IPC Powernote - memory problems!

[moondog]

Hello together,

the memory management of this notebook seems to be quite obscure. While the BIOS was able to recognize a 512 MB RAM stick, the NB wont run with it at all and fucked up with XP and Linux...

So I installed 2x 256 MB RAM sticks and now the BIOS says again 512 MB but XP says 256... furthermore HWInfo shows me 512 MB while XP, Everest and CPU-Z all say 256 MB... And, if I put a 64 MB stick to the 256 MB stick, the NB boots only with the 64 MB, it doesnt matter what sticks I use and in what memory slots they are sticking...

And, finally, if I put my 512 MB stick together with a 256 MB stick in, the BIOS says 767 MB RAM, HWInfo32 says 768 MB RAM and XP says 256 MB...

I guess there seem some incompatibilities with the memory sticks...

If I use my two 256 MB sticks, HWinfo says 128 MB per Row, on Row 0 - 3, 4 - 7 are empty... If I use the 512 MB stick together with a 256 MB stick, HWinfo says 512 MB on row 0, row 1 is empty while row 2 and 3 each have 128...

Seems, the 512 MB per one row are too much, to be handled right... has anyone a tip for proper memory sticks? What organisation should they have to be handled right? As the NB has the Ali V chipset, normally 1 GB RAM should be possible if sticks with 64x4 organization are used, at least on desktop computers it is possible to use such sticks for the full amount of memory...

Greetings and thanx in advance,

Eric

[Jim]

I can't say for sure what your notebook wants, but with K6-3+ mobos quite often what you need is "Low Density" double sided RAM. If for example you were to stick a single sided RAM stck in a Super 7 board, what will usually happen is the board will only recognize the stich as being 1/2 its actual size. e.g. 256 gets recognized as 128

[moondog]

Hi Jim,

I did some more investigation and found out that the ALi Aladdin V chipset oviously supports only RAM-sticks (officially) that are double sided with 16 chips @ 256 MB... I´m going to catch some of them at next. But if this is so, I wonder why my notebook runs with one 256 8 chip stick anyway? On the other side it seems to be the point that avoids a proper use of both sticks.

Furthermore I found some 512 MB sticks with 16 chips too, so I wonder if those may run as well?

So far all sticks I tried had only 8 chips, all were doublesided. One point that makes me wonder is the description PC133S... what does this mean at all? My two 256 MB sticks are PC133S as well...

Thanx and greetings,

Eric

[Jim]

I am not sure where you will find the threads on that subject here, but there have been a few posted by people who are much more knowledgeable on the subject than I am. The key factor is "Low Density" RAM is required. As for your notebook it may be running at half the installed RAM value. As for 512 Meg sticks, the answer is yes, SOME of them will work, But they have to be double sided AND low density. Do a search for posts on the subject by people more knowledgeable than me.

[moondog]

Hi again, just wanted to finish this point. It seems this NB has problems in using more than 256 MB of RAM, don´t ask me why. I found on the IPC support site the info about the sticks that can be used, I found some of them on Ebay with the right module organization and while BIOS and HWinfo32 showing me the right ammount of build in memory, only one stick can be used, so I´m stuck on 256 MB. Anyway, the NB runs well with it and since I deleted the ALI mini ide driver again, it works much faster again.

Greetings,

Eric

[moondog]

Just want to dig out this one... by accident I found out that the G795 runs with 512 MB RAM. Lately I tried out 2 pieces of 256 MB 32Mx64 unbuffered DIMMs and so what, it runs. W98SE tells me 511 (...) MB of RAM as well as all hardware diagnostic tools I tried so far... Even though such an ammount of memory may be on the frontier to be senseless under W98 it´s a good feeling anyway

Greetings,

Eric

[Jim]

Windows 98-SE will recognize however much RAM you install, BUT it will only use 261,xxx Kilobytes in my experience, - unless you install "The Unofficial Service Pack", which raises the limit on RAM that Win98-SE can USE to 4 Gig.

You can download the Unofficial Service Pack for Win98-SE HERE :
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4131.html

The catch is when you install "The Unofficial Service Pack" it overwrites newer files with older ones without telling you it is doing so. This results in some programs not running since they require the newer file versions to run. So in order to get the best possible performance from my Win98-SE machines, what I did was wipe my "C" drive, reinstall Win98-SE, Install the Unofficial Service Pack, Install The various motherboard drivers, THEN Update Win98-SE, so as to insure that the Unofficial Service Pack did not overwrite any NEWER FILES.

[moondog]

Hi Jim, as far as I know W98 can handle 512 MB of RAM. I even tried Everest and was loading as much programs as possible until Everest was showing me 300 MB physical memory being used.

Just wanted to remember that the laptop BIOS always recognized 512 MB RAM while XP, 2000 and several Linux distributions never found more than 256 MB of RAM. Usually the laptop was running with two sticks build in even though at last the installed OS was never able to use or find the whole ammount of build in memory... so I wonder why W98 does...

Greetings,

Eric