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I have a pentium desktop computer and I want to add more memory. I ran the Belarc Advisor which says slot 0&1 are empty, slot 2 has 16MB and slot 3 has 8MB. But, when I opened up the computer case I found that all 4 slots are used up! Slot 0 has 16MB
Slot 1 has 16MB
Slot 2 has 8MB
Slot 3 has 8MB
Does this mean I cannot add more memory?
I'm I doomed to stay at a max. of 20 MB?
If not, what is the max. amount memory can I put in? Someone please explain!
Look at the specs for your motherboard in the belarc report and then go to www.crucial.com to see what your board will handle.
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So the memory test shows 20 meg, Belarc shows 24 and the total by counting the memory sticks is 40?
Are you sure of the capacity of the sticks --16 meg and 8 meg? Do you have any on-board memory?
I'm sure it can take more memory, but above 64 meg was pretty much a waste on those old boards.
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Yes go to crucial.com and see what it says about your board..
Im thinking that maybe it can only handel PC100 and you may have PC133 whith wont be recognised by your board.
Ram is relitivly cheep theses days so find what it can handel and grab a new stick of say 64 mb, put that in and find what work out of what you have and put that bak in as well (the sticks in slots 2 and 3 by the sound of it are ok).
Good luck .
Oz
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I'm thinking TJ probably has simms in a P-200. 4 meg and 16 meg simms have the same number of chips on them and I thought maybe what he thought were 16 meggers were actually 4.
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G'day,
Yes, I agree with DAVEINCAPS; you should get a result of 24M.
I suspect that you have 72pin "sticks"; and,
if you do then they have to be put in pairs for Pentium systems.
ie you have 2x16M and 2X8M which gives 24M for a 32 bit system.
That's probably why Belarc reported that you have two empty slots (it was pairing them up).
I don't see any reason why you can't buy 4 X 32M "sticks" and give yourself 64M of RAM.
As was pointed out by earlier posts, it really depends on your motherboard; you could possibly buy 4X64M "sticks" and get 128M of RAM.
Wharever you uncover, you will not be restricted to 24M.
regards,
Elric
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Sorry guys, but I meant to say that I have 24MB of memory. Slot 0 & 1 each have 16 chips so doesn't that mean each slot has 16MB. In slot 2 & 3 each have 8 chips - 8MB each. I went to Crucial.comm and I could'nt find anything about my board. In the Belarc report under the heading "Main Circuit Board" it says:
Board: ICO Peripherals, Inc Aladdin IV
Bus Clock 66 MHz
Bios: Award Software International, Inc 4.51 PG 11/13/97Looking at the board where the memory sticks go, it says "SIMMS" and the number of pins is 72. The chips itself has "EDO" stamped on it.
How can I add more memory when the slots are full? But according the Belarc report I have 2 slots unused! I'm confused, please help!!
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G'day,
Read my previous post again.
Because of the architecture, pentium motherboards require that the ram is in pairs.You have four slots ( ignore Belarc for now- it's just confusing the issue)
Because they are counted as pairs, you effectivley have two slots.
You upgrade your memory by taking out the old ones and putting in new ones.
ie buy 4 sticks of 32M 72 pin RAM and you will have 64M.
Good luck,
Elric
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With simms, if you have a stick with 8 or 9 (9 being parity) chips on one side and no chips on the other then that is either 4 meg or 16 meg (there some other possibilites with older RAM but I don't think that's the case with your situation). If you have a stick with 8 or 9 chips on each side (total of 16 or 18 on the stick) then it's either 8 meg or 32 meg.
If you can, post back what is written on the individual chips. I can probably tell you which it is.
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This is what's stamped on each chip:
814405D-60
9736105Z
PJNThe 2 sticks with 16 chips, they both have 8 chips on each side. The other 2 sticks they both have 8 chips on one side.
I hope this helps! Thanks again!!
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I'm almost positive those are low density chips. Meaning if you've got 8 of them on a one-sided stick it's a 4 meg. And 16 on a 2 sided stick would be 8 meg.
I've got a box full of old memory. I'll go through it and try to match what you've got and then test it on one of my computers.
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I found several sticks with 814400 chips. They are low density. The 814405 are the same density but are EDO whereas 814400 are fast page (non-parity).
The '1440' is a standard part number. The first number--8 in your case--is, I believe, indicative of the manufacturer. 514400 is a common chip also of the same density. And the last number indicates fast page or EDO. The 'D' is irrelevent and the '-60' is a speed rating in nanoseconds.
So all your sticks are 4's and 8's.
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So, if I get 4 sticks of 32MB will that give me 64MB? Also, exactly what type of memory sticks should I get? I want to make sure I don't order the wrong ones.
Thanks so much for your help!
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4 sticks of 32 will give you 128. Most P-1 chipsets wouldn't cache more than 64 meg of RAM so any more than that was usually a waste. Look for 2 32's or 4 16's. EDO is better than fast page but you probably won't notice the difference. Just make sure they're 72-pin simms.
Tecnically, a stick of 16 meg is described as '4 x 32' and a 32 as '8 x 32'. The way to decipher this is to divide the second number (32) by the byte length (8 for non-parity and EDO) and then multiply the result by the first number. So 32/8 is 4 and 4 x 4 is 16. Or for 32 meg, 32/8 is 4 and 4 x 8 is 32.
This can be confusing because sometimes you can't be sure if memory described as 4 x 32 is one stick of 16 meg or 4 sticks of 32. It pretty much depends if the seller understands the terminology.
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