Compaq Deskpro memory question

[bofhrevenge2]

Hi all,

I'm having a few problems with some Compaq Deskpro PC's from 1998, I am trying to upgrade them to 128Mb PC100 from 64Mb PC100 but they will not come on with the new memory in (I have several 128Mb PC100 chips and have tried them all so i don't think it's a faulty chip).
I'm having a hard time finding the model number on the board but as far as I can tell from info online the boards of that age should be able to take 384Mb.

Can anyone remember these old beasts and if they require any fiddling to get extra memory in them?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[noellees1]

Ive got one, big problem with them is they use the SDIM memory i think thats what its called anyway has differently positioned prongs to the new ram DIMM
Umm well to upgrade my machines ram i put the new stick in, then before letting it load furthur hit F10 and just went throgh the options i think one is there to autodetect changes or something.

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/...493758+1087417431290+28353475&threadId=590212

May help

http://www.spano.co.uk

The way web design should be

 

[bofhrevenge2]

Sorted it the Compaq PC's that i have require double sided 8 chip DIMMS.

Cheers.

 

[fenix]

just fyi, a dimm is a dimm is a dimm no matter how many chips it has mounted on it. Some have 2, some have 8 or even 16, some use one side, some use both sides, it's just the design of the manufacturer. The things to be concerned with are mathcing the speeds as the speed will default to the slowest if they are mismatched, (usually not a problem) and making sure they are both parity, or both non parity. Most home user pc's in that era are non parity, so this will probably not be a concern unless you acquire a parity dimm. It will usually have an extra 9th chip on it.

I have an old deskpro 2000 and use 128MBs in it.

 

[bofhrevenge2]

Fenix FYI some PC's will not accept single sided dimms i spoke to the manufacturer and they confirmed this, the new double sided chips are fine.

Cheers guys.

 

[fenix]

thx, that's good to know that they say that, although I never ran into it (in all of my 3 1/2 years of computer experience ! ha ha) but,:: I just looked at my deskpro 2000 which happened to have a side open, and it uses a single sided DIMM, 64MB. It seems to operate normally as a networked wireless client w/98. Maybe it's not recommended, but it seems to work oK.

Something of note: There is one thing that may be caused by this single sided DIMM. I get 2 short beeps after post. I never looked into this because the computer seemed to operate normally and it's just an old box that I keep around for kicks. The 2 shorts may have indeed started when I possibly swapped some RAM around a few months ago. Next chance I get to do some more swapping around, I'll put a double sided DIMM in there and see if it quiets the beep code and post back. I don't have a list of Compaq beep codes, but one books says that 2 short beeps in a basic IBM board is an initialization error. Not sure if that would prevent a boot or not. Maybe someone might know what 2s means for an old deskpro, or I'll write Compaq about it when I have alot of time on hand, (right).

cheers

 

[bofhrevenge2]

Rule number one, if it aint broke don't fix it