RAM Ugh!

So I have this digital scrapbook program, memory mixer, that I love. I made a book of Maggie's first year of life. The program worked great when I was building the pages but when I went to save them all as jpg's, my RAM on my computer was too small. I did a bunch of research and decided to buy two 1 GB's of RAM and give my old computer a little upgrade.

The RAM sticks came in the mail today. I was so excited. The people at Dell told me it was as easy as changing the batteries in your remote. WRONG. Not for this computer idiot. I was feeling very good when I started. I got my little screwdriver, opened the little door, and took out the old sticks of RAM. I put in the new sticks and fired up my computer. It worked. I'm a computer Genius!! I checked to see if both sticks installed right. It said I had .99 GB of RAM. Crap I was supposed to have 2 GB. So I turned the computer over, took the battery out and swapped the RAM's positioning. Throw in the battery, turn on the computer and nothing.....nothing.....NOTHING.....NOTHING. Please tell me I didn't fry my computer.

I called up my computer genius cousin, Grant. He asked if I was sure I unplugged the computer before I took out the RAM the second time. OOPS, I think I forgot a step. He told me to unplug everything, take the battery out, and the RAM. He told me to let it sit for a while and most likely it would fix itself. I swear I unplugged it, but super second guessing myself.

I visited my cousin Darbie to take my mind of myself frying my computer. When I got home I stuck them in and wa-la, it worked. I checked and bummer, only reading .99 GB. So I do the same steps over again. Remembering to UNPLUG the computer. I switch them and nothing....nothing.....NOTHING, again. I unplug everything and take out everything AGAIN.

I call Grant yet another time. We get it working with one stick of RAM. He thinks my computer won't turn on because 2 GB is too much for it to handle. (So I might have remembered to unplug the computer in the first place.) He wants me to update something that I don't know what he is talking about. (Which is normal for my conversations with Grant.) So we try it. He does this super cool thing where through a web page he can control my computer. I love it, it kinda freaks me out though. Anyways we go to update this thing and it says my battery has to be charged up to 10% for the update to work. Are you kidding me?? My battery is DEAD, no more, NADA!! So we are at square one.

As you can see my computer is working because I am writing this rather long blog about RAM, yes RAM. But I am so frustrated I had to get it out. So I think I am going to have to buy a new computer now. He looked on Dell's web page and it said my computer was built to run 1 GB of RAM but a lot of people have been able to run 2 GB. So even if I bought a new battery for $40 off ebay and kept the $76 worth of RAM from Dell, there is still a chance my computer won't work with 2 GB of RAM. This info, the sales lady from Dell, failed to tell me. She assured me my computer was big enough for 2 GB. I even asked.....TWICE!!

So happy RAMMING for all of us.

Side note: I am a little shocked at myself that I even know what RAM is!! At least I'm learning a little hey.