My mom has a cheapo Emachines computer she bought a few years ago from Bestbuy. It's got a 3.2ghz processor and runs XP sp2, however it only came with 256mb of RAM. I pulled out the ram CHIP to make sure I was getting the right kind (it was ddr), and bought a 1gb stick. My problem is now that I installed it, the pc won't boot up. It powers on but it goes no farther than that, so for the time being I put the 256 back in. I looked up the model number of her pc (which I don't REMEMBER at the moment) and it said it could take a max of 2gb of ram, so I know I'm not going over the limit. What else could be the problem?

I'll try to get more info (model #, info on ram, ETC)Check at www.crucial.com, if you bought correct RAM.What is the specs of your ram? Speed? Brand?

You can use CPU-Z to double check the specs on the working ram to be sure you have right specs.

Then be sure to buy yourself new ram with those specs. Faster speed should be ok, but anything slower than what the working 256 stick is is not good.

Maybe you get a defective 1gb ram, so you might TEST your 1gb ram on another computer, if not ok, then either return or exchange ram.

I would buy brand name rams like Crucial, Kingston, Edge, etc. to be sure you get quality ram sticks. And maybe try buying it from Amazon or Newegg if you're ok with buying stuff online.The Crucial website might be the answer I'm LOOKING for. I'll check it next time I'm at her house. Thanks!OK, she has an Emachine T3990, and after running the scan on crucial.com. it looks like I have the right memory. The scan calls for DDR 3200, which is what I ordered, although I noticed the label on the ram says "DDR 12BX4 PC400 1G AUM0208". Does it matter that it says pc400 instead of pc3200? Could the ram itself just be bad, because I'm on the verge of returning it.PC3200 and DDR-400 is the same thing. PC3200 is module name, DDR-400 is standard name

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR_SDRAM



IF you do have PC3200 DDR ram, then I would test the ram stick on another computer that accepts PC3200 ram to be sure it's not working and be careful. Ram sticks are very sensitive and you might have damaged it simply by giving it a little static charge (some people use antistatic wrist straps when handling electronics or put electronics in antistatic bags)

But anyway, if it ain't working, then return it to the store you got it from or exchange it. But like I said earlier, getting a name brand product is more assuring of its quality than a no-name brand (but still it's not guaranteeing it's fuctionality as you might have still gotten a DOA product or just a bad batch)