Install and Check RAM

This is Sean from VisiHow, and today I'm going to be showing you how to install 'RAM' into your computer. RAM is random access memory.

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   It is these little chips that you are going to be seeing here in a second, that you put into your motherboard to increase your computer speed

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   They do other things, and other things also increase speed, but that is their basic function. In this specific computer there are two one-gig chips and then two two-gig chips there is six gigabytes total. I'm going to show you how to take it out which is real simple and easy. Then, how to check your computer to see if everything is working correctly, it is displaying the right amount of RAM, and utilizing the right amount of RAM based on what you have.

   

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   As you can see in the video, the first thing you want to do is go to the back of the computer and turn off the power supply before messing with any components in your actual opened-up computer

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   So the back is usually where the power supply is usually on the top or on the bottom. Okay, now we are going back into the open computer.

   

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   That's the motherboard right there

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   Sorry everything is a little blurry because of the lighting in there.

   

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   I don't have any lighting on that side of the computer

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   As you can see the RAM has little 'locks' on the top and bottom which is that little white thing.

   

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   All you have to do is push open those little locks

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   One on top and one on the bottom, then you can slide out the RAM chip. You just slide it out. It's out.

   

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   As you can see this one is a DDR2 type of RAM chip

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   There are many different types of RAM. They are always coming out with new ones DDR3, DDR4, and that just determines what motherboards it can fit in. Newer motherboards are going to be acclimated to newer types of RAM. They might not fit older ones, and older ones definitely cannot fit newer types. You always have to check your motherboard to see what type of RAM it can take. You either do that by looking it up online or just checking the manual and seeing what it says. It does not say on the actual motherboard.

   

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   To put it back in basically do what you just did to take it out

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   You have to put it back in and wait for it to slide into each lock. You can kind of feel it lock on the top and on the bottom. If it only locks into one side then that's not going in correctly. Sometimes you have to apply a lot of pressure to put them in and they're just stubborn. Like as you can see right here. This one is just not fitting for whatever reason. It's just resisting, but all I did was push a little harder evenly on the middle and I could feel it lock into both places and I locked in the top piece and I locked in the bottom. However, it was slightly off so I just did some little adjustments there and it was set to go.

   

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   Now, I am going to switch to a new segment which is going to be on my desktop computer showing you how to check to see if your RAM is installed correctly, showing up accurately, and being used by your computer

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   You can use programs if you already have them installed, like 'CPU-Z' and other things, that give you diagnostics and information on everything in your computer

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   Or, you can just use something that is already installed on your computer if you are using Windows. Open the 'start menu' and in the 'search programs and files' do 'DxDiag'.

   

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    That program will give you basic information on everything like what graphics card you have in there, and sound, inputs, and what type of operating system you are using

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    But as you can see here on the main page on system there is memory.

    

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    Memory is RAM

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    It's the same thing. So, earlier, when I was saying that there is only 6-gigs of RAM in the computer I was wrong because DxDiag is showing that there is 8-gigs of RAM. Which it says right here under memory it says 8192 mega-bytes of RAM. I had merely forgotten that I upgraded those one gigabyte chips. So, this is a really easy way to check to see if it is saying the right amount. This is the right amount for my computer based on what is in there.

    

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    If you push them in correctly, and they are not in there right and you go check 'DxDiag' right here, and it says something like 6-gigs or 4-gigs then you need to go back and check

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    If it says they’re in completely --fine. There's one more thing you can do to check, because in that case it's probably a hardware failure with your memory. As you can see by this website I'm going to right here this is ‘Memtest’. This is a program that you can download and install that will check your memory for any errors and tell you if something is broken in them. But you can also use something that Windows already has. I just don't like it as much.

    

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    If you go to 'search programs and files' here, and do 'mem', it has a Windows memory diagnostic tool

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    If you click on that, it's going to want you to restart your computer and while it's doing that it'll check your RAM and search for problems

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    So, with either of those you should be able to check and see if your memory is broken because of a hardware problem or something like that in which case you need to return it and get a new one

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    And that's the only problem. With all that said and shown, that is how you install RAM and then check it and try to fix any problems that you might have with it. There's not a lot of different complications for it, but it is a pretty vital part of your computer and it's probably important that you know how to mess with it and change it and put new ones in and fix it if there is any problems. Thanks for watching this VisiHow video. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

    

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If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.

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