This is very strange.. really strange.. I never expected it (Building up the suspense ).

My PC originally had 256 MB RAM which I upgraded to 512 MB just a couple of days ago.

But since the upgrade, although there is a marked improvement in system performance, the boot screen at startup takes ages to go away (that "blue bar" moves across some 18 times ) and can I take the liberty to ask you all why is that While with the 256 MB RAM, that "blue bar" swept across at the most twice or thrice.
The problem only is with the bootscreen, everything else, right from "Select User" screen works out fine. And that is what I call strange

Any suggestions or explainations? Please help.

Technical specifications: Pentium 4, 512 MB (root of the problem, I suppose), WinXP Home (with SP2).

Is the memory the same speed?

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Common Sense v2.0-Striving to make the world a little bit smarter.

The RAM that I replaced had this on it: PC2700 DDR266/333. While the new one is DDR-333, but on startup it is displayed as 266. What does that mean?

You might want to check your CMOS settings. Make sure your memory parameters are what you expect them to be.

Also, I'm guessing from your posts that you only swapped the memory; you didn't add another 256MB stick, did you? If you swapped it, does your mobo have a certain location memory modules need to be placed? Some mobo's have two different areas depending on the type of memory your using.

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Common Sense v2.0-Striving to make the world a little bit smarter.

No I didn't add another memory module but "replaced it" with another DDR 512MB memory module. But since the mobo has detected it so it not supporting the module is out of question, 'cuz everything else is fine. I have got 2 slots for the memory chip and its the same thing installing it either way.

Well, I'm getting stumped. Is it brand-name memory or generic? Sometimes the cheaper stuff doesn't work quite right. If it's only the boot screen though, I wouldn't worry about it too much. As long as you're able to use the system then don't panic; it's probably just a Windows thing.

BTW, if your board can support it, why don't you add both sticks and have 768MB?

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Common Sense v2.0-Striving to make the world a little bit smarter.

'Cuz i sold it , wanted to keep my expenditure to a minimum and that was the only way I could think of to recover my investment.

Well the stick is supposed to be HYNIX, and i don't think u would call that generic, would u?


Yeah its only the boot screen that's bugging me all else is fine. But here is one thing that surprises me- System Information\Hardware Resources\Conflicts/Sharing: There were no entries with the 256MB stick, whereas now there are 5 pairs of system devices listed, do u think this could be the problem, they are not in conflict though; most prolly sharing resources. Is there a way to stop them doing so

And thanx crystal i applaud ur patience and appreciate ur help.

I'd classify Hynix as 2nd-tier memory. They're not "main stream" like Crucial or Micron, but I have seen them before so they're not obscure. I'd say it's "safe" to use.

For the duplicate entries, you might try deleting one of each duplicate and seeing what happens. As long as they are duplicates, you shouldn't have any problems.

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Common Sense v2.0-Striving to make the world a little bit smarter.