RAM Upgrade from Hell

Harrier

I've recently been on a RAM-upgrading spree, and I've turned my attention to my family's several-years-old Alienware Aurora. The process has not been nearly as smooth or uncomplicated as it was for my Dell laptop. I discovered that it takes DDR1 memory, and that it's a dual channel system, but learning these things did not change the result: when I installed the new memory and turned on the computer, it would beep in alarm and refuse to go any further in the boot sequence.

I consulted with Alienware's tech support, and when they ran a diagnostic of the system they told me this particular Aurora was installed with dual channel, ECC-registered memory, and that I would have to buy some of that to properly upgrade the memory.

Unfortunately, nearly all of the ECC-registered memory I've been able to find, mostly on Newegg, is designed for large servers. Could I get away with putting this in my Alienware desktop? And if not, what the hell should I put in it?

Desert_Eagle25

Harrier wrote: »

I've recently been on a RAM-upgrading spree, and I've turned my attention to my family's several-years-old Alienware Aurora. The process has not been nearly as smooth or uncomplicated as it was for my Dell laptop. I discovered that it takes DDR1 memory, and that it's a dual channel system, but learning these things did not change the result: when I installed the new memory and turned on the computer, it would beep in alarm and refuse to go any further in the boot sequence.

I consulted with Alienware's tech support, and when they ran a diagnostic of the system they told me this particular Aurora was installed with dual channel, ECC-registered memory, and that I would have to buy some of that to properly upgrade the memory.

Unfortunately, nearly all of the ECC-registered memory I've been able to find, mostly on Newegg, is designed for large servers. Could I get away with putting this in my Alienware desktop? And if not, what the hell should I put in it?

Just get another motherboard.

Harrier

Desert_Eagle25 wrote: »

Harrier wrote: »

I've recently been on a RAM-upgrading spree, and I've turned my attention to my family's several-years-old Alienware Aurora. The process has not been nearly as smooth or uncomplicated as it was for my Dell laptop. I discovered that it takes DDR1 memory, and that it's a dual channel system, but learning these things did not change the result: when I installed the new memory and turned on the computer, it would beep in alarm and refuse to go any further in the boot sequence.

I consulted with Alienware's tech support, and when they ran a diagnostic of the system they told me this particular Aurora was installed with dual channel, ECC-registered memory, and that I would have to buy some of that to properly upgrade the memory.

Unfortunately, nearly all of the ECC-registered memory I've been able to find, mostly on Newegg, is designed for large servers. Could I get away with putting this in my Alienware desktop? And if not, what the hell should I put in it?

Just get another motherboard.

And then I can put whatever kind of RAM in there?

Which motherboard would be best? Do you have any recommendations?

Dixon

Well ECC memory doesn't have a different fitting then non-ecc. I believe there is an extra bit/byte on the chip so that if there is an error the extra bit/byte will kick in a cover its ass.

There used for servers to help reduce crashes I believe which could be caused by soft errors and the infamous solar flares. I'm not sure if the last part is true as I was like 14 when I learned about it.

So to answer your question you can buy ECC memory and it'll fit in the mobo.
To make sure though, if you want to link the memory you were thinking of buying and then the exact model of notebook I can check.

A new motherboard won't help, especially if it is a notebook your using (Wasn't sure if your using a notebook or desktop)

If you get a new mobo your gonna have to buy new memory and a new processor. Also if it is a desktop a new video card also as it will most likely be an AGP to PCI-E change

Pheezer

Don't waste your money on ECC RAM. It's only applicable if you need massive uptime for long running applications or processes, and require high data integrity. Servers are the only real place it belongs.

Pheezer

Also I should clarify:
If the motherboard supports ECC, you can still use non-ECC RAM in it. HOWEVER:
Do not mix the two. All ECC or no ECC.

Harrier

Pheezer wrote: »

Also I should clarify:
If the motherboard supports ECC, you can still use non-ECC RAM in it. HOWEVER:
Do not mix the two. All ECC or no ECC.

I think I may have tried just two sticks of regular RAM, only to have it not respond. The alarm didn't go off, but I also didn't see any kind of announcement on the screen to the effect of "the amount of system memory has changed" or something like that.

On the other hand, this computer has a long history of being a finicky bitch.

Dixon

I also didn't think there was a huge difference in price between the two types of memory. I can't say for sure though as I've never bought it. Just had it at work a few times and when my dad worked with it.

DiannaoChong

The huge difference in the ram is that if theres a memory error, ECC can "fix" itself if one byte gets switched. How can this happen? Namely a number of ways that generally dont happen. you want this type of memory in servers where rebooting isnt an option.

I read an interesting article where it described how the suns radiation actually has a chance to cause this. The napkin math showed it to be about a month before this would occour to your pc, with 100% uptime. Of course It dosent necessarily mean that you would have to reboot when it did happen to you either, so ecc is pretty worthless and money sink unless the pc is for mid grade professional purposes.

Ego

Did you try hopping in the BIOS to see if there's a setting for ECC that you can disable? Haven't worked with it in years but the soyo boards I worked with were that way.

So with the new memory occupying the same slots the ECC memory did, your system still won't boot at all?

X3x3non

Hmm, about ancient RAM upgrades. I have 4 ram slots total, with 2x256mb (DDR-1 PC3200) sticks occupying 2 slots. Can I just buy another 1gB stick and put it into any of the non occupied slots? Should I rather get 2x512Mb?

shadydentist

2x512 will get you better performance in dual-channel ram.

King of Mars

I recently had a problem with adding RAM to this computer. I ended up manually changing the CAS latency setting in BIOS, as the module I had to begin with was 2.5 and the new one was 3. Maybe you have a similar issue.