Adding RAM

[Jules282]

When I add some extra ram it allways says before I Login That Theres an error and have to turn off take the RAM out and then start up and it's fine?

[sdousley]

is ur swap partition equal to 2x the original RAM or the new RAM? I know u have to have the SWAP partition equalk or greater than 2 times the size of ur ram. eg 256Mb Ram would need AT LEAST 512 Mb swap partition, and 512Mb RAM would need at least 1gb swap partition!

[microft.pt]

is ur swap partition equal to 2x the original RAM or the new RAM? I know u have to have the SWAP partition equalk or greater than 2 times the size of ur ram. eg 256Mb Ram would need AT LEAST 512 Mb swap partition, and 512Mb RAM would need at least 1gb swap partition!

That's not interelly true, when i installed Mandrake on my PC I had 256MB of SDRAM. The instaler created the SWAP partition with 494MB.
Last week I added 128MB of RAM. And it's been running ever since, without me having to change the SWAP partition size.

Jules282 are you sure the motherboard setting are right..... Do you run MemCheck when you turn on the PC?


[]s

[sdousley]

OK! Fair enough! I was just always told that u HAD to make the swap AT LEAST 2 times the size of the RAM! Obviously not then!!!

[Jules282]

How Do You Run MemCheack?

[microft.pt]

in the BIOS menu of my motherboard, there is an option that you can use. Its: Do MemCheck on Startup - what it dows is check how mych ram i have every time i start the pc.

[logan5]

BIOS is probally your probelm. Hit a "f" key (something like f4 or f8 is a good bet), all systems BOIS are a little different, so you might need to do so trial and error, but an "f" key usually gets you into BIOS. Do this before the OS starts to load. If you make it into BIOS, look around for the config section and there should be a section on memory.

As for the ammount of swap, as a rule, you really need at least as much swap as you have memory (1:1). So if the OS crashes it can do a core dump. But a good rule is 2 or 2.5 times the memory.

Do some google searches and you will find a lot of info. But probaly the best place to look is the docs from your distro.

[Jules282]

Thanks
Jules

[Hellmasker]

u might have alredya sadi this, but how much RAM did u have before and after if u went from below to above 960mb u really should compile a new kernel with highmem support

the swapfile thing is irrelevant, the double ram thing is only a guide 2x ram is just a good guess, BTW u never need more than 1gb swap.

[kriss]

OK! Fair enough! I was just always told that u HAD to make the swap AT LEAST 2 times the size of the RAM! Obviously not then!!!

On computers with low mem its true, but you really don't need a swap partition when you have 512+ mb ram. I have 256 mb of ram, and 128 mb swap partition. It almost never touches the swap partition, and if you have eg. 1 gig of ram, 2 gig swap partition would just be a waste of space.

Kriss