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ram not fitting into ram slot of.... 21 year old laptop

asterven
By asterven
in Troubleshooting
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Go to solution Solved by will0hlep,
6 minutes ago, asterven said:

not an expert on old laptop ram (could you tell) so here is just a photo of the label. im sure you can all figure out what im doing wrong ig

20230326_231307.jpg

Okay, the RAM is DDR2 (pretty certain) and the socket needs DDR (I think)

My belief that the socket needs DDR comes from the chipset and speeds shown on this page (https://www.miniputer.com/Acer/TravelMate_650.html), DDR did 200-400 and this laptop wants 200/266 according to the web page (and the chipset shown was designed for DDR). It would also line up with the device being 21 years old as DDR2 didn't exist till 2003. (hopefully that webpage is talking about the correct device)

Posted

am i just being thick or is this an actual problem?

 

i bought this windows xp professional acer travelmate 650 laptop off ebay for 40 bucks. because i like old laptops. dont question me. alright condition, no battery but had charger but didnt power on and i didnt know why.

then i opened up the ram slot and found the ram completely put in lopsided like someone had tried to force it into there.

 

anyway i took it out and tried to put it in, the pins all lined up but the notches didnt, it was off just slightly. and idk what to do about it... i tried my hardest without breaking it but it wont go in even though the pins all line up. did this laptop just come with the wrong ram? is there some obvious thing i must do that all of you are facepalming at me for not knowing? is this an manufacturing error from either acer or whoever made this ram? idk...

what do i do? all help appreciated 

 

you can see in the photos the pins lining up but the notch isnt

20230326_2251450.jpg

20230326_230121.jpg

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Posted

It's a newer generation RAM. Laptop might need DDR2 SDRAM or something and your chips may be DDR3. So wont fit.

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5 minutes ago, asterven said:

am i just being thick or is this an actual problem?

 

i bought this windows xp professional acer travelmate 650 laptop off ebay for 40 bucks. because i like old laptops. dont question me. alright condition, no battery but had charger but didnt power on and i didnt know why.

then i opened up the ram slot and found the ram completely put in lopsided like someone had tried to force it into there.

 

anyway i took it out and tried to put it in, the pins all lined up but the notches didnt, it was off just slightly. and idk what to do about it... i tried my hardest without breaking it but it wont go in even though the pins all line up. did this laptop just come with the wrong ram? is there some obvious thing i must do that all of you are facepalming at me for not knowing? is this an manufacturing error from either acer or whoever made this ram? idk...

what do i do? all help appreciated 

 

you can see in the photos the pins lining up but the notch isnt

20230326_2251450.jpg

20230326_230121.jpg

What type of ram is it generation wise?

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3 minutes ago, aDoomGuy said:

It's a newer generation RAM. Laptop might need DDR2 SDRAM or something and your chips may be DDR3. So wont fit.

Online it looks like the socket needs DDR 200/266 MHz memory in a so-dimm form factor... And tbh with you the memory you've got looks like the right thing to me but maybe it's the wrong gen. Is there a sticker on the RAM with some identifying info?

I might be experienced, but I'm human and I do make mistakes. Expand for common PC building advice, a short bio and a list of my components and other tech. I edit my messages after sending them alot, please refresh before posting your reply. Please try to be clear and specific, you'll get a better answer. Please remember to mark solutions once you have the information you need.

 

Common build advice: 1) Buy the cheapest (well reviewed) motherboard that has the features you need. Paying more typically only gets you features you won’t use. 2) only get as much RAM as you need, getting more won’t (typically) make your PC faster. 3) While I recommend getting an NVMe drive, you don’t need to splurge for an expensive drive with DRam cache, DRamless drives are fine for gamers. 4) paying for looks is fine, just don’t break the bank. 5) Tower coolers are usually good enough, unless you go top tier Intel or plan on OCing. 6) OCing is a dead meme, you probably shouldn’t bother. 7) "Bottlenecks" rarely matter and "Future-proofing" is a myth. 8) AIOs don't noticably improve performance past 240mm.

 

useful websites: https://www.productchart.com - helps compare monitors, https://uk.pcpartpicker.com - makes designing a PC easier.

 

He/Him

 

I'm a PhD student working in the fields of reinforcement learning and traffic control. PCs are one of my hobbies and I've built many PCs and performed upgrades on a few laptops (for myself, friends and family). My personal computers include 3 windows (10/11) machines and a TrueNAS server (and I'm looking to move to dual booting Linux Mint on my main machine in future). While I believe I have an decent amount of experience in spec’ing, building and troubleshooting computers, keep in mind I'm not an expert or a professional and I make mistakes.

 

Favourite Games of all time: World of Tanks, Runescape, Subnautica, Metroid (Fusion and Dread), Spyro: Year of the Dragon (Original and Reignited Trilogy), Crash Bash, Mario Kart Wii

 

Main PC: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/NByp3C

 

Secondary PC: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/cc9K7P

 

TrueNAS Server: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/m37w3C

 

Laptop: 13.4" ASUS GZ301ZE ROG Flow Z13, WUXGA 120Hz, i9 12900H, 16GB DDR5, 1TB NVMe SSD, 4GB RTX 3050 Ti, TB4, Win11 Home, Used with: 2*ThinkPad Universal Thunderbolt 4 Dock, Logitech G603, Logitech G502 Hero, Logitech K120, Logitech G915 TKL, Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2, Logitech G PRO X Gaming-Headset (with Blue Icepop in Black), {specs to be updated: two monitors}

 

