sdram upgrade probs!

[ulysses5]

Hi I have a aopen ax6bc ez motherboard,celeron 500 and 2 sticks of 64mb of sdram. I brought 1 stick of 256mb sdram, btw the mboard has 3 sdram slots. i took out the 2 64's and put the 256 in and it would only recognize it as 128mb.with the other 2 64's it still only recognized it as 256.so i took the 256 back to the pc shop and it recognized it as 256 in his pc! he gave me 2 128mb for the 256mb.In my pc it reconizes the 2 128mb(as 256mb) but won't recognize the extra 64mb - any ideas?would bying an extra stick of 128mb for the 3rd slot help?BTW the mboard is able to hold 512mb of sdram(but it dosen't seem to want to go over 256mb)?any help would be great - thanks

[magtecln]

i suggest that you check the hardware installation section of the motherboard's manual. pages 17-19 list the requirements that need to be met for the ram to work properly. in particular, note that only single-sided sdram chips will work in dimm2 and dimm3 if they are both being used. the 64mb sdram chip might be double-sided.

also, there is a bios upgrade for the board. the specifics dont mention anything about it solving a problem like yours but its worth a try as a last ditch effort.

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personally, i think christ is a can of spam; spam is infinate and has no age. coagulation is modern day nectar and the key to immortality. but then, i also think that pre-columbians had it right: the world is flat - its a huge petri dish.

[ulysses5]

thanks magtecln for your reply. I think the 2 128mb are double sided and they are in slot 1 and 2 and the 64mb is in slot 3.I think there double side because they have chips on both sides of the stick?
ulysses

[falcon2000]

According to the manual, looks like the BIOS will only recognised up to 128MB size modules. I think that's why the 256MB stick was nto recognised.
As for double-sided or single-sided, it has nothing to do with whether there are chips on both sides or one side only on the module. The manual has also told you a trick to didtinguish between the 2.
Advise to read the manual thoroughly.

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[magtecln]

falcon, i agree that the board probably doesnt support the 256mb dimms... its strange, however, that the manual does specify that the board, having only three slots, can handle up to 512mb of ram.

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personally, i think christ is a can of spam; spam is infinate and has no age. coagulation is modern day nectar and the key to immortality. but then, i also think that pre-columbians had it right: the world is flat - its a huge petri dish.

[falcon2000]

That's true. But the table it given goes up to 128MB module only.
But then again 3 128 modules comes to 384 only.
Strange!

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Help me learn by letting me know how it works out for you!

[falcon2000]

Just look at spec. on Aopen's site. There is a strange statement:
"DIMM Type: 8/16/32/64/128MB or 256 MB(with 128Mb DRAM technology)"

What does 256MB with 128Mb DRAM technology mean?
Does it mean you can put in a 256 but will only recognised 128?

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Help me learn by letting me know how it works out for you!

[DrMDJ]

The 128Mb is referring to m-bit not m-byte. This has to do with the the memory module's construction. What it (apparently) is saying is that if 256 megabyte modules are going to be used then those modules must be constructed using a 128 mega-bit chip design (as opposed to say 64m-bit).

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[This message has been edited by DrMDJ (edited 07-14-2001).]

[ulysses5]

Thanks falcon2000 for your post.I have read the manual,but as i'm still fairly new to this hardware stuff it just doesn't click with me yet I can't see any traces on pin 114 and 129 so all my sdrams must be single sided then?so would it be worth buying another stick of 128mb and trying it to see if all 3 add to 384mb.AT $35 australian it won't set me back a whole heap.thanks again for your help guys!
Ulysses

[magtecln]

read drmdj's post... you should be able to use a 256mb dimm if its constructed properly (thanks for the info dr )

ask for a 256 megabyte dimm with 128 megabit architecture. or just take the manual along and show it to them.

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personally, i think christ is a can of spam; spam is infinate and has no age. coagulation is modern day nectar and the key to immortality. but then, i also think that pre-columbians had it right: the world is flat - its a huge petri dish.

[falcon2000]

Thanks for the clarification, DrMDJ.

ulysses5,

You're welcome.

would it be worth buying another stick of 128mb and trying it to see if all 3 add to 384mb.

RAM is so cheap now and if your usage requires that much RAM I will say go for it.
But if your usage doesn't require that much RAM, adding more may actually hurt performance.

Do you wanna swap the 2 sticks of 128MB back to one stick of 256MB w/ 128Mb chips?
I would like to see whether the chip density was the cause of your last 256MB stick being only recognised as 128MB.

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Help me learn by letting me know how it works out for you!

[DrMDJ]

No problem. It's a shame there has to be these complications.

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Bookmark your post to make it easier to find.
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[ulysses5]

Thanks guys for all your help I thought it would be easy - just stick some more ram in and away we go - this has turned into an enjoyable learning experience.Falcon I would love to try the 256 with 128mbit too but I don't think the guy at the pc shop is gonna like me swaping ram around all the time.but I still don't understand why my 64mb stick is not working in slot 3?I didn't know too much ram could hurt performance?
thnaks Ulysses5