Re: hardware help Off Topic

On Sunday 06 April 2003 12:42 am, you wrote:
> What exactly are the dimms? you said 2 were 128mb and one
> unidentified. Try removing all but one, and make sure that one is in
> the first slot and try powering up to see if it is the dimm, or the
> slot.  then try 2 matched in slots 1 and 2.  Then swap dimms and try
> the various combinations of dimms and slots to see if any other one
> or combination will work.

Two of the dimms are marked pc133 sdram 16x64 128mb.  I have the mobo 
book and it says start with dimm slot 3.  These two are in slots 3 and 
2.  In slot 1 is a dimm marked 4x64 pc100-322-620.  I assume the first 
two dimms are 128MB and the other is 32mb.  Bios reports 64MB with 4mb 
shared with the video (leaves 61440K).

If I swap the two boards in slots 2 and 3, the computer just beeps and 
won't boot, so I assume the dimm I swapped into slot 3 is bad.  If I 
remove the suspected bad dimm and the 32 Meg, the bios reports 61440 + 
4096 shared.  When I added the 32MB dimm back in the bios reports 91+MB.

The owner of the machine didn't like XP pro and preferred Win98.  Since 
it was reporting "ntldr not found," and I couldn't get by that, I used 
DOS (ugh) to save her documents and formatted the disk and loaded 
Win98.  Win98 runs quite well with 91mb.
>
> Sometimes you must use the slots in the order they are numbered.  If
> it is an older pentium it may need a matched pair of dimms in order
> to even work. (for example I had one that required 2 32mb dimms (or
> simms??) paired in slots 1 and 2 in order to see 64mb of memory. 
> Using one 16mb and one 32mb did NOT work)
>
It is my understanding that simms (72 pin) must always be matched 
pairs, but that dimms (168 pins) need not be.  In my limited 
experience, dimms have worked singly.
>
> What is the actual MOBO and CPU?  it appears to be ATX, but that can
> be pentium, pII, PIII, or something else.
> If you know the make and model of the MOBO you often can go to the
> manufacturers web site and get specs, settings, and even manuals for
> the board.

I was fortunate that the owner had the MOBO manual.  It is a microATX 
with K6-2 - 450MHZ.  However, finding the mobo maker is not easy.  For 
some reason, very few mobo makers put their names on their books or 
motherboards.  Award bios reports 10/13/99-530-2a5IMC3AC-00 on boot - 
this may be a clue.
>
> What about bios settings?  have you tried the defaults in case some
> weird setting is causing the problem?
>
Since the box was built from "used parts by a friend" of the owner, I 
hesitate to try defaults with the bios.  He may have done something 
special.  One other thing I just noticed: the MOBO book says a 200 watt 
power supply is required and the one in the box is only 180 watts.

Again, thanks to everyone.  Hope I never see another Microsoft machine.
bruce
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