Other: LTT Screwdriver, LTT Stubby Screwdriver, IFIXIT Pro Tech Toolkit, Playstation 1 SCPH-102, Playstation 2 SCPH-30003, Gameboy Micro Silver OXY-001, Nintendo Wii U WUP-001(03), Playstation 4 CUH-1116A, Nintendo Switch OLED HEG-001, Yamaha RX-A4A Black AV Receiver, Monitor Audio Radius (4*90s, 1*200s, 2*270s, 1*380s), TP-Link TL-SG105-M2, Netgear GS308, IPhone 14 Pro Max 128GB Space Black, Secretlab TITAN Evo (Black SoftWeave Plus Fabric), 2*CyberPower BR1200ELCD-UK BRICs Series, Samsung 40" ES6800 Series 6 SMART 3D FHD LED TV, UGREEN USB 3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure, SABRENT 3.5" SATA drive docking station

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2 minutes ago, FireLegend said:

What type of ram is it generation wise?

not an expert on old laptop ram (could you tell) so here is just a photo of the label. im sure you can all figure out what im doing wrong ig

20230326_231307.jpg

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6 minutes ago, asterven said:

not an expert on old laptop ram (could you tell) so here is just a photo of the label. im sure you can all figure out what im doing wrong ig

20230326_231307.jpg

Okay, the RAM is DDR2 (pretty certain) and the socket needs DDR (I think)

My belief that the socket needs DDR comes from the chipset and speeds shown on this page (https://www.miniputer.com/Acer/TravelMate_650.html), DDR did 200-400 and this laptop wants 200/266 according to the web page (and the chipset shown was designed for DDR). It would also line up with the device being 21 years old as DDR2 didn't exist till 2003. (hopefully that webpage is talking about the correct device)

I might be experienced, but I'm human and I do make mistakes. Expand for common PC building advice, a short bio and a list of my components and other tech. I edit my messages after sending them alot, please refresh before posting your reply. Please try to be clear and specific, you'll get a better answer. Please remember to mark solutions once you have the information you need.

 

Common build advice: 1) Buy the cheapest (well reviewed) motherboard that has the features you need. Paying more typically only gets you features you won’t use. 2) only get as much RAM as you need, getting more won’t (typically) make your PC faster. 3) While I recommend getting an NVMe drive, you don’t need to splurge for an expensive drive with DRam cache, DRamless drives are fine for gamers. 4) paying for looks is fine, just don’t break the bank. 5) Tower coolers are usually good enough, unless you go top tier Intel or plan on OCing. 6) OCing is a dead meme, you probably shouldn’t bother. 7) "Bottlenecks" rarely matter and "Future-proofing" is a myth. 8) AIOs don't noticably improve performance past 240mm.

 

useful websites: https://www.productchart.com - helps compare monitors, https://uk.pcpartpicker.com - makes designing a PC easier.

 

He/Him

 

I'm a PhD student working in the fields of reinforcement learning and traffic control. PCs are one of my hobbies and I've built many PCs and performed upgrades on a few laptops (for myself, friends and family). My personal computers include 3 windows (10/11) machines and a TrueNAS server (and I'm looking to move to dual booting Linux Mint on my main machine in future). While I believe I have an decent amount of experience in spec’ing, building and troubleshooting computers, keep in mind I'm not an expert or a professional and I make mistakes.

 

Favourite Games of all time: World of Tanks, Runescape, Subnautica, Metroid (Fusion and Dread), Spyro: Year of the Dragon (Original and Reignited Trilogy), Crash Bash, Mario Kart Wii

 

Main PC: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/NByp3C

 

Secondary PC: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/cc9K7P

 

TrueNAS Server: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/m37w3C

 

Laptop: 13.4" ASUS GZ301ZE ROG Flow Z13, WUXGA 120Hz, i9 12900H, 16GB DDR5, 1TB NVMe SSD, 4GB RTX 3050 Ti, TB4, Win11 Home, Used with: 2*ThinkPad Universal Thunderbolt 4 Dock, Logitech G603, Logitech G502 Hero, Logitech K120, Logitech G915 TKL, Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2, Logitech G PRO X Gaming-Headset (with Blue Icepop in Black), {specs to be updated: two monitors}

 

Other: LTT Screwdriver, LTT Stubby Screwdriver, IFIXIT Pro Tech Toolkit, Playstation 1 SCPH-102, Playstation 2 SCPH-30003, Gameboy Micro Silver OXY-001, Nintendo Wii U WUP-001(03), Playstation 4 CUH-1116A, Nintendo Switch OLED HEG-001, Yamaha RX-A4A Black AV Receiver, Monitor Audio Radius (4*90s, 1*200s, 2*270s, 1*380s), TP-Link TL-SG105-M2, Netgear GS308, IPhone 14 Pro Max 128GB Space Black, Secretlab TITAN Evo (Black SoftWeave Plus Fabric), 2*CyberPower BR1200ELCD-UK BRICs Series, Samsung 40" ES6800 Series 6 SMART 3D FHD LED TV, UGREEN USB 3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure, SABRENT 3.5" SATA drive docking station

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3 minutes ago, will0hlep said:

Okay, the RAM is DDR2 (pretty certain) and the socket need DDR (I think)

oh. i think you may be right. i found this online and it shows that the alignment of the notch is very very similar but not exact. thats be the problem im facing and it appears that i do need ddr. kinda weird why they did it like that? idk im not a ram manufacturer.

 

welp. case closed. thanks for your help

Screenshot 2023-03-26 231952.jpg

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19 hours ago, will0hlep said:

Online it looks like the socket needs DDR 200/266 MHz memory in a so-dimm form factor... And tbh with you the memory you've got looks like the right thing to me but maybe it's the wrong gen. Is there a sticker on the RAM with some identifying info?

Sorry right. SO-DIMM. 😂

 

I couldn't find what gen it needs, but good job on that.

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On ebay, you should have buyer protection. (unless the seller marked it as not working/for parts) Don't know if it's worth it for a 40$ laptop, but maybe reach out to them?

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