Memory and HDD not reading correct size

[KeriV]

Upgrading a computer for a friend.
He has a Cyrix 2x64MX P-200
Had 8gig hdd and 64mb (2 32's)
I put in 128mb mem (2 64's) and a 15.3gig hdd. When I tried partitioning the drive, would only read 8gig, so I figured there is a limit on the motherboard, which is a GCT-8STB by the way. Then, when I did get it formatted it was only reading 32mb memory, not the 128 that I installed. I have installed mem and hdd many times, but never on a Cyrix.

The mem I put in is PC100 8x64 64mb sdram

Then on top of that when I was looking further, I noticed an extra drive that did not exist before. It was 2gig and was ramdrive on drive E:. At the time, the CD-rom was using f:.
Then a bit later, it disappeared and the cd rom drive took its place as the E:.

I am totally dumbfound on this one. Can anyone tell me what is going on?

Thank you much in advance

[DA]

ok, first of all... im not definate on this, but I believe win95A has a partition limit at around 8gb. (presuming thats the os that's installed)
If thats not right did you check the hard disk parameters in the bios ?
It may still be looking for a 8gb hd that had its parameters setup manually.

As for the ram, i've had a similar prob in the past. Does the board def. support 100mhz dimms ?
If so, re-seat it and try changing the sdram timings/cycle's in the bios.

hope some of that is helpful

_____________________________
Dark Angel - www.malice.co.uk

[KeriV]

We were using Win98 at first and then reformatted and went to win95, but it was version c. In the bios, I had it auto, and that is how I got the 8gig. I will definately try to set it manually to the specs of the drive.

The motherboard documentation does not state if it accepts the memory I put it, but the memory that was in there was 32mb dimm. There was no other info on the memory.

-try changing the sdram timings/cycle's in the bios
What does that mean? how do you do that? I searched the bios for anything that looked wrong, but did not see anything like that.

This has been the worst upgrade I have done. I have been doing this as a side job and this one may make me quit!
Thank you much!!

[DA]

hehe, well... dont give up

The sdram timing simply means the latency or delay of the ram, 8ns (or whatever speed your stick supports) between reading/writing. If this is set too fast for your stick you can get memory errors.

note: It maybe listed in the bios as latency and have settings like 'normal' or 'turbo', something along those lines. try playing with the settings, it may help.

If this fails try some 66mhz memory instead. It maybe a pc100 issue.

If possible can you give me some more info on your motherboard manufacturer ?

As for the hard disk, does it report 8gb in the bios or under windows ?
in addition to what I said before... make sure LBA is enabled for the hard disk.
Have a readup here: http://www.sysopt.com/win95bug.html

have you got icq? It'll be easier to go through it in a chat session. my uin is 21767332

_____________________________
Dark Angel - www.malice.co.uk

[RCN_Moose]

Hope things are going better-
FYI the ramdrive E: that you had is just a small virtual hard drive that Win98 makes when you use the start-up disk. It's not permanent, it simply takes up 2Megs of your RAM and when you turn your computer off it gets wiped. It has a bunch of troubleshooting stuff on it if your having touble with Windows.
Moose

[KeriV]

DA,
The old memory does not have much in the way of markings. But I do see a -10. Do you know if that means anything? I have seen somewhere that that means something. I will try to get in touch with the company. His motherboard and processor are made by Cyrix. Not sure what they are like cause I have been trying to get on their website for days and it is down(NEVER a good sign)

Motherboard has two DIMMs and 4 SIMMs (showing its age, probably 2-3yrs.old) He previously had DIMMs and that is why I bought them. I do see on the motherboard doc's that their is a DIMM Socket Voltage Selector. Can be 5V or 3.3V, know anything about that?
Did find the SDRAM CAS Latency in the bios, will try that.

I dont have the computer here, but will be there this weekend to work on it. I just want to go over there with a lot of options. Thank you for all the help you have given me. Any ideas are GREATLY appreciated!!

[bdunn]

I've seen the memory problem before. When I added a 64 Meg DIMM to my computer it only added 16 so I started playing around and found that the BIOS wasn't the most current and bringing it up to date made all 64 meg appear.

It also added a few new features liek the ability to boot from my IDE Zip drive and LS-120 support.

CHeck the BIOS.

Good Luck
Bezalel

[DA]

Chances are the '10' is referring to the ram latency, as in 10ns.
The dimm volatage should be set to 3.3v, 5v is for the simms

like bdunn says, it maybe as simple as getting a bios update (when you can connect to their site...)

good luck
_____________________________
Dark Angel - www.malice.co.uk