quote:

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Slot '0' has 512 MB
Slot '1' has 256 MB
Slot '2' is Empty
Slot '3' is Empty

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Slot 0 and 1 have the slots with 2 dividers...SDram, I think it is called.

Slot 2 and 3 are different colors then slot 0 and 1. They only have one divider in it, and it looks like it handles DDR ram. I got a DDR stick and an SD Stick. (100/133) for the SD and DDR333 for teh other stick.

My two sticks already installed are 100/133 Sdram.

When I try to put my other 100/133 sd ram in slot 2, it doesn't fit. When I put in the DDR ram 333, it fits, BUT the computer wont boot.

I think you can't mix different ram types, and the ram you can use is determined by your motherboard.
So why do I have 2 different types of slots? IS there anyway I can use slot 2 and 3 and make my computer work with more Ram?


Confused.
 

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Posted by calaban (Member # 2516) on :
 
Your ram types are most likely incompatible.

There are also MotherBoard's that are incompatible with double sided DDR ram, which may be this issue in this case. Look at yout MB manufacturers site to see if that might be the issue here. It can somtimes be fixed with a bios flash. Searching the web with your motherboard design can lead you to additional troubleshooting steps. That's the extent of my knowledge.
 

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Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :
 
That is a good place to start. I have never falshed my bios, and this computer is OLDSCHOOL...

Speaking of Bios, my motherboard is ECS "P4S5A 1.0."

My Specs are`:

quote:

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Board: ECS P4S5A 1.0
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 07.00T 04/02/01

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quote:

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4. Support SDRAM 166MHz(DDR 333) function

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.

I downloaded the manual, but I need instructions on how to flash bios. Anyone have experience?
 

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Posted by Boris (Member # 6935) on :
 
Okay, here's the deal. Your motherboard was made during the transition from SDRAM to DDR RAM.
Computer manufacturers early this decade put slots for both types of RAM in so people could upgrade to a faster RAM/Processor in the future. You can't fill all the ram banks in your computer, doing so will just wig it out. If you have SDRAM The bios detects it and automatically disables DDR support. If you have DDR RAM installed, it does the same to SDRAM. To get it to work with DDR (The best choice, since it is MUCH faster than SDRAM), remove all the sticks from Slots 0 and 1. Then put only DDR RAM into slots 2 and 3 (Or just slot 2). You are pretty much locked at 1gig max with your current Motherboard, since I don't think it supports 1gig sticks.
 

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Posted by Boris (Member # 6935) on :
 
Flashing BIOS...

step 1: Create an empty boot disk.
Go to my computer, right click on your floppy drive, select format, mark the "Create an MS-DOS startup disk" box. Let the format go.

Step 2: Download the Flash utility and the update file from the manufacturer, put both onto your boot disk. They should fit, I can't remember what stuff Windows XP puts onto a start up disk, but I don't think it fills the thing up. You'll need to extract the files from the update file. Save them into a folder you can remember the location of. There are two update files, one for motherboards with integrated LAN, one for motherboards without. You need to check if your Motherboard has an integrated Network card. If you look at the back of your computer and the network port is located near some USB, serial, and parallel ports, it is. If your network port is located among all the expansion cards, it isn't integrated. The two update files are put into seperate folders, labeled, "With LAN" and "Without LAN." Use the file that fits with your motherboard (With LAN for integreted LAN, etc.)

Step 3: Reboot your computer with the floppy disk.
This will take you to a DOS prompt.

Step 4: Flash the BIOS. I did a little research with the link you sent. At the DOS prompt, you should type:
"aminf342 /U[011128l.rom]" (No quotation marks) if you have integrated LAN. Otherwise, type:
"aminf342 /U[011128.rom]"
I'm not sure if you have to have the brackets or not. I assume you do. If it returns an error with brackets, try typing the above without brackets. Once the program starts going, DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER!!! Don't touch it until this is done, or you'll screw things up beyond repair. Once it's done, you should just enter the BIOS and make sure everything's set up right and you're all done.
 

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Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :
 
Boris, you are the bomb!!! I will switch to DDR!. It seems cheaper and faster. I will just use two 512 sticks.

When I look at the two things I downloaded, they were zipped. I unzipped them, and together they are 700kb. Should I leave them zipped? Do I need to create a folder on the boot disk and put them in the created folder, or do I put them in an already created folder?

Your knowledge of hardware is....
 

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Posted by Boris (Member # 6935) on :
 
By the way, my instructions were for the update at the top of the page, which will also include the updates for the one at the bottom, plus a few. You will need to unzip them before this will work. One file is an executable that you run in DOS, the other is the file that executable will use to program your BIOS. Put them both straight onto the floppy disk, no folders. You could put it into a folder, but you have to switch into the folder. I don't know how much DOS experience you have, but you'll be using that for this trick, I'm sorry to say. Windows flash utilities are a pretty new thing.


I also think I should stress that if your computer works with just the DDR RAM installed, you should be okay with not flashing the BIOS. If your CPU worked properly with SDRAM, you won't see much of a boost (if any) activating 133mhz capabilities because your CPU probably won't run with a front side bus at that speed. DDR RAM is always backwards compatible, meaning that the sticks you have will slow themselves down to 100mhz (effectively 200mhz, since DDR doubles the front side bus speed...which is a long detailed explaination of how that works). So if it works with PC2700 RAM, don't even bother Flashing. You can mess things up REALLY bad flashing a BIOS if you've not done it before.
 

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