Junior Member
Hi all, having some problems with a RAM upgrade and found this site... so here goes
Ok, a bit of background. i'm running a pretty ancient (OK, a dinosaur) of a P2 with Win XP Pro / MS Office. Whilst i've thought about a new machine, I'm not a gamer or designer and don't need something supremely fast. I mainly use it for browsing online, MP3s and communication (I'm in a long-distance relationship and make great use of MSN / Yahoo Messenger and webcam facilities).
Nevertheless i've come to a point where I think it could do with a little more oomph, especially as multi-tasking seemed to be becoming a big problem. Programs such as iTunes or Bearshare in particular were using masses of system resources and having spoken to a few people and done a bit of research decided to go with the RAM upgrade option. My slow running problems were caused by the fact that the machine was woefully under-endowed in the memory department (128MB!) and when I opened the tower I found that this took the form of 2x 64MB SDRAM modules, utilising 2 of the board's 3 DIMM slots. So off I trotted to PC World to pick up a couple of 128MB replacements.
Unfortunately this is where my problems began. On powering the machine back up I found that the system was only 'seeing' one of the two 128MB modules (at this point I'd only fitted these, and hadn't refitted either of the original 64s) resulting in no improvement. So I popped in one of the 128s and the two 64s which gave me... 192MB! And that's as good as it got - regardless of the configuration in which I arranged the modules, or which ones I added, I've only been able to get the motherboard to recognise two at a time, and although through process of deduction I've established that all four modules work individually, the slots don't seem to behave in such a logical fashion. Frankly I'm stumped, and a little disappointed, since although 192MB is a slight improvement, I was hoping for 256 or even more with one of the original modules.
I've heard a lot about inexplicable conflicts and compatibility issues with SDRAM modules and certain motherboards. Trouble is, on top of all this I've no idea what make / model the board is or where I can find information on it. The machine was built by a family friend waaaay back in 2003 (who sadly is a friend no longer) and is a one-off - hence no convenient manufacturer website to search or helpline to spend hours on hold to. I've pasted the results of the DAL and Belarc system scans into this message, but as you'll see neither returned any information for the board or its manufacturer.
If anyone can offer any advice at all on what i should do next, I'd be most grateful, as I shelled out £35 on RAM upgrades which I can't return (damn blister packs!) and am still not entirely happy with the performance of this machine when trying to run more than one application at a time.
Rich
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OS Information:
PropertyValue
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional|C:\WINDOWS|\Device\Harddisk0\Partitio n1
Service Pack 2.0
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
Processor:
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Current Clock Speed 400
Description x86 Family 6 Model 5 Stepping 2
Manufacturer GenuineIntel
Name Intel Pentium II processor
Memory (RAM):
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Total Memory Deteced in Hardware: ~0 MB
Memory Reported to Operating System: 191MB
Disk Drives:
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Description Disk drive
Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Model ST340810A
Media Type Fixed hard disk media
Size 40015987200 (~37 GB)
Number of Partitions 1
Installed Printers:
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Name Panasonic KX-P1080
Port Name LPT1:
Default False
Driver Name Panasonic KX-P1081
Name Lexmark Z700-P700 Series
Port Name USB001
Default True
Driver Name Lexmark Z700-P700 Series
Motherboard:
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BIOS:
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Manufacturer
Name Ver 1.64
Release Date 19991005000000.000000+000
Version AWARD - 30302e31
Monitor:
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Description Default Monitor
Name Default Monitor
Screen Height 600
Screen Width 800
Keyboard:
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Description PC/AT Enhanced PS/2 Keyboard (101/102-Key)
Pointing Device:
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Manufacturer Microsoft
Name Microsoft PS/2 Mouse
Sound Card:
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Manufacturer Microsoft
Description Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device
Device ID MODEMWAVE\0\{9380C240-A55C-4E0D-9FC6-0E3507B4FA90}
Manufacturer Yamaha
Description YAMAHA Native DS1 WDM Driver
Device ID PCI\VEN_1073&DEV_0004&SUBSYS_00041073&REV_05\2&EBB 567F&0&80
Manufacturer Yamaha
Description YAMAHA Legacy DS1 WDM Driver
Device ID DS1\LEGACY\3&3375152D&0&0000
Video Card:
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Adapter Compatibility S3 Graphics Inc.
Adapter RAM 33554432
Description S3 Graphics Inc. Savage4
Installed Display Drivers s3sav4.dll
Driver Version 5.12.01.8012-8.40.03
Driver Date 17/08/2001 12:50:28
Video Mode Description 800 x 600 x 4294967296 colors
DirectX Installation:
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Version 6.03.01.0148
Modem:
PropertyValue
Model Smart Link 56K Voice Modem
Name Smart Link 56K Voice Modem
Network Adapters:
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Description SiS 900 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter - Packet Scheduler Miniport
Description Packet Scheduler Miniport
Description USB Cable Modem 351000
Description Packet Scheduler Miniport
Description SiS 900 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter - Packet Scheduler Miniport
Description Packet Scheduler Miniport
Description SiS 900 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter - Packet Scheduler Miniport
Description Packet Scheduler Miniport
External Ports:
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Expansion Slots:
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UK site moderator
Hi Rich,
It actually sounds to me like the motherboard is detecting the memory in ALL of the RAM slots but that it is only reading a maximum of 64Mb for each module. That's why you've tried it with both the new 128Mb RAM modules and it only detected 1 x 128MB - in fact, I suspect that it saw 2 x 64MB. Try fitting 1 x 128MB and 1 x 64MB module - if it sees 128MB, that proves my theory.
