T41p - Memory Problems?

[seiko]

First post on this great forum!

My T41p doesn't seem to be able to handle two memory sticks as my OS often crashes and I continue to receive a memory failure Dimm Bank 2 during memory tests. It appeared to work for many months but now when two sticks are inserted it becomes unusable.

Both sticks are pretty cheap 333 modules but the weird thing is that they both work absolutely fine in either dimm slot so long as the other isn't inserted? As I wanted a minimum of 1 Gig for Vista I had no choice but to replace both with a single 1Gig stick and again the laptop is now rock solid.

Reading here, it appears some are suggesting the Thinkpads are extremely sensitive to the memory types installed? Is this the general belief or is my motherboard on the way out? I only ask as I had planned to put another 1 gig stick in the future but am now suspecting I'll end up with the same problem? I'm hoping that I can find a matched pair of sticks that work perfectly so I can then upgrade to a Dothan 2Gig.

Any ideas or thoughts?

[BillMorrow]

in my experience two different memory parts do not produce errors..
what DOES is crappy memory..
crappy = bad design, cheap chips or a bad edge connector..

can you borrow some different memory and see if you get the same errors..? if so, try that before you condemn the system board..

and

welcome to the planetwide thinkpad community..

[pksw]

What are you using to test the memory sticks? For my desktop I use memtest86 (freeware) It is great at working out if RAM is dodgy, particularly if overclocking the system.

In your case I would suggest trying it when you have only one stick installed, and hopefully you will find out whether one is bad, or that they just don't work in combination.

[seiko]

thanks guys,

As I mentioned the memory sticks are perfectly fine when running alone in either slot and only produce problems when used in tandom. I've tried 3 different memory sticks and alas the moment I combine any two I get memory errors on all of the memory test utilities, including the IBM PC doctor, memtest and windows memory utility. The only thing I haven't managed to test yet is using matched pairs, i.e manufacturer matched pairs but I suspect the mobo is to fault as this problem got progressively worse even with new memory sticks?

[sktn77a]

I think your idea of trying two matched memory sticks will answer the question - do they all have the same latency and density?