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pridesn8

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128MB SDRAM reads as 64MB

I read through couple of questions asked regarding memory and found a question very similar to mine under windows XP category dated 07/29/2003 by reynola_rex......but the answers that have suggested are not quite appropriate......
I tried to upgrade my computer (motherboard : AOPEN MX6B/EZ, chipset : INTEL 82440 zx/bx AGPset, CPU : Intel Pentium 3 700 Mhz), by increasing RAM... At the moment i have only 64MB PC 133 16-chip, i bought 2 KINGSTEN PC133 128MB 4-chip memory chips.......when i installed both with other chip it reads 192MB...also before installing the chips couple of months ago i upgraded the BIOS to year 2000 from year 1999...before the updation of the bios i wasnt able to backup the old version of BIOS...... To test the new chips i inserted 1 at a time removing the old chip....all methods failed and it only reads 1 chip as 64MB......
I exchanged them for new 1s still the same, also i refunded the money and bought same chips from different place......still the same problem.......
Another thing i got them checked in a celeron machine, in that it reads both as 256MB.......
I heard that it could be solved by inserting 8 or 16 chiped memory, but the problem is its really hard to find 8 or 16 chip memory....mostly available are the 4-chip ones........
so please i'm quite helpless at the moment, if there's any solutions please reply.....
thank you very much.......
Pridesn8
BTW in the motherboard manual says that u can increase memory upto 512MB of memory...
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leedssheep

are you sure that the missing 64ram is not be utilised by the graphics, if you look in the BIOS under video memory, you can check how much is being used, your memory might be Ok, you can reduce it to 32 if you want
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Kyle Schroeder
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Just a silly question, but what makes you think your 64Mb is PC133??  If it came with the system, it's most likely PC100.

Your system was designed to support only PC100, maximum.  You may find if you specify PC100 for your order you'll get RAM that works.   Although there may be some PC133 modules that work, most won't in an older system such as yours.  If you purchase PC133 from Kingston or Crucial that they claim will work, then it should.  Generic PC133 you're taking your chances, rolling the dice so to speak.

As dog said, crucial is a great place to get it.  Youre assured of getting what you need.  If you want to save money buying generic, try PC100 this time.

Ab.
dogztar: pridesn8 actually purchased 2 x 128MB [4chip] Kingston

I have had this problem on my ABIT-BF6 motherboard. I prefer to refer to RAM in this case as single-sided or double sided
My board will only recognise double-sided SDRAM - I have the same problem with memory being halved when using single-sided SDRAM sticks.

Problem is, I have also found that double sided SDRAM is almost twice the cost of single-sided...
I guess it is directly related to the costing of sem-conductors

2 / 4 chip = single sided
8 / 16 chip = double sided

Can be easier to just ask for double-sided these days as the sales / tech guys commonly only know about the latest and greatest RAM...
frantic_Oz:
Yes, I understand that pridesn8 bought 2 128MB chips, I read the question.  The problem is an issue of banking.  A single-sided chip uses 1 bank, a double-sided uses two.  Some boards that have 4 slots may only support 4 banks of RAM, so if you put in 3 double-sided DIMMs, you'll be missing 1/2 of 2 of them (i.e. 3 x 128, you see 256MB, 128 + 64 + 64).  The component density can be too high also, this is the 16Mb x 64 or whatever that is listed in the RAM description.  64Mb = 8MB, 16 x 8MB = 128MB. 4X256Mb = 4x32MB=128, etc. Some boards/chipsets can't cope with RAM components that are above a certain density.  See here:
http://www.crucial.com/library/mb_vs_mb.asp

-dog*
Yeah, is kewl. I checked out crucial and have learnt a lot more than I knew before.

With my board specifying 768MB max (that would be 3 x 256) and they have to be double sided for them to work in my PC, I must have 6 banks in theory??
Actually, you would want single-sided as that only requires 1 bank/slot.  You could also do (probably) a double-sided (2 bank) 512MB in slot 1, slot 2 empty, and 256MB (SS-1 bank) in slot 3.

-dog*
I have tried single sided in this board and they fail to recognise as full size instead only giving half of that stated.

Nevermind, I will be going for a new P4 in a few months - hopefully this system tides me over til then.
Any update pridesn8?
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ASKER

Hey guys i've made small mistake that just as  AlbertaBeef mentioned, i used the AIDA ADVISOR software under SPD category to identify and give the details of the memory i'm currently having, according to that 2 PC 100 64MB chips have been used, i guess that it could be main reason for not working properly, but still i'm not quite convinced about the 4-chiped RAM coz the ones that i have has 16-chips in each that was installed about 2 yrs ago........so if you guys agree to this, let me know quickly, very soon i'm gonna get the PC100 RAM but single sided 4-chip.....
so thats the latest update from
Pridesn8
pridesn8:  I STRONLY recommend you purchase your RAM from Crucial if you want to avoid the headaches your currently experiencing.  Crucial has RAM for your system available from 32Mb to 256Mb as follows:

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp?Mfr%2BProductline=A+Open%2B+Motherboards&mfr=A+Open&cat=RAM&model=MX6B+EZ&submit=Go

It's absolutely guaranteed to work!