Old motherboard only sees 16MB of RAM

furbitso · n00b Joined: 24 Dec 2003 Posts: 26

Hi all,

Bought an old Pentium 1 166MHz from the scrap yard and bought some RAM for it, as the old stuff had been removed. It's a 64MB SDRAM DIMM chip (made by Samsung) and it works okay in another box.

However, the motherboard/BIOS only detects 16MB of RAM when and after I boot into windows/gentoo liveCD. I've looked for a BIOS update but as far as I can see, mine has the newest version available.

I've played around with the BIOS, there's nothing relevant to RAM apart from it informing me that it's detected it in Bank 0.

I've tried resetting the BIOS to factory settings and I've plugged the RAM into Banks 0 and 1, all to no avail.

The motherboard is called: "Gateway Hitman 166/200Mhz (MMX)", although I think the manufacturer is Intel, but I'm not sure (there are lots of Intel chips on the board). The system was constructed in 1997, it has USB so it's not too old!

Any suggestions? Help much appreciated.

Thanks,
Paul

ectospasm · Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 9:49 pm Post subject:

Lots of motherboards are quite finicky with respect to the types of memory modules you can install. It could be that your motherboard isn't designed to recognize the RAM you put into it. Best bet would be to try and get a hold of the motherboard manual; that will tell you exactly what kind of RAM to put in it, and what sizes are allowable. Since it's a motherboard made for Gateway, good luck in finding the manual...
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NeddySeagoon · Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 10:03 pm Post subject:

furbitso,

It sounds like your 64MB of SDRAM uses chips that the motherboard doesn't know how to drive.

Go here http://support.gateway.com/support/supinfo/index.asp?pg=2&file=dt_mot003.html and see if you can find the manual.
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furbitso · n00b Joined: 24 Dec 2003 Posts: 26

Thank you both for replying, the support page has lots of motherboards on - the only problem is that I don't know how to identify the board. I ran a program called AMIBIOS which gave me the Manufacturer, PRoduct name, version and serial number. However, none of these numbers actually appear on Gateway's support page. The manufacturer is Intel. D'you know how I could identify the board? There are a hell of a lot of numbers on the board itself but I don't know what I'm looking for.

Thanks

Paul

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2004 6:51 pm Post subject:

furbitso,

The motherboard will have lots of silk screening on to identify component locations and so forth. They will be quite small. There should be some numbers larger than the rest. Often between the expansion slots.

Is there a bar coded lable on the outside of the end ISA connector?

Look on the back of the board too. Version numbers may be etched in the copper near a fixing screw hole.

The BIOS string may help. Its that long row of numbers that flashes past at the bottom of the screen during boot. There is a section on the AMI website on what it all means. Press the Pause key to stop the boot so you can write it down.

Chipset numbers will help you narrow it down further. Have a random read of some of the manuals around the right speed. You may pick it out from a diagram of the layout.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

furbitso · n00b Joined: 24 Dec 2003 Posts: 26

Success! After much seeking, I found a barcode on the board (had to take it right out to read it!)
Googled it and it came up with Gateway's support page, offering lots of good info. The board can only support 32MB of sdram in each bank, so I'll sell this 64MB chip and buy 2 32MB ones.

Thanks for help peeps,

Paul