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| Thread ID: 39414 | 2003-11-06 01:44:00 | Windows 98 won't recognise 128MB ram | traceyc (2190) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 189530 | 2003-11-06 01:44:00 | Hi there, Have a friend who has very old pc (am trying to get her to upgrade) that crashed severely. I ended up combining several different older pcs into one for her till she saves up for a newer model. All systems are go, but the down side is that Win 98 says she has only 32MB of RAM, and when she connects to the Net to surf, message says that there isn't enough memory and to close some applications. No other applications are open and although BIOS recognises 128MB, windows won't! Strictly speaking...with 32MB ram she should be able to surf the net....how do I fix this? I'm a little stumped and all help will be hugely appreciated :) |
traceyc (2190) | ||
| 189531 | 2003-11-06 01:53:00 | Some old BIOSs have an option which puts a "gap" in the memory space (for some ISA I/O cards). Windows will not like a gap in the memory. ;-) Have a look in the setup, and see if this is set. |
Graham L (2) | ||
| 189532 | 2003-11-06 02:38:00 | Could you tell us what kind of Motherboard, CPU, RAM etc you are using. If it's an older M/B then it's quite possible that the memory banks have a maximum amount of RAM they will take. What that means is if your M/B RAM slots can only take a max of say 32MB then it will only recognise the 1st 32 MB in each slot no matter how much is actually on the RAM chip. You may want to get smaller RAM chips and use those instead then you may be able to get more memory on the system. If this is what's happening then it's actually not a Windows problem, Windows 98 can go up to 512MB and there's a patch you can install if your using more than 512MB. Check your M/B maual (if you have one... or download it from the manufacturer's site) for what the maximum amount of RAM it can take, then divide that by the number of RAM slots you have and that should give you a rough estimate of how much RAM per slot the M/B can take. Who that helps, Do another post if that fixes it or if anything else goes wrong. cheers chiefnz |
chiefnz (545) | ||
| 189533 | 2003-11-06 02:40:00 | ooops typo at the end i meant.... "hope that helps" lol chiefnz :) |
chiefnz (545) | ||
| 189534 | 2003-11-06 03:48:00 | Hi all, Many thanks for your replies and help...currently I have no idea what the MB is (except ancient...LOL) will see her this weekend to look at again. Used 128MB as was easier to get new, rather than try to hunt down old RAM from anywhere and she was in a hurry. I was figuring the base of the problem to be with something unable to recognise newer SDRAM, but just wanted her back up and running....and of course online is all she uses it for (typical) and it got into my head to the point I had to walk away from it for awhile or else throw it through the window. NB: When she DOES upgrade, we are going to have a "smash the old pc party" :) Will try all options suggested :) |
traceyc (2190) | ||
| 189535 | 2003-11-06 07:08:00 | Just a sugestion. In the Bios of most old computers there is a setting to reduce the visible memory. This was used for IBM Warp os/2. Maybe this has been enabled. It is not a Windows problem, I have one box with Windows 95 & 54 megs RAM & another with Windows 98 & 512 megs. No problems. |
Mzee (158) | ||
| 189536 | 2003-11-06 07:15:00 | you can buy older ram on trademe.co.nz but its generally better to just buy a new 2nd hand PC cheaper than upgrading and less hassle . if in wgtn i have some older ram | kiwibeat (304) | ||
| 189537 | 2003-11-06 07:17:00 | PS always happy to collect any older PCs in wgtn in exchange for some of my time and expertise tweaking owners new system | kiwibeat (304) | ||
| 189538 | 2003-11-06 09:56:00 | You cannot run FP\EDO RAM together with SD RAM. try pulling out the 32MB and see what happens. Some older MBs will only run on 100SD Ram. | Rod ger (316) | ||
| 189539 | 2003-11-06 18:06:00 | You say windows 98 wont reconise the ram, may i ask a question then, when the machine bootsup do you see 128 meg ram listed on the bootup screen ? if yes do this, go to run type in msconfig, press enter, a window will popup in front of you there is a button marked "advanced" click on that, there is a option in there to limits the amount of memory windows( worded " limit memory to") is allowed to use if its checked remove the check, click on ok , then ok again reboot the machine see if windows now reconises the full amount ram installed |
beama (111) | ||
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