RAM question

[vladgd]

so my parents (mainly the mom, as the dad uses a pretty nice laptop) desktop runs SLOW. 

like, VERY VERY slow.  so i figure an easy solution is to throw a gig of ram in the sucker, since its running on 512mb.  so i take a stick out of my pc, remove the 512 stick from the desktop, throw in my ram, and boot the pc up. 

problem, the pc makes this odd beeping noise, and refuses to start up. 

i remove my ram, and put back the 512 stick, and it boots up just fine.

so, any knowledge as to why the pc wouldn't start up with my 1gb ram stick?  i really don't like the idea of my mom going through the SLOW SLOW startup every time she wants to get on the internet, and since ram is cheap now (ive seen $40 for 1gb, not a bad price to speed up a slow pc) i wouldn't mind ordering a stick to put in that slow machine.  but i wanted to test it out first with my ram to see if it would do anything, and i don't even get to the startup.

so yea, thats the question.  im not too smart with computers, i just know what parts go where(any idiot can build a pc when explained how to do it).

[Spectere]

Odds are, if the system doesn't run right when you put another stick in, the memory is bad.

I'll try to take a better look at your post later (I'm on my CrackBerry now) and give you a less cookie-cutter post.

[vladgd]

no rush, but to mention, the ram works just fine on my pc.  i have 2gb ram (2x 1gb) and i simply took one out from my pc, plugged it in the other one, then plugged it back into mine.

[Spectere]

The RAM might not be the correct clock speed.  Generally, you get the beeps if the RAM is wrong or if it isn't seated properly.

[vladgd]

it could be because i didn't plug it in perfectly

i mean, taking out/plugging in ram is a bit of a pain in the ass

well, ill give it another try later, and make another post when i have results

[Bobbias]

If the BIOS is set to run the ram at a certain clock speed, and your GB of ram isn't able to run at that speed, it'll fail the POST and give you an error code in beeps. If the timing settings are something it won't support, you'll also get the error (I set my timing speeds too low once and ended up having to reset my BIOS to get my computer running again.

[cristian989]

ive seen $40 for 1gb, not a bad price to speed up a slow pc

Around $20 after shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146580

[Bobbias]

Wow, ram prices have dropped like a stone over the last couple years. I remember when it was like $100+ for a stick of 256 MB (or something like that).