Bought new memory, doesn't work

I have a Dell Inspiron 6400, which came with 2x512MB RAM. I recently bought 2x1GB RAM, but when I replaced the original with this, it only worked for a bit, then I got a blue screen saying something about me changing the hardware. Thankfully, it wasn't a blue screen of death because when I replaced the memory back with the original everything worked fine. I am just wondering why this memory doesn't work for me. I was really careful to make sure that I selected the right memory, but now it seems I've wasted my money.

Here's the crucial.com page for the type of memory I need on my computer: http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Inspiron 6400

And this is what I bought: http://www.dustinhome.dk/pd_5010090567.aspx? (click on the "specifikationer" tab)

These are the errors:






So why is it not working?

 

I replaced the memory sticks on a Dell Vostro 1500 last week. It had 2x1gb of the PC2-5300 [same speed as yours]. I used 2x2gb PC2-6400, so the risk of incompatability would be higher than the swap you did.

Boot up was slow and it offered to run the Dell System check software. The system check is long, but I think worth doing. After reboot, I ended up back in bios, to let the System recognize the additional memory. The next boot up was perfect.

Dell Bios doesn't like change, so you should go into the Bios at initial start up to allow it to reset to the new memory count.
My guess would be that one of the memory sticks was not well seated.

Remove wall power and the battery. Pull the existing sticks, and while the new stick is still angled, apply firm pressure to seat prior to pivoting down into the latched position. Reinstall battery and plug in pwer...

At boot up, use the F2 [?] to go into Bios, then save ad exit. Hopefully the memory is now seated, your Bios will have updated itself to the new memory count, and all should work fine....

 

I think your new memory is faulty. If you can get memtest working or if the E1505 has an on-board memory diagnostics option, trying running either and see if you get any errors. If you do get errors you should return the defective memory...

 

if your old memory works, and new doesn,t...then you known you have a compatiblity problem, or bad memory-

other readings-

Page Fault Found In A Non Paged Area

Anytime Windows says there is a PAGE or DATA error then the problem is almost certainly a memory issue.

There are several possible causes for the following types of error messages:

Page Fault Found In A Non Paged Area BSOD's
Memory Dump BSOD's
IRC BSOD's

(BSOD = "Blue Screen of Death")



BIOS Caching Enabled
The first thing to do is make sure that EPROM CACHE is disabled in the BIOS. If this is enabled, some versions of Windows can get confused and might display the BSODs randomly.

In fact, for Windows XP (home or Pro) you should disable all BIOS caching options, XP does not use these caching features at all.

If this option isn't set or turning it off doesn't fix the BSOD (or your motherboard doesn't have this option) then the next most likely cause is one of the memory modules.



Overheating
The next most typical cause of this type of BSOD is overheating.

The fastest way to check this is to remove the sidepanel on your computer and use a room fan to blow air into the case. If the problem goes away, then you have an overheating problem.

It is also possible for there to be dust or dirt or some other contamination on the motherboard or memory causing this, especially if your warm computer case has become a home for some animal.

Check to make sure that there is no dust or contamination on the ram or motherboard that could be linking pins together and ensure all memory DIMMs are properly inserted into the motherboard memory slots.

Follow the motherboard manufacturer's recommended memory slot order, especially for motherboards that are double rate capable.

At this point, you should run extended memory tests on your computer to locate the faulty memory. There are several free programs you can use, here is a list with links.



Memory Tests
It's always good to run a memory test or two if you get memory errors of any kind just to make sure it isn't something easy to find.

Here are a few you can get for free:

Windows Memory Diagnostic Download Page
Memtest86
Simmtester DocMeM Memory Test Program


Overclocking
Overclocking causes heat that can create or aggravate an existing problem, and overclocking also pushes the timing margins which can make your computer system unstable.

Anytime you have errors like this you should immediately revert your system back to normal clock and voltage settings.



Where does the error come from?
Windows reports if there is any error in the transfer of data to or from the Harddrive, Memory or SCSI or IDE controllers. Primarily errors such as these can occur if Windows cannot write to the swapfile.

This condition would present a typical hard drive timeout error for Windows and thus throw a flag or BSOD and kill all processes to prevent damage to the hardware or from overwriting files on the hard drive. This is a standard memory error protection feature in XP.

Faulty hard drives, graphics cards and sound cards can also cause BSODs, Creative sound cards are known to have problems if they are too far down the PCI bus.

It isn't unusual for cards to become partially unseated from their connectors, especially if the computer has been moved or the screws are not tight.