Thinkpads Forum

Very strange, when I put the same 256mb sticks in both slots one at a time, the system reads 256mb but when I put both sticks in, it still reads only 256mb, I have tried other sticks, same deal. I set the bios to default, same deal, this cannot be a memory slot failure since in either slot it shows the 255 when the ram is inserted, what gives?

Put in only 1 stick in 1 slot, then try the same stick in the other slot.
If neither position shows RAM, you have faulty RAM, try the other stick, as above.

Try the other stick in 1 slot, then the other.
The one where it does not show up is the faulty slot.

If I understand you correctly, that's what I had done? When I put any of the 256mb sticks in any slot one at a time, the system reads 256mb so this should mean both slots are ok if they are showing the 256mb?

I interpreted "put the same 256mb sticks in both slots" as "put identical sticks in both slots".
Run Memtest from http://www.memtest.org/ on each stick in each slot for at least 2 cycles.
That should show that one RAM stick is not 100% kosher.

mikehende wrote:If I understand you correctly, that's what I had done? When I put any of the 256mb sticks in any slot one at a time, the system reads 256mb so this should mean both slots are ok if they are showing the 256mb?

Not necessarily.

I've owned T30 and A31/p machines that behaved in the similar manner, and 9 out of 10 times it would turn out to be a bad slot, just at the very early stage of failure. YMMV.

My T22 has the exact same problem. Put either stick in either slot and the answer is 256 MB. Put both sticks in in either slot and it reads 256 MB. Jiggle the sticks and reboot seven hundred times and finally it reads 512 MB. It's really hard to look in there and see if there is an obvious problem, so, it may be the end of the trusty T22.

This is an old thread but I had a similar problem. I put a sliced silicon earbud piece to put some pressure against the ram and that seemed to do the trick. Not sure how long this will last but as my T30 is my media slave now, board flex won't make it any worse *fingers crossed*. That is all