New
#1
Add new memory sticks: which slots? Lenovo ThinkCentre M83 SFF
This'll take a minute, so if you give it a TL;DR, I'll understand completely.
Okay, my last thread on memory had everyone thoroughly convincing me that replacing my old memory sticks with new ones would accomplish little or nothing. I've been thinking about the new memory I've got, though, and thinking maybe I could ADD IT TO the old memory. That would give me 32GB of 1600MHz DDR3. No idea why I'd ever need that much, but what the heck. I've got it; I'm gonna use it!
Four slots. Comp specs say up to 32GB OK. Slots are Green Blue Green Blue counting away from the CPU. Figured since the installed sticks are working really well, I'd just slip the two new sticks into the available slots and see what happened. But I thought I remembered from way back that you paired matching sticks in matching (-colored) slots, so stick 1 goes in Green 1, stick 2 in Green 2. That would mean the two new sticks go in Blue 1 and Blue 2. Hadn't paid any attention to the memory slots in the several times I've been inside the machine (changing the case fan and switching out the old SSD and HDD for two new SSDs). So ... surprise! Today I opened 'er up and really looked at the memory slots, and the old 8GB 1600s are sitting in the first two slots, one Green, one Blue, and I have an empty Green and an empty Blue.
OK. Tried the new sticks in G2 and B2. No boot, and some scary beeping from the internal speaker. Powered down. Left old stick 1 in G1, moved old stick 2 to G2, put new sticks in B1 and B2. Now I've got old new old new. No boot; many beeps. Took out the old sticks completely and put the new sticks in G1 and B1, where the old sticks were (remember: replacing the old with the new was ruled likely ineffective in my last thread), just to be done with it and at least know that I was getting some use from the new sticks. Boot! No beeps.
But I went to Speccy to see what that program had to say about the new kids on the block, and saw this report: 16.0GB Single-Channel DDR3 @666MHz. The old sticks produced this report: 16.0GB Single-Channel DDR3 @798MHz. Hmmm.
Something isn't quite as right with the new sticks as with the old ones. Small diff, but a diff.
I'm back running happily on the old sticks in G1 and B1, but I'm really curious about what I tried and what failed and what I should have done (and could still do). You brilliant hardware engineers are probably full of ideas. Please share.
Dan