PC400 motherboard ram - 2002

[Keith.Question]

I hope someone can help me get more ram into my slow coputer.

This motherboard has 2 black and 2 red ram slots.
What works in the red slots?
When I put ram in all 4 slots, I get 3 beeps during power up - no boot up.

PC133/256 sticks in the black slots
DDR2100 266 256 in the red slots

Thank you for any assistance.

[JLK03F150]

Hey & Welcome to TechIMO

What's the make & model of your motherboard? There are a few hybrid boards that accept two different types of RAM (such as SD-RAM & DDR-RAM), but they are few & far between.

If you have one of those hybrid boards, they only support one type of RAM at a time. You can't occupy all the slots.

[Keith.Question]

I don't see any make/model. Since this board is 8 years old, I doubt it is a hybred. Since I can't use all 4 slots, I'll just stick with the 512 ram I have now.
Why did they make a motherboard with 4 slots and only allow you to use 2?

[ShyguyXPC]

I don't see any make/model. Since this board is 8 years old, I doubt it is a hybred. Since I can't use all 4 slots, I'll just stick with the 512 ram I have now.
Why did they make a motherboard with 4 slots and only allow you to use 2?

They made Hybrid boards back then as well, have made some for the last 10 years at least, and probably longer. I remember seeing a few back when DDR first came out that took both DDR and PC100/133 SDRAM.


Just wondering, if this board isn't a Hybrid board, why would you have 2 types of RAM in the board?

Just Saying...

... If thats what fits in the slots, then it IS a hybrid board. Can Use 2 types of RAM, Just not at the same time.






"Why did they make a motherboard with 4 slots and only allow you to use 2?"

This is why we'd like to know the Brand and Model (look at the board, there should be some sort of brand or model name printed on it)

as to why 4 slots and only 2 can be used.

As was being pointed out above with JLK's post, if its a hybrid board, it will let you use 2 types of RAM on the board, but ONLY 1 type at a time, and since say for example PC100 and DDR are not compatible, the pin layouts and Notch between the pins are different, or DDR1 and DDR2 are not compatible, or DDR2 and DDR3, for the same reasons, hence needing 4 slots.


the 4 slots could also be due to the fact the motherboard might support Dual Channel Memory, in which case you need to use exact matched pairs of RAM each pair goes into an identical colored slot.

But from your first post it looks like its a Hybrid board, unless you jammed the memory into the slots when they don't fit.




Also why we need to know the make and model, so we can find out if there is any issues or limitations to using different densities of a certain type of RAM.

it could be your motherboard, doesn't support Double Sided RAM, or double Density, or some other overlooked thing like this.