fried it but you may need to find out where to put those extra cables. Next get a boot disk, dissconnect all your ide devices and see if it will post further.

Be sure to try to enter setup if you can and reautodetect your hard drives

It is also possible that something is loose or a screw or metallic component is shorting out the board somewhere.

And as always sometimes a cmos clear can help.

Cheers

 

[vynsane]

Originally posted by eggs:
Maximum
512 MB (2 x 256 MB DIMM)

well, it seems that it doesn't support a 512 stick... only 256's in each slot for a max of 512, so that could be the problem... don't know how that could affect the board, however. it doesn't seem that it would fry the MB, but you never know.

make sure the original 128 mb ram stick is fully seated when you replace it - an improperly installed module can cause a freeze at BIOS...

 

[eggs]

OK i basically took the computer apart and put it back together, then i pulle dout the BIOS battery and put it back in


now instead of it going to the HP screen and just freezing, i have no video, but i DO hear bios beeps (1 long, 2 short)

i looked up what that means and it says "Video adapter failure" (which makes sense becuase there is nothing on the monitor)


any ideas on how i could fix this?

 

[Rockn]

Well your video card is probably not seated correctly if it did work previously. Did you read vynsane's post above about the RAM limitation of 512MB TOTAL? 256MB in each of the 2 sockets??

 

[eggs]

yeah i just returned that other ram for a 256 stick, i tried reseating the video card but it didnt work, so i just gave up and took it into best buy to have them honor my PSP plan and fix it for free.

thanks for all of your help though, much appriciated.