T41 RAM Upgrade Issue

[Sleora]

Greetings, today (when this topic is posted) I received a set of 2 Ram sticks of 1GB each "Komputerbay 333Mhz DDR PC2700 DDR333" found on Amazon for my T41. I had a 256MB and a 512MB stick inside before. I replaced them with the 2x1GB and booted the Thinkpad to be greeted with nothing. The screen stayed black while the lights were up and fan spinning (no HDD activity though). So I removed one and the computer booted just fine. I swaped them, it booted fine. I tested both of them on both ram bays. Right now I'm stuck at 1.5GB (I used the 512MB stick). I even upgraded the bios and unpluged the battery, still doesn't work with 2GB of RAM.

Can you help ?

[RealBlackStuff]

Obviously one of your 1GB sticks is faulty.
Does the 1.5GB combination work with each 1GB stick?
Are the 1GBs identical sticks?

[Sleora]

They are identical. I tested both of them separetly and they tested both fine. As well as with the 512MB stick.

[RealBlackStuff]

Try another 1GB stick or learn to live with 1.5GB.
Windows-XP or Linux are happy enough with that.

[Sleora]

Well, good news, Windows XP is installed on it. I use the machine mostly for web browsing and very lightweight gaming (like early Minecraft version or Undertale). I might need to upgrade the CPU since it's a bit slow, any recommandations ?

[RealBlackStuff]

Pick your choice:
Model Number sSpec Nr. Frequency
Pentium M 710 SL7V5 (B1) 1400 MHz
Pentium M 715 SL7GL (B1) 1500 MHz
Pentium M 725 SL7EG (B1) 1600 MHz
Pentium M 735 SL7EP (B1) 1700 MHz
Pentium M 745 SL7EN (B1) 1800 MHz (recommended)
Pentium M 755 SL7EM (B1) 2000 MHz
Pentium M 765 SL7V3 (B1) 2100 MHz (runs hot, expensive)

[kfzhu1229]

Greetings, today (when this topic is posted) I received a set of 2 Ram sticks of 1GB each "Komputerbay 333Mhz DDR PC2700 DDR333" found on Amazon for my T41. I had a 256MB and a 512MB stick inside before. I replaced them with the 2x1GB and booted the Thinkpad to be greeted with nothing. The screen stayed black while the lights were up and fan spinning (no HDD activity though). So I removed one and the computer booted just fine. I swaped them, it booted fine. I tested both of them on both ram bays. Right now I'm stuck at 1.5GB (I used the 512MB stick). I even upgraded the bios and unpluged the battery, still doesn't work with 2GB of RAM.

I had this problem with knock off RAM sticks on my Thinkpad T42 years ago too. I posted about those RAM sticks before it's kinda a meme in the making and in fact are "Trump" branded
Anyway, those sticks too would only work on my T42 if one is inserted and mixed with a name brand like kingston or samsung. However both would work fine if I stick both inside my Inspiron 600m (Inspiron version of Latitude D600), odd.
Guess just don't buy knockoff RAM sticks.
As for CPU upgrade I recommend the Pentium M 745 or 755 as well.
Although me personally I learnt enough by now to have loads of cheap Pentium M 725 and FSB overclock them and get 2.13Ghz, faster than any officially supported CPU in T41.