memory error in ThinkPad T20

[Mark Edgley]

Folks,

I'm putting a new disk and adding memory to a friend's Thinkpad T20.
I got a 40 Gb disk and two 256-Mb Viking chips (PC-100 compliant). If
I put in both chips, I frequently get a BSOD that appears to indicate
bad memory. However, if I put in one of these new chips and one of
the older (either a 64-Mb or a 128-Mb), then it works fine. It does
this with EITHER of the 256-Mb chips, in either slot. So I can't pin
this down to one or the other of the chips being bad.

Is there any kind of known problem with the T20 not being able to
handle more than 384 Mb of memory? Does anybody have any ideas?

Thanks!

Edge

 

[keith]

Is there any kind of known problem with the T20 not being able to
handle more than 384 Mb of memory? Does anybody have any ideas?

If you have the complete model number, it would make things easier. "T20"
encoumpasses a *lot* of different hardware. Though I think you should be
able to get away with 512K on any of 'em.

The model number should be a seven digit number with four numeric (the
model) and three alpha-numeric (the type). With this seven-digit number
you can search IBM's site too.

 

[George Macdonald]

Folks,

I'm putting a new disk and adding memory to a friend's Thinkpad T20.
I got a 40 Gb disk and two 256-Mb Viking chips (PC-100 compliant). If
I put in both chips, I frequently get a BSOD that appears to indicate
bad memory. However, if I put in one of these new chips and one of
the older (either a 64-Mb or a 128-Mb), then it works fine. It does
this with EITHER of the 256-Mb chips, in either slot. So I can't pin
this down to one or the other of the chips being bad.

You need to be *sure* it's a memory fault with a memory check - first try
running Prime95 (www.mersenne.org) Torture Test for 15mins or so. If that
passes, try memtest86 (www.memtest.org) for a couple of passes.

Is there any kind of known problem with the T20 not being able to
handle more than 384 Mb of memory? Does anybody have any ideas?

Thinkpads have been known to be picky on memory. Are the SODIMMs you have
qualified for the system? It could be that two of them is just
problematic.