recognizing new memory?

ecognizing new memory?

Strange problem here with an old Packard Bell system, Pentium 233, 32 mb ram, 4 gig HDD.

I bought 64 mb PC 100 (SDRam) to put in the machine to boost its performance somewhat (owner does play some non-high-end games). When I installed it, the total memory under system properties showed at 48 mb. It should be reading 96 mb with the additional memory.

I switched the ram sticks in the bays thinking that there may be a primary and secondary bay "“ still 48 mb. So the new 64 mb stick is only registering at 16 in this system. When I took it back out, the system returned to its original 32 mb reading.

Decided to test the stick on my machine to see if it was okay. (I have two 128 mb sticks) The system is registering the 128+64 combo as 184 mb ram or 188 mb ram, depending on whether you read the system memory from the bios or from system properties. Should be 192 mb ram. (doing the subtraction, this means that the 64 mb stick is only being recognized at 56 or 60 mb ram in my machine.)

I checked out the link from this June BBS post, adding memory to older machines Unfortunately, I do not have access to the Packard Bell at the moment, but I ran the diagnostic on my machine. The program does recognize a 64 mb stick and a 128 stick, but confirms I’m only running 184 mb instead of 192. What gives here?

Any ideas?
-maureen

 

Maureen,

On board video will use system ram. Since this is usally allocated at startup by the bios you OS never sees it. Do you have onboard video?

On the PB system. Do you have a model number? In the U.S. go to this site http://www.priorityonesupport.com for PB support

Eveywhere else in the world go to http://packardbell.com

Does this PB system have other memory slots, namely SIMMS in addition to the SDRAM DIMMS that you purchased memory for??

I ask because I have come acrross some PB systems that would not support more than 64 MB of SDRAM especially if there were co-existing SIMM slots on the board.

If you can get us a model number maybe we can dig a little deeper for you..

Cheers,

Gary

 

Hi Gary,

Regarding my machine: You are exactly right! I had to get a quick cheap system for myself while I was here, and bought a machine with onboard video and sound. (no agp slot, so I wasn’t hot to get a pci video card) Funny, I thought that these onboard system-reliant components always shared CPU resources, not ram resources.

I wish I had paid closer attention to my system readings before I switched ram sticks. The system came with 128 mb ram, and I bought another 128 stick when I purchased the machine. After installing the extra 128 mb of ram I am pretty sure it said 256 mb in system properties. After my last post, I took out the 64 stick which I tested in my machine and put the 128 stick back in. My system properties now reads 248, not 256 mb of ram.

If the video is using ram, then that would explain it. This is sure a new one on me.

Regarding the Packard Bell: I don’t have access to that machine at the moment, but I will call for the model number and research it at the links you have provided. Thanks for your insights! if anything interesting develops during my time with this PB, I’ll certainly post back.

Regards! and thanks again.

-maureen