Memory Question for PC

Jan. 27, 2010 | Self

[library user]

Working on someone's PC which can only handle 768MB of memory. The problem is this: crucial.com says there is a 32MB (stick?) somewhere installed in the PC, so until I find a way to disable that 32MB, I can't install one 512MB stick and another 256MB stick to equal the 768MB (because that "phantom" 32MB puts me overboard).

Right now, if I put in both a 256 and a 512, it's too much memory and the screen freezes up and I get the dreaded BSOD.

Any idea where crucial.com is picking up this 32MB? My guess is that it's the older SDRAM, whereas the 256MB stick that's already in the PC, built in 2003, is DDR (in fact, I know the 256 stick is DDR).

Any advice on how to get the max. of 768MB installed on this machine, without getting any freezes would be most appreciated.

Thanks so much.

[RightOnline]

Can you provide details on the manufacturer, model, etc. of the PC you’re working on?

[library user]

Thanks for the swift reply. If you need more info, please let me know. Thanks...

Property Value
Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Model 7VT600-P-RZ
Version x.x
Serial Number

North Bridge VIA KT600 Revision 80
South Bridge VIA VT8237 Revision 80

CPU AMD Sempron™ 2500+
Cpu Socket Socket A (462)

System Slots 5 PCI, 1 AGP

Memory Summary
Maximum Capacity 768 MBytes
Maximum Memory Module Size 1024 MBytes
Memory Slots 3
Error Correction None

Warning! Accuracy of DMI data cannot be guaranteed

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Is there a video or sound card in the system?

[RightOnline]

So...is this a home-built desktop we’re talking about here?

[library user]

Yes, unfortunately. I have no idea who built it. I don’t think they’re in business anymore.

But I am helping a woman in the neighborhood try to get more memory installed for it. I went to newegg.com two weeks ago and bought 1.5GB of memory, thinking I could use all of it in her PC, based on the info she provided to me after running C-PUZ.

But it appears the motherboard only supports 768MB.

[library user]

Good question. I’ll have to email her and ask and report back. I don’t have the PC with me right this minute.

[RightOnline]

http://america.giga-byte.com/FileList/Manual/motherboard_manual_7vt600p-rz_e.pdf

[WakeUpAndVote]

Plug each memory module in one at a time and see what the BIOS is reading it at. I have run across some sticks that have more or less than advertised.

[ShadowAce]

[NMEwithin]

It sounds like 32MB of memory has been shared for the video card.

Go into the BIOS on boot up and check to see if any memory has been allocated for use by the video card.

[Scutter]

You’re better off waiting for one of those Fry’s deals on an inexpensive motherboard and CPU combo. Some of them have embedded video on the motherboard, which while not great for gaming is just fine for everything else. You could probably pick up that plus 2GB of RAM for well under $200.

Note: You would more than likely have to reinstall Windows, though.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

If so, have her pull any extra video or sound cards and try to install the memory and try and get a clean boot on it. Then shut down the system and plug the cards back in. The system should not be picking up any on-card memory, but I’ve seen strange stuff on older systems.

[Bigh4u2]

According to this link:

http://www.oninocomputing.co.uk/motherboards/gigabyte_7vt600_rz.html#specs

Max memory is 3 gigabytes!!

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

“Memory Slots 3”

Weird.

Guess #1: There must be a video card with RAM that the systme is seeing on POST.

Guess #2: The system may not be able to handle different sized RAM sticks.

One thing I’d recommend is to google search for such possibilities as:

AMD RAM compatibility
AMD RAM upgrade
Adding RAM to AMD xyz

etc

And wading thru dozens of memory sellers, in the hopes of finding an obscure user group somewhere (And...CNET is pretty good and I’m sure there are forty others) where someone has encountered this. It can be a few minutes of work finding such a thing, but you’re already on board for “minutes” of work.

[Bigh4u2]

Ooops!

I meant megabytes.

Gigabyte is the manufacturer!

[library user]

Thanks. File is still downloading. Not sure if that PDF will tell me how to get rid of that 32MB of memory, though. That’s what I really need to figure out how to do, so I can put one 256 DDR + one 512 DDR to equal the max allowed.

[Bigh4u2]

“Guess #1: There must be a video card with RAM that the systme is seeing on POST.”

On board video does use memory space, but usually after the ‘slot’ ram has been installed.

However, it can be turned off by installing a new video card.

[RightOnline]

Since this isn’t a laptop, I’d be looking at the BIOS for disabling the onboard memory. Looking at the manual (link above) and a quick Google scan, seems like that’s where you’d need to go to do this.

[Bigh4u2]

See post #18