It’s possible to determine this with software tools. If you’ve checked all of the above and still can’t find a reason that your RAM isn’t being detected, you might have a faulty DIMM. Step Three: Run a Diagnostic like Memtest86 And if you’re confused by the speed and timing specs, check out our guide on the subject. RELATED: How Does RAM Speed and Timing Affect My PC's Performance?Ĭheck your motherboard’s specifications or user manual for its ideal RAM type and amount. This is likely to be the case if you’ve bought multiple new DIMMs and all of them are failing. So a motherboard with a maximum RAM capacity of 16GB and four RAM slots can only accept a maximum of 4GB in each slot-trying to put an 8GB DIMM into the slot might cause it to not be detected. This might be as few as two or as many as eight, but most full-sized (ATX) motherboards include four. Your motherboard has a maximum amount of supported RAM, which includes all the slots on the board taken together. But it’s possible the RAM DIMM’s capacity is higher than the motherboard is rated for. RAM speed should dynamically shift down if it’s faster than the slot itself can handle, and timings shouldn’t have an impact on the compatibility at all. That being said, it’s rare but possible that RAM might not be compatible with a motherboard, even if it’s the right type. RAM DIMM sticks are fairly standard and well-designed: they can only be inserted one way on both desktops and laptops, desktop and laptop RAM isn’t interchangeable, and different generations of RAM won’t fit in the wrong socket (so a motherboard that only supports DDR4 RAM can’t physically fit DDR3).

Step Two: Check Your Motherboard’s Compatibility

Even a properly-inserted DIMM might not be seated properly be sure to put as much pressure on the stick as you can without risking damage to the circuit board itself. Assuming your laptop allows access to a RAM DIMM slot at all (many newer, smaller designs don’t), the DIMM is generally inserted at an angle, then pushed down towards the laptop frame until it clicks into place. Laptop designs, due to their lower tolerances for space and volume, are a little trickier.

If the DIMM isn’t exactly perpendicular to the slot and the motherboard, or the clips can’t be completely snapped, it’s not fully inserted. The pressure from your insertion should force both clips to snap back into a locked position with an audible “click,” but sometimes it does require you to snap them back down on the DIMM manually.

On a desktop, installing RAM is simple: fold back both the clips on the RAM slot, then insert the stick firmly straight down.

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