Laptop will not boot with 4 Gigs of RAM

[Thenetyss]

Hi all,
I have an MSI Gx630 laptop. I am running 64-Bit Windows 7. For a very long time now, it refuses to boot with all 4 Gigs of RAM inserted. It will only boot with 2 Gigs. Lights will come on, the fan will come on and I hear hard drive noises but the screen remains black until I turn it off and take out 2 gigs.

Both RAM sticks work fine, and both RAM slots work fine, because I have booted it using each stick in each slot individually.

I do not see options in the BIOS for changing anything about the RAM (someone suggested this). However I'm no expert at navigating the BIOS, so any ideas there would be great.

It has been damaged before so bent pins on the CPU are a possibility that I haven't checked, but it doesn't have any other problems besides RAM support. Any ideas/suggestions would be great and let me know if you need more details. Thank you in advance!

[MaxRat]

the motherboard may just not like that type of ram... Many times you can buy a kit of ram and each stick will boot but they will not when paired. The BIOS may just not be optimized for that particular kit...

What specific ram is it?

[Thenetyss]

Originally Posted by MaxRat the motherboard may just not like that type of ram... Many times you can buy a kit of ram and each stick will boot but they will not when paired. The BIOS may just not be optimized for that particular kit... What specific ram is it?

Well, the interesting thing is, it's the RAM that came with the laptop. I don't have it with me to give the best details at the moment but on the laptop specs it says:

Memory: 512MB/1GB (DDR2 667/800), Max:4 GB
(http://www.msi.com/product/nb/GX630....=Specification)

However, the laptop did also originally come with Windows Vista installed and I have since changed the OS. Could that be an issue?

[glc]

I looked that laptop up at Crucial.com, and found this:

System is at maximum memory, no memory upgrades are possible. These parts should be used as replacements once the system is outside of its warranty period.

Along with this, Crucial does not list any compatible 2x2gb ram kits, only 2x1gb kits and single 2gb modules.

I also looked at the link you provided, and there are no drivers for 64 bit Vista or 7, only 32 bit XP/Vista/7. However, this won't affect the boot process, you should at least get a POST screen.

[Thenetyss]

Originally Posted by glc I looked that laptop up at Crucial.com, and found this: Along with this, Crucial does not list any compatible 2x2gb ram kits, only 2x1gb kits and single 2gb modules. I also looked at the link you provided, and there are no drivers for 64 bit Vista or 7, only 32 bit XP/Vista/7. However, this won't affect the boot process, you should at least get a POST screen.

Hmm. That is odd that they don't list any compatible 2x2GB RAM kits, because both 2-Gig sticks came installed in the laptop when I first got it and it worked fine.

But it's possible that both sticks would work if I was running 32-bit? That would make sense, as I think it was running 32-bit Vista at first.

I'm mostly just curious about the issue, as the computer runs fine, and it's old enough that I'm not sure I want to invest too much into it. In fact, I just bought 64-Bit Windows 7 specifically for it and don't want to think about shelling out for 32-bit, now. x_x lol

Thank you, everyone, for your help and research on this!

[glc]

The 32/64 bit OS issue has absolutely nothing to do with not being able to get a POST screen.