Ram question

Alkers

I have an old p2 system and I just installed extra memory. It now has a 128, a 64 and a 32Mb sticks which should mean 224Mb in total. Instead it is listed as 160mb. Through trial and error I've concluded that the 128 module only shows as 64Mb. It has 128mb printed on it and CPUz identifies it as a 128 stick but still lists the total system memory as 160mb ? Any ideas?

secret_squirrel

take out the other 2 sticks and see what the 128 meg one lists as then. Might be that if you have a paired bank of slots you have to have the same size module in each one.

Random

Do you have onboard graphics? It may be that your graphics card (is it 32MB by chance?) is using some of your RAM.

Alkers

Thanks for the replies. For some reason I never tried the stick by itself but I only got 96Mb when I used it with the 32Mb stick and I got 128 total when used with the 64Mb one. I have a seperate graphics card which is 32Mb but it's 64Mb I'm missing not 32Mb. I'll stick the 128Mb in by itself when I get a chance and see what it shows up as then.

BrianD

Nyone know what type of RAM the the Dell XPS Dimension PC's take? This unit was produced circa 1998. My parents have one with a 64 and a 32 stick in it. It's pretty slow I want to see if I can put some more in for them.

Pentium II processor.

Alkers

Pc100 as found here http://www.komplett.ie/k/kl.asp?bn=10239&sortBy=p&minprice=&maxPrice= would be my guess. Run the Crucial Memory selector as on the above site or download CPUz on the actual machine to find out.

duridian

Some systems using SDRam were cranky about whether the ram was single sided or doublesided giving weird results like this. That's about the only reason I can think of, check to see if the 128 stick has chips on both sides. If it does then the system can probably only 'see' the chips on one side giving the 64MB missing effect.

Alkers

Right I installed the 128 stick by itself and it still shows up as 64megs. It's single sided and one of the other sticks is double sided and works fine. This has me baffled!

Alkers

Anyone have any idea how I can make the full 128Mb show up?

secret_squirrel

You might be screwed - maybe its a motherboard limitation? Have you tried looking up the motherboard manual on the dell site?

Alkers

www.pcpitstop.com listed it as having 256 max ram. With only three slots this surely means that it can take bigger than 64mb modules!!! I don't know what you mean by screwed but regardles of what the chip has printed on it, it still shows in CPUz as baing a 128 stick

Alkers

Yeh that 256mb is the max module size. It is apparently a known issue for this board and there is a Bios revision to fix it. Problem is now when I download this file and run it it says "Fail - due to EMM386 or QEMM". A more recent again Bios Update says it can't be run in windows. How do I go about flashing the Bios?

secret_squirrel

You need a really basic DOS boot disk withOUT all the memory managers etc running I would guess. It should be easy to google for one.

Alkers

Well I flashed the BIOS to the latest version which includes a fix for an "ADM Memory Module recognition problem". Unfortunately I still have the same problem.

jor el

Can you test the memory in another PC to see if it's actually functional? Also, any chance you can borrow RAM from someone else and test that in your motherboard. Could be an incompatablitlty between the particular RAM and your motherboard.

I had a problem like this with two 256M sticks that only showed up as 128s in a couple of Abit motherboards I had. They should have worked, but just didn't. I don't have them any more but would have offered one to you to test if I had. Maybe someone in your area might have one to offer?

stevenmu

Some older motherboards could be very fussy about the timings on the ram they would accept (Dells were notorious for this, to the point where you more or less had to buy upgrades direct from dell), this could result in ram reporting incorrect sizes or just not working at all.

Also I remember and old AST machine which wouldn't accept 16Mb sticks but would accept 32Mb sticks, it's possible it won't take 128 but would take 256 ?

secret_squirrel

I'd RMA the memory and get some from kingston using their Ram buying wizard.

Alkers

Would SD ram work in a DDR Ram mainboard? Otherwise I'd have to find someone willing to lend me a stick or vice versa. The Board is an Aopen and I've found nothing scrolling through old forums on this. I can't return the RAM as I bought it on Boards and I'm pretty sure there is nothing wrong with it.

duridian

SDRAM won't work in a DDR motherboard I'm afraid, they are different technology-wise and also the slots/dimms have a different number of pin connectors (168 for SDRam, 184 for DDR)plus the slots/dimms have notches at different positions to prevent any mixups. There have been a few boards that could use either type ie. had slots for both types but could only use one type or the other at a time, not both types at once. An example of this type of board was the Elitegroup K7S5A Athlon XP motherboard which was an popular early AthlonXP-era board with an SIS chipset. I actually still have an Athlon2000 second/backup system with this board which is how I know about it really, though I use DDR in it. Anyway I've gone off on a bit of a tangent really.... the main point is SDRam and DDR can't be swapped directly.

Alkers

Only reason I was asking was to see if I could check what the 128mb stick comes up as elsewhere. That rules that out, thanks anyway.

secret_squirrel

Then why dont you ask duridian to test it for you??

duridian

Small matter of the 170miles of farmland between us there I'm afraid Squirrel, Simona is in Dublin and I'm based in Kerry(56k Hell). Otherwise I'd test it for ya no problem.

astrofool

Some motherboards, esp. Dell's, are very fussy about what memory they support, and pick it up as the wrong size, or not at all. Sometimes they boot, sometimes they don't. Some Dell motherboards only work with specific memory modules, I remember a couple years ago, I had a 64 stick picked up as a 16 stick in a dell, the model number was one out from what the dell specified, so it can really be hit and miss, and a reminder not to buy a Dell if you ever want to upgrade....

Alkers

The board is an Aopen so I didn't expect any issues at all. So basically I need to get a different module?

duridian

The fact that CPUz still detects it as a 128meg stick is strange. This is just a thought but does that Aopen board perhaps have onboard graphics. These kind of graphics usually grab a chunk of the system's ram for their own use, making that ram appear to disappear from the system properties. Grasping at straws here really though as I must say it would have been unusual to have 64megs allocated to graphics in a Pentium 2 board.

Alkers

Well I don't think so. It has an AGP slot and I've a 32meg card in it. It was suggested earlier but also I don't get any problems with any of the other modules, it's only this one.

stevenmu

Just a quick thought, don't most BIOSes have an option for something to do with RAM and Non-OS/2 OSes, could be worth messing about with.

secret_squirrel

Posting the model of the RAm and the model no of the motherboard might help us help you.