192 MB of RAM

[C-VENN]

I have a very strange problem here. I have a 4-year-old laptop (HP ze5300) that only shows 192 MB of Ram on the windows system screen. Now it has 2-256MB simms installed in it . They have also been replaced with the same recently to see if they were the problem. Still shows the same. The Ram does pass the windows Ram test you can run at startup. I know there is a problem because the computer is very very slow when a load is applied to it. I am fearing the worse, but hope for a simple solution. Thanks for the help charles

 

[kimsland]

The other Ram amount is being used by your Video in BIOS

This is very common in computers and can be adjusted in BIOS (Hit DEL to enter setup on startup)

 

[C-VENN]

in setup under memory it shows 191 MB

 

[kimsland]

Swap the ram cards around (physically - avoid electrostatic)

May be try one at a time to see what each one reports

 

[kimsland]

"They have also been replaced with the same recently to see if they were the problem"

Could be faulty bus on the Motherboard

Try one ram in one slot and then the same ram in the other slot (and try the other ram too, but just do one at a time for the moment)

Also do BIOS defaults

 

[C-VENN]

the memory was set to auto,I switched it to 64 MB. But same thing shows 192mb. Still all in all I should have 512 MB, there is alot of memory missing.

 

[kimsland]

You can't switch to 64 or auto, unless you're talking about video memory in Bios.

Try the swap out idea above.

 

[Elvandil]

Start > Run: msconfig

Look in the Advanced options to see if MaxMem is set.

What operating system?

 

[Soundy]

It's possible your laptop doesn't like the specific configuration of those DIMMs. For example, I've seen some older boards where a certain 128MB SIMM would show up properly, but a second would only show up as 64MB... another instance where a board would see a 64MB stick as only 8MB. Granted, this was obviously some time ago, with pretty old hardware, but the principle is the same: your laptop may only support specific configurations (the way the memory addresses are arranged on the module itself). It's highly unlikely with DDR RAM, but...

Maybe see if you can obtain some different modules to test? Are these both identical modules?

 

[win2kpro]

Go here; http://www.memtest.org/

download the program and build a bootable floppy or CD. Boot from the floppy of CD and run Memtest. Let it run for at least 4 full passes. If you have ANY errors, there is a problem with memory.

 

[C-VENN]

Did that mem test, passed. Windows XP SP2. Another note is it came with 512 MB and is still in the orignal config.

 

[C-VENN]

Well as mention above I switched the ram from socket to socket. With only one simm in socket 1 it would not boot. When I put the only 1 simm in socket 2 it runs like it did before. This leads to me believe it is in the socket or something

 

[kimsland]

Where the Dimm 1 socket is, you may need to fully confirm that no dust or debri has lodged itself inside.

Otherwise Dimm 1 slot may be faulty as you have stated

 

[C-VENN]

Ok checked for dust,none. So now I am just going to buy a new Ram Chip of higher value to increse the Ram amount. Anybody know what the bios limit is for this model? This seems to be the cheapest fix for a 4 year old laptop. I only need one chip since that is all it is running on now. I think I can use a 512mb, but if I can go 1GB i will do that too.

 

[kimsland]

Current Bios Version:
KH.F.25 Released 05-2005

At least 128 MB SDRAM originally preinstalled.
Two slots for PC2100 DDR-266 SDRAM modules.
Up to 1 GB (1024 MB) SDRAM using 512 MB modules.