HP MEW-AM RAM issues

[David Smith]

Hi all,

I'm one of those guys who always likes tinkering under the hood, so I
gratefully accept any old PC parts from friends when they upgrade their
computers or buy something new. I have a home-built machine with an ex-HP
Asus MEW-AM m/b (version 2.01) - think the board came from an HP Pavilion
6710. BIOS is version 2.10, which is the most recent update.

I have been 'donated' two 256Mb sticks of PC133 SDRAM (not identical).
However, when I put either or both of these sticks of RAM on this board, it
fails to boot and gives one short beep, three long, three long, one short.

The m/b manual indicates single or double sided 168 pin SDRAM can be used
with this board, and says you can use 16, 32, 64, 128 or 256Mb SIMs to a max
of 512Mb. The manual does specify 100MHz RAM because according to the
manual, the board runs at 100MHz. However, version 2 of this board (which
is the one I have) came with an Intel 810e chipset, as opposed to version 1
which is the one in the manual and which had only the 810 chipset.
According to the Intel website that the 810e supports 133MHz FSB where 810
only supported 66 and 100. Moreover, I am currently running two 64Mb sticks
of PC133 RAM in the board with no problems at all. I'm confident the RAM
itself is OK, because my Asus P2B-L board recognises both sticks (although
it only sees them as 128Mb each, not the full 256).

Any idea what could be wrong here? I very much suspect it may be something
to do with the board's frequency jumper settings. These jumpers are shown in
the Asus manual, but this being an HP OEM version of the board, they appear
to have been removed from this board.

Any help appreciated - would be great if I could get it to recognise all
512Mb of RAM.

Thanks in advance,

David

 

[Paul]

Hi all,

I'm one of those guys who always likes tinkering under the hood, so I
gratefully accept any old PC parts from friends when they upgrade their
computers or buy something new. I have a home-built machine with an ex-HP
Asus MEW-AM m/b (version 2.01) - think the board came from an HP Pavilion
6710. BIOS is version 2.10, which is the most recent update.

I have been 'donated' two 256Mb sticks of PC133 SDRAM (not identical).
However, when I put either or both of these sticks of RAM on this board, it
fails to boot and gives one short beep, three long, three long, one short.

The m/b manual indicates single or double sided 168 pin SDRAM can be used
with this board, and says you can use 16, 32, 64, 128 or 256Mb SIMs to a max
of 512Mb. The manual does specify 100MHz RAM because according to the
manual, the board runs at 100MHz. However, version 2 of this board (which
is the one I have) came with an Intel 810e chipset, as opposed to version 1
which is the one in the manual and which had only the 810 chipset.
According to the Intel website that the 810e supports 133MHz FSB where 810
only supported 66 and 100. Moreover, I am currently running two 64Mb sticks
of PC133 RAM in the board with no problems at all. I'm confident the RAM
itself is OK, because my Asus P2B-L board recognises both sticks (although
it only sees them as 128Mb each, not the full 256).

Any idea what could be wrong here? I very much suspect it may be something
to do with the board's frequency jumper settings. These jumpers are shown in
the Asus manual, but this being an HP OEM version of the board, they appear
to have been removed from this board.

Any help appreciated - would be great if I could get it to recognise all
512Mb of RAM.

Thanks in advance,

David

There are a few motherboards that have an issue with "high density" RAM.
For example, a 256MB module could be made with (8) 32Mx8 chips or
it could be made with (16) 16Mx8 chips. If you go to the Intel site,
and download a datasheet for the 810E (290676 page 84), the largest
memory chip supported on the 810E is 16Mx8, so a 256MB
module with 16 chips on it would work. Sometimes a high density module
will work, but only half the memory capacity is recognized. So my
guess would be, that you have been given a module with eight chips
on one side of the module. (And the response of your other motherboard
kinda supports that theory.)

i don't think clock speed has anything to do with it.

Paul

 

[Bob Knowlden]

At a guess, the mainboard may require low-density memory. (I don't know that
it necessarily follows, but the low density SDRAM I've owned had 16 chips
per module.)

I didn't realize that this might apply to a mainboard that uses an 810e
chipset, but I had the problem with a board using the 440BX chipset (like
the P2B). That the largest DIMMs the board accepts are 256 MB supports the
idea, though.

You can still buy low density memory (www.crucial.com), but it's fairly
expensive for the capacity. (Crucial has it for approx. $65 per stick.)
Perhaps some more scrounging could turn some up for free.


Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

 

[David Smith]

At a guess, the mainboard may require low-density memory. (I don't know
that it necessarily follows, but the low density SDRAM I've owned had 16
chips per module.)

I didn't realize that this might apply to a mainboard that uses an 810e
chipset, but I had the problem with a board using the 440BX chipset (like
the P2B). That the largest DIMMs the board accepts are 256 MB supports the
idea, though.

You can still buy low density memory (www.crucial.com), but it's fairly
expensive for the capacity. (Crucial has it for approx. $65 per stick.)
Perhaps some more scrounging could turn some up for free.

Thanks guys, that's almost certainly it. Pity it doesn't look like I will
be able to get the 512Mb RAM going - 128 just ain't enough these days!

The whole system probably cost only about $30 to build, the most expensive
thing being a PIII 933 CPU which cost $20. Yamaha sound card and ESS modem
both came from a computer fair, $5 each. The RAM, m/b, case, even the LCD
monitor were all freebies (has a couple of dead pixels, owner wanted to buy
a new one).

Not exactly state of the art compared to today's technology, but for the odd
spreadsheet and a bit of web browsing it does the trick.

Thanks for your help,

David

 

[Pavilion]

Hi
I have an older Pavilion 8606 with the MEW-AM ( 2.01) motherboar
(BIOS 2.10). This particular motherboard has a maximum of 265mb. Tw
sticks of 128mb work fine. Both are single sided. Have tried tw
256mb sticks but wont boot into xp. Was 550mhz cpu, now 1.4ghz bu
limited to 100mhz FSB
Bruce

 

[walking small]

i just finished working on an HP MEW-AM motherboard it was versio
2.01 and it had a 256mb stick of PC133 and a 128mb stick of PC100 an
both are ID'ed and totaled to 384mb but since the CPU is only
Celeron 500, i'm gonna install only PC66 in it. it's possible your
sticks of 256mb memory is registered DIMM, which might not b
compatible with this boar