Strange finding on the membory side !

[zenzen]

Hello, I want to share with you something I re"cently discover, just in case somebody else got the same or have an idea on how to solve.

I bought a Sony Vaio VGN-A317M around 4 to 5 months ago. I was so happy with that bigger screen but strated to get problem with the "d" key acting like if it was pushed continuously by an invisible hand. I finally had this Vaio back to repaired and they replaced the keybord (took 6 weeks to get it back!). Back at home I started to try to maximize his perform as I noticed that the response time was slower and slower with the recent programs I added. I add in mind to look at that and using tuning software to defrag, delete temp files,... and install a memory software to free up the memory.
AFter installing the memory software, I was amazed of the result. Not good, it showed me 32 megs available.
I thought waaaaaw ! Baaaaad! ANd i opened up the memory software to understand why from my 512 MEG of RAm on this model, it was cooming down to 32 megs.

WHat I discvered is that I had not 512 meg installed on board but 256 megs !!!! I opened up the little trap on the back and discovered a 256 megs!! So where does this 256 megs comes from and why I do not see the 512 I paid for ??? The spec are 512 megs and I have 256.... Is it from the first day I bougt it well packed or from the repair intervanetion. The dealer said I can' t do anything.. I will send it back to repair to Sony ( euh ?!?)? No way I said ... Sony opened a ticket at support to do an investigation on the repair. They came back the day after saying that they found nothing and that repair didn't touched the memory. Sorry, we can't help you on this....:smileygrin:

Any idea ? Your welcome to share your thought on this, I am going to put the case in our Belgium buyer association and make big noise around this which I still can't believe nor understand. First time I see this...:smileycry:

[kee-lo_]

Wow that sounds like foul play to me.
I bet they took it out when replacing the keyboard and didn't put it back in!

[zenzen]

I haven't any clue of what happend.

ALl I see is that there is only one slot and it is filled in with a 256 megs chip card !

[GBS]

Looks a bit dodgy to me....
Hope you get the problem sorted out as being short of memory must be driving you crazy.

[rich912]

There is always the possibility that one of your memory modules is malfunctioning. In addition to the memory bay on the underside of your notebook there is another one beneath the keypad ¿ have you checked both for physical memory chips?

[zenzen]

So there should be 2 places where I should find a memory bay ?
I only see one at the moment, which is the one in the middle of the PC, just under the keyboard. There is a little piece of plastic that I can unscrew to remove it.

Where should I see the other one? Should I unscrew the complete back cover of the PC to see it or is it easy to see it?
Any picture of this on the Net ?

Thx.

[rich912]

Any picture of this on the Net ?

Have a look at your User guide - click here - page 165 onwards.

[zenzen]

OK, I looked at the user guide and saw the 2 diffrent places.
I opened up like detailled in the user guide and found the 2 x 256 meg of memory.

And... well I found out that one was not well plugged in and that this was causing the pc ti use only one of the two 256 chips!!

SO, I re plugged it correctly and have now my 512 RAM back on board.

Thnaks a lot Rich for your advise and help, much quicker and complete than the help provided by the vaio support guys. No one mentionned to me that there was to places with 256 and that I could check them first !!!

So, I am a happy vaio user again.:smileygrin: . but not thanks to their support:smileysad: , thnaks to the vaio community (you Rich).

[rich912]

Hi zenzen,

Pleased to hear that your problem is solved.
Maybe the guys at support didn¿t know that there are two different memory compartments:smileyrolling_eyes:

[kee-lo_]

That's pretty bad practice of them not to verify the memory slots after they did a repair