RAM problem on my Predator Helios 500

Acorn said:

Hi All,
I'm having a major problem with my Predator Helios 500.
I am trying to upgrade my laptop to the max 64gb or RAM
I purchased four matching 16gb RAM chips of the same brand.
I installed two in the bottom RAM slots and two in the upper RAM slots.
When I tried to boot my computer it turned on, the keyboard lit up but that was it. It did not boot and the screen stayed blank.
I removed the upper RAM chips and the Laptop then booted fine.
I thought that I might have had a couple of dud RAM chips, so I put the upper RAM chips in the lower RAM slots, and the computer booted fine, so no dud Ram chips.
I'm at a loss as to why the computer will boot with two RAM chips inserted, yet wont boot when four are inserted.
What's the point of having four RAM slots if you cant use them?
The chips I picked are all the same make Kingston KCP426SD8/16 Notebook Memory 16GB 2666MHz, DDR4, 1.2V, CL19, 260-Pin SODIMM.
They were listed as ones that work in this brand of Laptop.

My exact model of Laptop is an Acer Predator Helios 500 PH517-51

Can anyone help me?

Yes its strange but, there could be numerous thing and/or problems that can cause these problem(s). First, have you got the latest bios v1.16 installed? As that could be a factor! Also before and to make sure do this first that your PH517-51 does take 64GB max ram and capacity per slot.

Go to cmd prompt run as administrator. This is to determine "MaxCapacity" of your ram, this gives the final value in kilobytes which can be converted to gigabytes (by dividing the value by 1048576 to convert KB to GB) and the other number "MemoryDevices" e.g. 4 or 2 etc which is your mainboards OEM banks (which is not necessarily the banks that you have, as some have more but, divide the MaxCapacity with that number) to tell you your max ram per bank, divide the total by this number. Use this cmd: wmic memphysical get MaxCapacity, MemoryDevices

Here are the Test your RAM with Windows Memory Diagnostic tool

·         Step 1: Open the Start Menu and type in mdsched.exe, then press enter.

• Step 2. A pop-up will appear on your screen, asking how you'd like to go about checking the memory. The first option...
• Step 3: Your computer will load a screen that shows the progress of the check and number of passes it will run on the...

Here are the three most likely reasons why your PC won’t work with your new RAM modules:

1 – Your PC/motherboard might not support 64GB RAM sticks and/or it doesn’t support the total amount of RAM that you installed. Every computer has a physical limit to the total amount of RAM that it can accept as well as the maximum size of each installed RAM module in its slot. There is a very strong possibility that your PC simply cannot handle 64GB of RAM and/or 4x 16GB memory modules.

2 – The new RAM modules aren’t properly seated in the motherboard’s RAM slots. If you fail to get them firmly seated in the slots the edge connectors won’t mate up correctly, and that prevent the motherboard from properly communicating with the RAM.

3 – The RAM modules you purchased are compatible with your PC, but they are defective. Although this is highly unlikely from a reputable ram manufacturer but could be the case. RAM is typically quite reliable, bad modules do make their way onto store shelves on occasion.

If I were you, this is what I would do to troubleshoot your RAM issue:

1 – Remove the RAM that came pre-installed in your PC and install only ONE of the new RAM sticks (do this within each module) do this with all of them. Make sure the RAM module slides completely into the slot and the retaining clips snap into the proper position to hold the RAM in place.

If the PC fails to boot up as before, you’ll know the new RAM modules you purchased simply aren’t compatiblewith your machine or faulty. Return the new RAM for a refund, then continue with step two below.

If the PC does boot up and recognizes the 16GB of RAM (within each module), you’ll know that the RAM modules are compatible with the PC and the PC can handle at least 16GB of RAM.

Try shutting the computer down and installing the second RAM module along with the first one.

If the computer fails to start up and does not recognize the entire 64GB of RAM, you’ll know that it cannot accept that much total RAM. If that turns out to be the case, I recommend removing the second modules and simply running your PC with 32GB of RAM. That’s all you really need anyway unless you’re wanting to do some serious CAD and Gaming.