RAM Problem

[Alias]

I have an HP Pavilion/AMD K7 800 Mhz that sports a modified ASUS K7M mother
board. Originally, the board had three slots for RAM. HP altered it so that
there are only two.

I have put two 128 SDRAM PC-100s in and no problem. I have put one 256 SDRAM
PC-100 in and no problem. But if I put in two identical 256s, it crashes. If
I put one 128 and a 256 in, it crashes.

Any suggestions on how I can up the RAM or am I stuck with 256? I need more
because I installed XP Pro on the machine

Thanks!

Alias

 

[Malke]

I have an HP Pavilion/AMD K7 800 Mhz that sports a modified ASUS K7M
mother board. Originally, the board had three slots for RAM. HP
altered it so that there are only two.

I have put two 128 SDRAM PC-100s in and no problem. I have put one 256
SDRAM PC-100 in and no problem. But if I put in two identical 256s, it
crashes. If I put one 128 and a 256 in, it crashes.

Any suggestions on how I can up the RAM or am I stuck with 256? I need
more because I installed XP Pro on the machine

My experience with those older HP's is that they are very fussy about
their RAM. What happens if you put in one stick of 512MB?

Malke

 

[Alias]

My experience with those older HP's is that they are very fussy about
their RAM. What happens if you put in one stick of 512MB?

Malke

Can't find a 512MB, even from Crucial. Crucial makes 512MB PC-100s but they
say they aren't for the HP I have.

Alias

 

[Malke]

Can't find a 512MB, even from Crucial. Crucial makes 512MB PC-100s but
they say they aren't for the HP I have.

Alias

Did you switch around the order of the RAM; i.e., the 128 in the slot
nearest the processor and vice versa? Some m/b's like the highest
amount of RAM in Slot 1 and lower amount in Slot 2. If you didn't
switch around, try that. Or maybe try different RAM. Otherwise I guess
you are stuck. You could install XP with 256MB of RAM and turn off all
the eye candy. It would be a decent little machine for web surfing,
word processing, etc. I wouldn't expect you'd be doing gaming or
Photoshop on it anyway.

Malke

 

[Alias]

Did you switch around the order of the RAM; i.e., the 128 in the slot
nearest the processor and vice versa? Some m/b's like the highest
amount of RAM in Slot 1 and lower amount in Slot 2. If you didn't
switch around, try that.

Oh, I did.

Or maybe try different RAM.

I tried a bunch of PC-133s too, even worse; it wouldn't boot and beeped at
me like crazy. What I don't understand is that the 256 will work fine alone.
The two 128s work fine together but two 256s or a 256 and a 128 won't work.

Otherwise I guess
you are stuck. You could install XP with 256MB of RAM and turn off all
the eye candy. It would be a decent little machine for web surfing,
word processing, etc. I wouldn't expect you'd be doing gaming or
Photoshop on it anyway.

Malke

Oh, it works fine, just a little slow until you get the program open. I
know, though, that it would be a bitching little machine with 512 which
frustrates the hell out of me It has a 5400 RPM hard drive. Would upping
it to 7200 make a difference?

Alias

 

[Alias]

You could install XP with 256MB of RAM and turn off all

the eye candy.

Malke

Does that really add a lot of performance? I like the eye candy and so does
my wife who uses it. XP is already installed.

Alias

 

[Bob Knowlden]

I haven't been able to verify it to my satisfaction, but I believe that the
K7M requires low density 256 MB DIMMs.

(It may not be a requirement, but the low density non-ECC 256 MB DIMMs I've
seen used 16 chips, 8 on each side.)

The simplest solution would be to buy the RAM from Crucial or Kingston. They
both list 256 MB DIMMs that are compatible with the K7M.


Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

Turning off the eye candy can turn an irritating slow system into a useful
computer.. re. memory, 512Mb is the optimum for XP..

 

[Alias]

I haven't been able to verify it to my satisfaction, but I believe that the
K7M requires low density 256 MB DIMMs.

(It may not be a requirement, but the low density non-ECC 256 MB DIMMs
I've seen used 16 chips, 8 on each side.)

The simplest solution would be to buy the RAM from Crucial or Kingston.
They both list 256 MB DIMMs that are compatible with the K7M.

I have two from Kingston, the 256s, and two from Crucial, the 128s. I'm
beginning to think that HP did something to the motherboard so it can only
handle 256.

Alias

 

[Alias]

I'll try it.

Alias

Turning off the eye candy can turn an irritating slow system into a useful
computer.. re. memory, 512Mb is the optimum for XP..

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

Alias

The XP theme colours and menu fading have no value, other than to look
different to previous releases of Windows.. they do not do anything for
performance, apart from degrading, and do not add features that otherwise
would not be present..

 

[Alias]

I've changed it. It looks like W2K now and it does seem a bit friskier.

Alias