I realize that this isn't a tech support forum

[Creaphis]

But the collective technical knowledge here is phenomenal, and I simply must take advantage of it.

This is my computer, and when I replace the RAM with these two sticks my computer fails to do anything when I turn it on but blow its fan and beep at me periodically (and angrily). Does anyone have any idea why? I'd really appreciate any help.

[Bucket]

Some motherboards are picky about the configuration of RAM you use, especially ones made around your PC's day. Try moving the sticks around in different patterns, putting it in DIMMs 1 and 3, stuff like that. The slots may be color-coded.

Other problems: RAM not seated correctly, RAM is plain bad, older Athlon CPUs are quite demanding on memory and would destroy generic brands.

[Creaphis]

Hm. Well, this computer originally had RAM in the bottom two slots in the motherboard, but I think those act as slots 1 and 2. The stick in slot 1 stopped working so I've been running with just 512 megs in slot 2 ever since. Now I tried putting my new RAM in slots 1 and 2 and in slots 3 and 4. I could try other configurations, but considering that 1 and 2 worked originally I'd be surprised if that was the problem.

I haven't tried using my old 512 stick in addition to the two new 1 gig sticks, but that's because I want to take advantage of duel channel capabilities.

The slots are all the same colour.

RAM was seated correctly.

There might be a problem with the brand. It's certainly generic. Does anyone have experience with this specific company? Note that the computer's original RAM is also something generic.

[Jodwin]

See if you can try to those sticks on an other computer to make sure they work. Although I wouldn't rule out that your motherboard is being a pain in the ass, at least the website of its manufacturer makes one think that they create just cheap crap. :(
http://www.fic.com.tw/product/motherboard/AMD/KTBC51G.aspx (that's the model in that computer of yours)

[Nuxius]

Although I can't completely rule out the memory sticks being dead, the most likely problem is that the board requires low density memory sticks, whereas you purchased high density ones. Upon digging around the Gateway site a bit, I found out that they did use low density memory sticks for those builds.

I.E. you purchased this, when you should have purchased this.

I'd suggest doing what the others say and trying it in another system first, just in case.

[Creaphis]

Nuxius said:

I.E. you purchased this, when you should have purchased this.

Yeah, I think this is the issue. Thank you for finding it.

Unfortunately, I don't think I know anyone with a computer that can use high-density DDR ram, so I can't verify that the sticks are working correctly, but that seems likely enough.

Sheesh, I can't even buy RAM correctly.

[Jodwin]

I did some google-research on that motherboard, and apparently it's actually a nForce4 with integrated graphics. Now Nvidia seems to suck at giving out chipset specs and fail to mention whether it supports high density. Also my previous motherboard happened to be using nForce4 Ultra, but its manual also fails and I've already got rid of my old 1gb sticks so I can't make sure whether they were high density or not D:. One forum results from quick googling tells that high density memory should work on that chipset, but I wouldn't take that for granted...yet.

If you have any other computer anywhere to try the sticks in, the newer the computer the more likely the high density memory is to work I think (as long as they still support old DDR).

[GreyGhost]

According to the System Memory notes on this motherboard - which also uses the nvidia C51G chipset - only low-density RAM is supported. I'd contact the seller and negotiate an exchange.

[Jodwin]

GreyGhost said:

According to the System Memory notes on this motherboard - which also uses the nvidia C51G chipset - only low-density RAM is supported. I'd contact the seller and negotiate an exchange.

It also uses 240-pin DDR2 rather than old DDR...just pointing out that it's difficult to tell for sure without testing the sticks in different systems. Of course, you should still try to get the sticks returned.