64MB of ram but only 32 showing up on POST. Why is this?

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Hi, I was given a 400mhz comp for my 4yr old. I'm stuck on 16 colours even though I'm 100% sure I have the correct driver (Intel i810). I'm using win2K pro.

At first I was thinking the bios may be set wrong but then I noticed the 32Mb anomaly, so I'm thinking that may have something to do with it. What do you think?

In device manager it shows Intel 82810 graphics controller & a yellow 'shriek'

I'm getting error code 10. The device cannot start.

I'd really appreiciate any insight into this since I've been banging my head against a brick wall all week with it, but to no avail.

Thanks.

 

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Maybe the RAM isn't seated properly? Or maybe it isn't suited to the MOBO or it could be defective. On older MOBOs it was sometimes necessary to go into the BIOS and out again before the correct amount of RAM would be detected. In some cases you had to specify how much RAM was installed manually. You might want to google the MOBOs model and see if there is a downloadable manual somewhere on the net.

As for the video driver, well a yellow exclamation mark is usually a conflict of some kind. Try removing any other cards NIC, internal modem etc and re-boot to see if the conflict sorts itself out. Plug and play does not always do what it should, sometimes you have to manually set interrupts and i/o addresses.

Pete

 

Thanks Bluerinse.

I've checked & the ram is seated as it should be. Also both sticks are of exactly the same type (32MB pc66). I swapped them over & still detected 32MB, which gives me the impression that the sticks themselves are ok.

Is it possible one of the seatings doesn't work?

There are no cards installed in any of the slots (3 pci, 1 small brown one I don't recognise. Not ISA. I'm thinking AGP?)

Bit worried about doing anything with the BIOS. I'm gonna google it in a little while, see what I'm looking at.

I changed one setting from non-pnp to pnp but it didn't help.

The MOBO's a chaintech **** (sorry don't have the no.'s in front of me). Support for it is discontinued. I'll have a look for the manual though.

Thanks.

 

No worries

Have you tried it with just one stick at a time, maybe one is toasted?

The brown slot is AGP.

I have read conficting information regarding the BIOS setting for PnP operating systems but the gist I get is that it is better to leave it at no. I may be shot down in flames by the A+ gang

Pete

 

Hi.

I'll give the one stick at a time idea a go tomorrow, should have thought of that.

The computer's in the bedroom & my better half is asleep.

Do you think it's possible that one of the seating rows can be broken, but otherwise the comp is fine?


Actually, now that I know I've got an AGP slot. Even if I do get both sticks running, I'm inclined to grab a cheap AGP graphics card fron e-bay. I saw an 8MB one for about a tenner, including delivery.

Thanks

 

Anything is possible, it is just a matter of trying things out using a process of elimination. If each RAM stick works and is recognised as 32MB individually then you know that they are both okay. If they are only recognised in one slot, well it could be a faulty connector or associated circuitry or a MOBO configuration issue. You won't discover anything by just sitting there without trying things

Windows 2000 Pro with 64MB RAM will work but ideally you want much more RAM than that or your 4 year old will get frustrated with the slowness and demand a gaming machine

Pete

 

how about using a diagnostic tool and seeing how much memory it recognizes? maybe the prob is OS related.... OR MAYBE JUST maybe im not making sense but give the tool a go and see what it reports?

 

Re the Brown slot when you say small how small is that as it could be a modem riser slot they are located in the roughly the same area as the AGP slot on motherboards with onboard graphics and are the same colour although they are only about 1.5 inches long

Just a thought before you get an AGP card

 

Might be completely wrong here, but I remember sorting out a comp for a friend with an onboard graphics card (I assume the Intel is an onboard card?). Some of the RAM seemed to be missing, but the graphics card was actually using it as video memory - any settings for this on the BIOS? Could explain why only 32Mb showing (although I can't remember if the POST shows all or not). Of course, this doesn't help with the driver problem.

 

Well it LOOKED like it was

Honest.

I took the ram out & put it back in again, both sticks. The POST showed 64MB of RAM & all of a sudden I had 24 glorious bits of true colour!

I'm guessing maybe there wasn't enough to share with the onboard graphics?

Anyway I've ordered 128MB of pc133 memory from ebay, £6 inc delivery. Should give me some improvement(currently pc66)

Thanks for the help though guys, much appreiciated.

Thanks though guys