Win XP Pro stealing memory!

[Rô©kHøµñÐ]

Actually i forgot to ask if he had loaded the Ali chipset drivers for XP

[Rudders]

Hi, I appreciate your reply and advice, but this is a laptop that I am having probs with, and I cannot change the Mobo/chipset, graphics card, or memory timings...all runs as Compaq decree!

Thanx for your reply anyway, you went to some trouble on my behalf.

Rudders

Originally posted by peterpam
Lets take a logic aproach to the problem: XP doest recognise but the 98 do? Well, i think the proble could only bee one with an Ali chipset: the motherboard bios.
Have you tried an bios flash with the latest version?
Have you tried the ram at a diferent clock cycle or delay times?
Have you tried running the mobo with a diferent graphics adaptor?

Try it, couse the problem its there: XP dont like hardware on the 'red line', and thats wy he is the king of stable and regular MS Systems. That 'caracter' make us wont to get it!

In the end... Ali Chipset.... get another mobo!

Greetings from the country of Sun
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with an easy 29º in the background
I love to take walks this days!

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[Rudders]

Originally posted by NooNoo
Not that I can see... if you drop the 64mb does it see the 256?

I took the whole shebang apart on Sunday, then swapped out the 64MB, and only left in the 256MB module. Guess what?

The machine booted as far as a screen which said, "no memory detected" or something similar!
That however was with the 256MB module slotted in the internal position, I didn't try it on it's own in the expansion bay.

I have reinstalled Win98, and all is speeding along well.

I tried running 5 copies of Autocad 2000i, to fill the ram and test it with Win98, and all runs sweetly, so it is all being used correctly by the OS.
I also booted a CD bootable distro of Linux, (Knoppix), and that saw all the ram too.

I guess that the Kernel of XP does not do a proper job of searching for RAM at boot time. It must be quite poor at this because it is plain to see 320MB in the BIOS & CMOS dump!

Looks like MS want us all to buy a £2000 laptop every 3 years just to run their lates OS.

Yes it's a good OS, and I like how it runs smoothly and quickly, but come on guys, a 550 or 600 MHz machine with 320MB of quality branded (Crucial- Toshiba chipped CAS2 PC133) RAM isn't asking too much is it?

Please, if anyone has similar problems to this, would you post here and give as many details of your mobo/ram as possible, then we can all see if this is a big problem globally.

If it is, then maybe one day we can find a solution. Then we can all benefit.

Thanx for all your help and advice. I know when to give up! LOL

Rudders

[NooNoo]

I wonder... do you have a copy of 2k lying around to try?

[Rô©kHøµñÐ]

Actually i have loaded it on some pretty antiquated hardware in the past. (Usually just so i could transfer data off it to a network location) I have had problems in Windows 2000 where i didnt in 98 in the past, though my hard drive failed 2 months after. After the new drive all was well.

did you try running the upgrade advisor before installing XP?
Just curious whether the laptop is on the compatability list.
Its a weird issue on this laptop.

[Rudders]

Originally posted by NooNoo
I wonder... do you have a copy of 2k lying around to try?

No, sorry, I have NT4 with SP6 knocking around somewhere, but god knows where!
But that isn't the same as WinXP/2K anyway!

I have restored the old image of the 98 setup back now, so I am happy to leave it until I have time to research it further.

Thanx

Rudders

[tjj]

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp?Mfr%2BProductline=Compaq%2BPresario+ Notebooks.&mfr=Compaq&cat=RAM&model=Presario+1690. &submit=Go

Upgrades for the Compaq Presario 1690.
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Compaq Presario 1690. specs



128MB SDRAM, PC100

• CL=2 • Non-parity •

CT168330

$50.99 (USD)
32MB SDRAM, PC100

• CL=2 • Non-parity •

CT157154

$15.99 (USD)



System Info:
Maximum memory: 192MB
Standard memory: 64MB non-removable
Special Info:
Slots: 1 (1 bank of 1)
Explanation of memory terms

try a bios update. if THAT doesn't work then it's as someone posted above.
XP doesn't tollerate "out of spec"/boarderline hardware.
crucial says you max out @ 192 megs. (64 + 128)