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Trying to help a friend solve her computer problems. She recently installed new ram, and is having some lockups, and sometimes blue screens with kernel 32 errors. She says the computer is slower now with 256 meg than it was with 64.
She bought the new ram from an office supply store, the clerk looked it up and told her the maximum for her HP was 256, and sold her one stick.
When I look it up on crucial and HP sites is says her maximum is 256, but specifies two 128's. Now my question: am I correct to think that the one stick of 256 is probably the cause of her lockups, blue screens, and error messages?
I'm thinking she is going to have to buy ram again. Probably can't return the 256 as she has tossed the packaging and the reciept. TIA
"Probably can't return the 256 as she has tossed the packaging and the reciept"
I'm biting my tongue....
The 6535 supports a max of 256MB. It has 2 slots, so that means 128MB max per slot. Not only that but this is an old machine...it uses PC66 or PC100 LOW density RAM, not PC133. ALL PC133 on the shelves these days is the high density variety & won't work. You're gonna have to special order the right stuff.
http://www.18004memory.com/
Hellz Yea!
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I'll bite my tojnque too...
HP machines are known as proprietary PCs. You have to look up the manual or visit HP site for the specific RAM module you need.
i_XpUser
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I'll bite my tojnque too...
Oh no shame on my mischevious fingers! I mean to say
I'll bite my tongue too...
i_XpUser
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Thanks jam and XPuser for responding.
Crucial does show pc133 for it, and it is CL2. HP says 100, so the Crucial probably would run at 100 in this board. It's almost $34 per 128 meg stick.
I wouldn' put another $68 in this pc if I were the owner, but that's up to her. I'll give her the news and she can decide what to do.
Also, get this - she tossed the 64 meg stick in the trash too, and now can't even put that back in to see if the problems stop.
Thanks again guys.
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Don't buy new RAM. I have a HP Pavilion 8576C, probably of the same vintage. It too takes 2 sticks of 128MB SDRAM.
Don't buy new. Check out local PC repair stores. Likely you can pick up a 128MB stick for $10 or less. Also, likely they will trade 2 x 128MB for the 256MB you have - even swap.
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Thanks, mcamax for the response. I have a couple of sources for such things and will try to find for some for her.
I did find the memory $10 a stick cheaper at the link jam gave, but that is still $48 total and a lot to spend on such an old machine.
She's also mentioned a new replacement PC, maybe I'll just nudge her in that direction. *grin*
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It's not a bad beast, if it's somethng like mine. Fairly easy to take apart, except it has that non-standard HDD that fits directly in a bay without rails? You should be able to trade the 256MB for what you want. There is a prevailing myth that RAM is fragile. The old stuff is pretty robust if treated with minimal care. So buy old. Good luck!
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"Crucial does show pc133 for it, and it is CL2. HP says 100, so the Crucial probably would run at 100 in this board."
Actually, it should run as PC66. There's nothing to be gained by running the RAM at a higher bus speed than the CPU, & the 466MHz Celeron is a 66MHz FSB CPU.
From PNY.com:
"Important Announcement
PC133 Modules are NO LONGER backward compatible with PC100 Machines. To determine the correct memory upgrade for your machine, use the PNY memory configurator."http://www.pny.com/configurator/
Hellz Yea!
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Not sure of the chipset on that but if it's the Intel 810 the memory needs to be PC100 even though the FSB is 66.
There's two reasons your system may slow down due to increased memory. The first is the caching ability of chipset/motherboard. It may be hard to find out what that figure is for your motherboard.
The second is the fact that 98 wasn't designed to run efficiently with large RAM. And for 98, 256 is a lot of RAM. Usually a person wouldn't notice any problems until the RAM was above 512 but I suppose it could be a gradual loss of function.
You can modify some of 98's files to accomodate the RAM. I uploaded some screenshots here:
http://members.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=371311
that may help. You can still use drivers and all for user and password or create your own account.
Making changes for large RAM is more art than science so the settings from that download may not be ideal for you. But it's a good place to start.
If all else fails, drop the RAM to 128 and see how that works.
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I've found these FREE utilities very helpful on all my Windows boxes:
FreeRAM XP Pro. This utility allows you to monitor your memory and CPU usage (and for Win98, also system resources) and minimizes to the system tray.
Fresh Diagnose and Fresh UI, allow you to see details of your system and perform tweaks (with guidance).
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Of course, you are absolutely right, jam. But I'm guessing most people seeking help on this forum could find these tools helpful. In fact, I've had some positive feedback already. Try them; you may like them. One has a pretty nice benchmarking feature that allows you to compare your systems performance against various classes. The tweaks are OS specific. Remember these are free programs, so one shouldn't expect too much. Pretty nice though, IMO.
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