SIMMS, in pairs only ?

[theCorvetteDoctor]

Working on a "95 Compac, p100 w/72pin simms. The board has 8mb RAM on board, when installing simms in the slots, it won't see them one at a time only when there is two of them.. It has four slots. Went into bios but no help there.. thanks DrVette

[Susan]

Yes http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[theCorvetteDoctor]

When adding more simms,, do they have to be all identical as far as mb ? Do they have to be absolutely the same,, mfg. ns, etc ? Thanks for the speedy reply.. DrVette

[richamies]

Speed, Size and type(EDO/FPM/etc) has to be the same in the 2 banks you are filling up.

*EDIT*

I did actually mean SLOTS not banks, it is getting late here hehehe

Sorry folks. Caught me off guard http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by richamies (edited 01-09-2000).]

[Pure Gold]

As far as SIMMS go, you must install identical pairs (size, speed, parity), otherwise the mobo can get quite confused as to what it's dealing with. Size and speed at least are things which definately need to match. It doesn't matter about other pairs on the board. (2x8Mb along with 2x16Mb is fine).

[CMonster]

For Pentium class systems: SIMM memory modules must be installed in pairs and at least match size and type in the same bank; different speeds are possible but the system will default to the lowest speed for all the memory.

Also, that Compaq may only use FPM (Fast Page Mode) DRAM and not EDO. If you try to use EDO in it it may read the memory size incorrectly. In addition, there may be a jumper on the motherboard that has to do with recognizing additional memory - check the case cover for jumper layout, and inspect the motherboard for jumper legend.



[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 01-09-2000).]

[theCorvetteDoctor]

Strange, I put in two 8mb sticks of "who- knows-what" memory and it booted fine for 5 or 6 times then said something about a registry corruption and now won't get past that screen. The owner was watching when it went to BSOD so they know I didn't do anything wierd.. can edo memory cause a registry problem? Win95 here, Compac mobo, P100, 8mb on-board with no provisions in bios to engage or disable.. thanks DrVette

[BC]

You can also use like this( though i don't know why you would want to) An 8mb with a 16mb, however, It will only see it as a total of 16mb. Why? Because of the pair it sees the 16mb as a 8mb so it reads it as 8x8 not 8x16.
Weird huh?
Sorry

Does it say windows registry or that funky compaq thingiemagigger registry? Anyhoo the mem shouldn't mess up win registry. it may funk up the compaq thingAmagigger registry. Watch out for those hidden partions when reformating.
I also think before you refrmat that you may need to get your registry from the backup. Any other opinions in this matter?
BC

[theCorvetteDoctor]

The owner didn't make any boot discs, I tried to use my generic Win95 boot disc but instead of booting it went to ms/dos A:\> gee, I don't know hardly anything about win95, it's a new ball game to me. Can you tell by looking whether RAM is edo or fpm? Removing the ram made no diff, the machine still says the registry is corrupted and when you check "restore registry" then OK to restart it gives the same error.. can I restore this Compac machine with my generic Win95 CD or the Win95 Boot Disc.. thanks to all as this is getting embarrasing. DrVette

[narayan]

I believe that any Win95 boot disk should work on a Win95 machine. Not much help but any little bit... http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[BC]

Well I take it that it is the win registry. I would try to delete the registry. You can use any win95 boot disk to get to dos but then you will need to go into- c:\windows\ and then type attrib -a -s -r -h to both of these files user.dat and system.dat then delete these two files. This should let you boot up again then windows won't find the registry and get it working from the backup of the last good boot up. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE 2 FILES CALLED: USER.BAK & SYSTEM.BAK IN THE WINDOWS DIRECTORY
Hope this helps.
BC