Is MoBo seeing RAM

[photolady]

In the manual, I found something that may or may not be relevant here. It says:

BIOS Features--> OS/2 select for DRAM-->64mb

I'm wondering if this is setup that way in your BIOS. If it is, that may be why it's only reading the chips as 64mb.

Train, "The Motherboard is a A-OPEN AX6LC."

[kenn jolemore]

The MoBo is a A-Open AX6LC and although it is a bit old it is supposed to take 128 per slot. I looked through te book and it says it will see them and gives no instructions for fixing this type trouble.

KennJ

[kenn jolemore]

BIOS Features--> OS/2 select for DRAM-->64mb

I do have this setting and it gives 2 options but they do not seem to make a difference unless I am not doing the correct thing. the options are OS2 and NON-OS2
KennJ

[photolady]

The problem seems to be in trying to decifer your BIOS is, in the manual it doesn't say "default" settings. Windows is not OS/2. So try setting it to non-OS/2 and see what happens.

Here is a definition of OS/2:
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/O/OS_2.html

[kenn jolemore]

I found the site but can not figure out how to properly inquire as to fixing the problem. Ideas anyone? The page is
http://english.aopen.com.tw/products/mb/AX6LC.htm
KennJ

[DrMDJ]

The "OS/2 select for DRAM-->64mb" setting should be left at non-OS2 (it's not at play here though).

Forgive me if I am getting confused here, but... You make mention of something about the 128mb stick(s) being seen as 64. Are you saying that if you, say, had one of the 128 sticks and the 64 that the total memory reads as 128? In other words, whatever the combination, each 128 stick is being read as 64?

If the above is what's happening then its caused by either a chip density (amount of memory in each chip) issue related to the memory sticks (the 128s), or an issue that the sticks are whats called "double sided" and your board can only handle single sided sticks. If one of these is the case then there's no setting or bios update that will correct it. The only thing that will help is different (proper) memory?

[kenn jolemore]

After reading some posts at A-Opens' site I believe that what you have said is the problem most likely though there is a Bios update that deals with correctly reading various memory moduels that I will try . It looks like this motherboard will only work with double sided memory according to what I have just read. Unfortunatly I came away from this last reading with no understanding of double sided unless it simply means the physical placement of the chips on the stick.
Much thanks all
KennJ

[DrMDJ]

If the board only can handle modules that size in the double sided variety then it is really an issue of the individual chip density. I would bet (though it doesn't apply here) that single sided dimms would work in your board as long as their indivdual chip densities were below a certain threshold.

In terms of what double-sided is... In the absolute strictest sense a memory module being single or double sided doesn't pertain to, or have to pertain to, whether it has chips on both its sides or not. But by convention, the way most dimms happened to be made, it is generally pretty safe to assume a single sided dimm will have chips on only one side and a double sided dimm will have chips on both sides.

[Train]

PC 66 ram
Hope you are not mixing memory types either.

Anyway what Crucial has to say about the ram that is needed.

Information on the
A Open AX6LC
168-pin DIMM Banking: 3 (3 banks of 1)
AGP Support: 1x and 2x
Chipset: Intel 440LX
Error Detection Support: ECC and non-ECC
Max EDO: 768MB
Max Unbuffered SDR SDRAM: 384MB
Module Types Supported: Unbuffered only
SDR SDRAM Frequencies: PC66
Supported DRAM Types: EDO and SDR SDRAM

[btcomm]

Originally posted by kenn jolemore
I just discovered that this board is only seeing 128's as 64's for some reason. Could this be a problem in the BIOS ?
KennJ

As photolady said, your motherboard can only regognize up to 128 MB sticks. I don't understand how that software can regognize all the ram and yet windows does not see it. I think you are right though, I think it is a motherboard issue, maybe for some reason it can't regognize above 192 MB of ram.

[DrMDJ]

The reason why a program like Aida is showing the sticks and amount of ram properly vs what the bios is showing is likely because of difference in the way the are getting the info that they are reporting. The bios, while it does read the SPD (serial presence detect) chip on the sticks of ram for some info (like timings and such), relies on being able to actually address the rows/columns (the memory cells) on the sticks in reporting the available/useable amout of memory. So if the bios has some issue that prevents it from addressing all the cells (such as an inability to handle chips of a given density) it will report only what it can address. On the otherhand, a program like Aida is probably relying solely on SPD info it gets (from querying the sticks). And since this info will always reflect the real size of the sticks, that's what it reports.