Bad memory slot?

I have a gateway MX6448 laptop that currently has 1Gb of ram . I just got a new 1 gb of memory but when I installed it all it does is power on and that's it. Not even posting No screen flicker, no bios just the lights for the hard drive and disk drive oh and fans come on. I thought it was possable the it was bad since it was a ebay buy.But I can get it to boot up and run with the new one by itself. I have tried to boot it with EACH ram in EACH slot and it will boot up fine. But when i try them together.....nothing.I looked in the bios for anything about the memory and the gateway website for a new bios but there is none. Am I missing something? maybe a conflict somewhere?

Make sure your laptop can support 2 gigs of ram.

Run Memtest 86+ (can be found in our handy tools section or by googling memtest 86+)
Let it run at least one pass, but more would be better, for both sticks of ram.

You may have bought a different kind of ram that will still work with your laptop but is not the same as what you originally have and is causing such errors. (That made sense in my head I hope it does for you too)

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According to the Gateway support page, that laptop should support 2GB of RAM. What are the specs on your new memory? Does it match the old? Also, you may want to try your original RAM in the spare RAM slot to see if it POSTS. Let us know if you can get it to boot after you put the original RAM in the secondary slot.

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If I take the old ram and use the second slot ,it will boot and run. And so will the new ram. I tried it in both slots and it booted and ran fine. So I'm guessing the slots are fine? But if i try them both together in any combination it won't boot at all..not even post to the BIOS.I did get it to boot with to sticks of PC3200 512 each in both slots but it blue screened after about 10 mins. I figure it was because it was the wrong ram. Supposed to be PC4200 or PC5300 depending on what crucial or kingston says.And there is no way to set the timings in the bios since it's a run-of-the-mill laptop.I wish I had some 4200 memeory to test it to see that's the problem. But believe it or not it ran faster with the PC3200 512x2 than with 1 stick of 1GB memory???

It sounds to me like both sticks of RAM are working fine, it's just that they are conflicting with each other because they are 2 incompatible sticks.

Also the reason it runs faster with 512MBX2 than with 1GBX1 is because even though it is the same amount of RAM, the work load is split between 2 sticks allowing for more work to be done simultaneously(sp?).

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A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer. ~Bruce Lee

Well I got 2 sticks of PC4200 from Crucial today and tried them out. I put them in and pushed the power button and......nothing. Swithched them around and still nothing. Took one out and it booted up fine. Then swapped out with the outer and still no problem. Then I tried each slot with each stick and as long as It's only one stick of memory it boot fine.It will boot if I have one 1GB of memory in one slot and 256 in the other. But it blue screens on me about 20 mins of run time.I also did Memtest and they both passed fine. I guess it's either something in the bios or just a bad slot? I give up!!

I had a very similar problem. Replaced 1 gig with 2 blocks of 2 gb each. Laptop turned on, but didn't even POST. Nothing. If I used just one 2gb stick, it booted fine. But the performance, even tho faster RAM, was unpredictable and seemed slower.

In the end it turned out that the motherboard didnt support 4 GB after all, and I returned both sticks. It did support 2 GB but when I had just the one 2 GB stick in, it felt slower than with the original 2 x 512 MB sticks.

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I wish I has at least 2 512 sticks. I was much faster when I tried it that way. But they were mu buddies ram and he didn't want to part with them? I even offered him one of the 1 GB stick for one of his 512??? Some people!! The only 512 I have is PC3200 and when I tried that...it was good for about 10-20 mins then BluuuuUUe Screen....Everything else I have is either 1 GB or pc2700.Bummer.