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toshiba Satellite C655-S5052 memory

Purchased 8 GB of new DDR3 memory for a Toshiba Satellite Model C655-S5052 and the computer will not boot. I get power on indicator but black screen. Seen reports that this model is finicky about memory...any ideas? Boot fine with 3 GB of memory but will not boot with one or both or any combo with the new memory included.

Tried to order memory from Toshiba for this model laptop but of course they don't have the parts available anymore.

Thanks in advance.

☠ MASQ ☠

204pin 1066MHz PC3-8500 DDR3 ??
64-bit operating system ??

noxcho

Check if the BIOS is up to date. If yes then replace this RAM with new one at shop where you bought it. The stick can be simply bad.

medforce

ASKER

Yes Win 7 Home Premium 64 Bit...should have said that. Thanks

Yes Corsair DDR3.

medforce

ASKER

Updated Bios, no change. Memory works in a Dell laptop so it's not defective. Odd the way it will not start at all. You would think if it was non-compatible it would fail in a POST sequence and give a failure code or some other clue.

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☠ MASQ ☠

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medforce

ASKER

Interesting. I can't understand why Toshiba would make a laptop configured with Win 7 64 bit OS and handcuff it with a 3 GB memory limit. That would explain the behavior though.

noxcho

Just an old mainboard. Thats why I was asking to update the BIOS cause the limit of supported amount of RAM is hardcoded in BIOS.

nobus

this means that it probably does not recognise any of the 4 GB sticks - limited to 2 GB
if so, follow noxcho's advice to upgrade the bios (it may help or not)
also are the original and new sticks the same model and brand? if not that can be an issue also
you can ask a shop to test that

rindi

It's the GL40 chipset which limits the amount of RAM to 4GB, not the BIOS (on page 3 of the pdf):

http://www.intel.com/content/dam/doc/product-brief/mobile-gm45-intel-gs45-gl40-express-chipsets-brief.pdf

So a BIOS upgrade will not get it to recognize more than 4GB.

There usually is no reason though to install a 32bit OS even if you can't install more than 4GB RAM. I always install 64 bit OS's if the hardware supports it, even if there is only 1GB RAM installed.

noxcho

Nice input rindi. I was thinking that chipset controlls only the type of the memory but not the size of it.

rindi

Often BIOS upgrades do help, particularly if certain new modules need to be recognized, but the chipset has priority, and if that doesn't support the memory, the BIOS won't either.