The Real Ram Wreck

4GB of awesomeness arrived in my mailbox.

G.Skill DDR2 RAM running at 800 MHz with 4-4-4-12 timings on only 2.0V. This is about as good as it got, and seemed compatible enough to shove in the XPS. They have very attractive black heat spreaders with the company logo in glorious polished and machined aluminum... Oh such a beautiful sight!


The XPS thought otherwise.... I popped in all 4 sticks and powered her on. I was greeted by roaring fans and unhappy beeps. Looking closer, diagnostic lights 2 and 4 were lit on top and the XPS Miniview informed me that the computer detected that RAM was installed... but there was a problem and the computer could not be started... Okay... I reseated the RAM.... Nothing.


Okay, this is annoying. My buddy's gaming PC had caught a virus last week so it was in my shop getting repaired. I stole its OCZ RAM for reference... The XPS fired right up!

Huh.

I decided well maybe I will just swap the RAM... But my buddies machine also greeted me with the same angry beeps (no codes, its a custom build).

Quickly Googling the result gave me this: Post #3: Cons: Does not play nice with current model Dell XPS 420.

That could have saved me quite the headache. I guess I will Google for issues in the future...

Having learned my lesson, I ordered 4GB of Crucial Ballistix to go in this thing instead. Meanwhile, I have the RAM out of Kaitlin's desktop again... What a mess! I hope everything else goes smoother than this.