I've got a Dell Precision 7730 that originally came with 2x8GB 2666MHz DRAM and has the capacity for 4 DRAM slots. I tried to add some Crucial DDR4 2x8GB 3200MHz RAM alongside my factory-installed RAM using ports A and C, but my computer won't boot with the new RAM in. If I take out the new sticks, everything works fine. Crucial told me that the RAM can downclock to 2666MHz, but I've hit a wall here. I've tried resetting the BIOS and CMOS, but I can't seem to manually set the speed to 2666MHz as some guides suggest. The only advice I got from Crucial support was to try running the RAM by itself in the primary slots. According to my research, the slot arrangement shouldn't matter for different MHz sticks, but I'm worried the Crucial RAM might not play nicely with my existing RAM. Any tips on getting all 4 sticks to work together? I just wanted to upgrade, but I accidentally ordered 2x8GB instead of 2x16GB, so now I'm stuck!
3 Answers
I see you bought faster RAM than your system supports. While the manufacturer said it can downclock, I've noticed that some computers, like Apple, can be picky about RAM speeds. Just to be safe, you might want to ensure you get RAM that matches your computer's listed speed exactly to avoid issues.
Is your current RAM ECC (Error-Correcting Code) since this model supports both? Mixing different types can lead to problems. It’s definitely a good idea to test the new DIMMs alone first to confirm if they work. If they do, but still don't work in combination, then you could be dealing with compatibility issues between single rank and dual rank, or perhaps ECC versus non-ECC.
It's all non-ECC. I'll test the new sticks out on their own, but it sounds like I might have to return them anyway, since I wanted to upgrade to more RAM.
They suggested running the Crucial RAM on its own to check if those new sticks are DOA (dead on arrival). If your computer doesn't boot with just the new RAM, it might not be compatible or could be defective. Try testing one stick at a time to see if one of them works individually.
Gotcha, didn't really think about that. I'll give it a shot!
Nah, with PCs, RAM usually has a lot of JEDEC speeds coded in, so they tend to be more flexible.