Even though that might explain what is happening, it still doesn't explain why. I agree that the D-A-L Online Hardware Scan didn't give us anything useful. We can see that XP is reporting 192MB (191MB plus 1MB system cache). We can also see that you have a reasonable 32MB Savage S4 graphics card and that's certainly more than enough for standard Windows use.
Despite the fact that your Pentium II processor only runs at 400MHz, which is certainly around the minimum that you can use Windows XP with, it's actually your 56k modem that is the bottleneck if that's what you're using to connecting to the Internet. The difference that broadband makes is so amazing that it's actually quite hard to describe just how much it would transform your PC!
I also note that you're running Windows XP Service Pack 2 with its built-in security things that try to slow you down and hold you back (sorry, I mean "protect you from danger") while you work. Running Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 without any Windows Updates or, alternatively, running Windows 98 Second Edition will make your PC perform better, particularly if Windows is using 192MB RAM.
Another suggestion is to check your virtual memory (pagefile) size. To see this, right-click My Computer, go to Properties > Advanced > Performance Options. Try setting a custom pagefile size with a minimum and maximum size of 512MB.
Finally, another way to speed up your system is to check that the files on your 40GB hard disk are not fragmented. Right-click My Computer, select Manage > Disk Defragmenter. Highlight your C: drive and click Defragment. See how much of the bar chart is red to start with. If it's more than about an eighth, then defragmenting will be helping to make accessing files on the hard disk faster.
Work through these few ideas and let us know whether you see any improvement. Finally, though, I do have to say that file-sharing utilities can be a BIG drain on resources for no obvious reason other than bad coding. Unfortunately, we can't condone, recommend or advise on the use of file-sharing utilities. I do hope that you have good anti-virus and anti-spyware programs keeping your PC protected as you might actually find that it's your file-sharing activities that are getting your PC infected with viruses and spyware that are slowing your system down.
UK site moderator
I've just remembered that I've heard of something similar to this when using RAM modules that are running at different speeds to what the motherboard expects. Your processor is designed to run with PC100 SDRAM modules. Is that what you bought from PC World or did you get PC133 memory?Originally Posted by DJNafey
Junior Member
Hi DJNafey, thanks for the quick reply!
First, I think you may have identified the problem regarding the RAM modules - they are indeed PC133s, and the originals are PC100. In my defence, when I raised this with the guy in PC World (they didn't have any PC100 modules) he told me it 'shouldn't be a problem' - maybe a case of 'more fool me' for listening to an assistant in a high-street PC store with a rather tiny accessory department...
Does this mean that maybe I should try and offload the two PC133 128s I bought and fit PC100 128MB modules from another source? Would these be compatible or are there other issues involved? Would I do better to forget about the memory upgrade thing altogether and just learn to live with the speed issues? Is it possible / economic to upgrade the processor instead or in conjunction with a RAM upgrade?
Which brings me onto the other points you raised. Although the scan shows a 56K modem, it was retired some time ago and is no longer connected to the phone system (would removing this from the slot make any difference?) I now connect via a 2MB broadband (NTL cable) connection. The broadband modem is connected through the ethernet card and once I'm online my internet performance, webcam response etc is actually pretty quick. Presumably this doesn't use much by way of RAM though?
I defragged the HD a while back and checked it only last week. According to Windows the volume doesn't need another defrag - so i didn't bother! I have Norton Antivirus (2003 edition, but with the latest update), and Lavasoft AdAware for spyware and adware. Again I ran full system scans a couple of weeks back and although both identified a small number of items, there wasn't anything significant from what I could gather.
As I said, the main problem I have is when i'm trying to run two or more programs simultaneously - for instance if I'm running MSN Messenger and then open iTunes, it will take an age (and lots of grinding from the HD!) before iTunes opens up, then give me huge delays when switching between playlists and performing other operations. Same thing if I open Word, Outlook etc (it's not just iTunes, which I'm aware is not a great program to run on PCs!) It's this particular slowness that steered me towards the RAM upgrade in the first place.
Lots of questions I know... I am a bit of an amateur as you can probably tell... If you've any thoughts on what I need to do next (other than 'buy a new machine', as the budget won't stretch right now!) I'm willing to give anything a try...
Rich
UK site moderator
Well, he is actually right - IN MOST CASES, PC133 RAM will run on motherboards designed for PC66 or PC100 memory .... but there are the odd few quirky ones out there that have incompatibilities with certain memory chips.
PC100 modules ought to have a better chance of working but you might even find that your motherboard is limited to only being to read up to 64MB from each DIMM slot. You might want to take a look at my D-A-L Trader auction (www.d-a-l.com/trader). I'm selling a set of 4 x 64MB SDRAM modules. They are PC133 rather than PC100 but, if you want to buy those and you find that they solve the problem, then I'd be happy to give you the same amount of money back in return for your PC World memory that you don't want.
Well that's really up to you! When your PC was built, Windows 98 had only recently been released and it would have made a good job of running that. In fact, it still would. But, as you want to run Windows XP, I'm not surprised that it could do with being beefed-up a bit.
It is possible but it's either (a) very complicated and about £50; or (b) pretty straightforward and about £150.
No problem there then. Leaving the 56k modem in doesn't make any difference. Having only 128MB RAM isn't restricting your broadband.
No problem. It's really hard to give definite advice without knowing what motherboard you have (you may find that there's a model number or FCC ID number stamped onto the motherboard somewhere that we could look up) but I hope that I've been able to help a little
