BIOS RAM Info. different from OS RAM Info.. 1

[asthana]

Hi,

I have an old IBM Aptiva which had a base memory of 32MB SDRAM to which I recently added 256MB PC100 SDRAM. At POST, Memory check goes through fine and the total memory is shown as 288 MB. When the OS boots up and I check from withing the OS,that also shows 288 MB.

The system keeps crashing unexpectedly.

Here's the confusing thing....the system's BIOS is from ../../97 and when I check the RAM Banks in the BIOS I see the following :

First Bank : 32 MB
Second Bank : 2 MB ?

Could this be a cause for the unexpected crashes and does it imply that the system is reading the memory as 34 MB instead of 288 MB ?

Please let me know

Wish

 

[cdogg]

asthana,
First if you wouldn't mind, please post back with the model of the Aptiva.

Since this PC is from '97, chances are that it's an original Pentium, or at best, a Pentium II. Most original Pentiums used EDO RAM, which had to be installed in pairs.

Also, the bus speed back then was 66MHz, so PC-66 SDRAM would have been what you had if it wasn't EDO. If you can verify that SDRAM is what you're supposed to be using, try the 256MB stick in the first slot by itself.

2 things you definitely need to be aware of:
1) The largest amount of EDO RAM I've seen motherboards support was 256MB total.
2) Even if this motherboard uses SDRAM, you need to verify the largest amount each slot can hold. From this era, most slots were limited to 128MB.


~cdogg
[tab]"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources"
[tab][tab]- A. Einstein

 

[asthana]

That brings up another point...what's a simple way of knowing RAM bus speed ? Aptiva's BIOS does not have it
and OS doesn't display it either ?

 

[CharlieJax]

Try updating the bios as your first step... see where that gets you.

CJ

Don't drink and post, save that for driving home!

 

[cdogg]

In older systems, the bus speed is not always listed in the BIOS, and there's no obvious place in Windows.

However, there's a free utility you can download called belarc advisor, which you can get here:

http://download.com.com/3000-2094-10169894.html?tag=lst-0-1

It will list the "bus clock" frequency as well as a ton of other information that's usually hard to find yourself.

Also remember that PC-100 and PC-133 is technically backward compatible to work on slower bus speeds. However, some older motherboards have a hard time reading newer chips (usually because they are either too dense or hold too much memory).


~cdogg
[tab]"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources"
[tab][tab]- A. Einstein