Please help with memory, why SPD DIMM?

I have a P4, 1.8 with a E-4000 mother board. running XP sp2. I have 256 MB ram in one of the two slots. I went to put in 2 1GB chips and get an error on start up MEMORY DECREASE then it keeps rebooting. I tried pc 2700, 333 mhz chips and was told to get 2100 266 mhz chips. neither ones work. I also can't get the boot.ini maxmem in the advanced menue to go higher than the 255. E-Support took my money for the windows flash file and didn't really want to help. Can somone please help me. I can't see four chips being bad.

What is SPD and do they need to be SPD DIMM's

 

Lets get a few things sorted out in order

E4000
Do you mean a Sun Microsystems motherboard, part no E4000 or do you mean some motherboard designed for the E4000 series processor?
Please state exact make and model no.

Can you state The SL no for your processor (printed on it) or give us the bus speed spec.

SPD was (is) a system where there is a small extra chip on the memory stick which contains ID and other information about the memory stick. Originally introduced when memory was expensisve and in short supply as a security to identify stolen memory.

Some older BIOS could be locked to a specific SPD ID, but most modern ones ( I include yours) don't care.

Oh and welcome to Major Geeks

 

it says: Intel model D845GRG, Version AAA81583-202, max cpu speed 2600, cpu code name wilamette, max capacity 3072MB, memory slots 2, error correcting none, EPP SPD support no, Max memory modual size 512MB, This last one makes me wonder. Max mem size? I was told 2GB ramm would work. Does this mean I can only use 512 per slot? that gives me just 1GB.

My BIOS say
version gateway 20030821, version RG84510A.15A.0057.P19.0308210949,

if you need other info please let me know. Thanks for helping.

 

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/d845grg/sb/cs-010413.htm#5.0

It's all there

 

Actually, SPD is a chip that identifies what the default settings for the ram are. This prevents the BIOS from using timings incompatible to the ram, and also allow the BIOS to use default timings so that you dont have to set them manually.

 

Just what I said, the information can be varied for different purposes. I haven't seen the security ones fore some years, since the early non standard Compaqs. But these used to complain and refuse to boot(Showing SPD error)even if you had several of the same module and tried to swop an apparantly identical memory module between them. The local college finally moved these on couple of years ago.

Anyway all this is a bit of academic history 440 has the right info to proceed.

 

So the SPD are what I need?

I can't believe that an updated bios flash doesn't fix that. Those guys at
e-support are just ridicules.

 

Hello, Lena I think you are in the wrong place.

Please don't post in the middle of other users threads about different matters.

First Look at

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

Then start your own thread in the MALWARE forum. They are really great Geeks there.

 

Did you look at the Intel link I posted? It was all there.

From what I could see the max mem and max module size depends on the motherboard and bios versions and processor. There were detailed instructions to compare yours with and also instructions to update the bios.

As I understood it the max memory chip (not module) size was 512M. There are eight of these per byte and that implies that you can only use 1G memory modules that are doublesided i.e.two rows of 8, one on each side. you can't use modules with a single row of 1G chips.

Hope this helps,

Post again if you need help with the Intel instructions.

 

I did read it. Thanks for finding that. I did look at the 1 GB chips I have and they have 8 (sorry I don't know what they call them) black memory things on only one side. They say 128 x 64.

One more question and don't laugh please. How do I find memory for this on ebay or something like that? What do I look for so I know they are double side chips? You really helped me and it is appreciated studiot.

Thanks

 

I agree it's a serious matter. I get some service stuff from Ebay, particularly from the 'breaker vendors'. Sometimes it is the only way to find a repair part.

Your best bet is to ask the supplier. Remember on Ebay you can do this through the system. Otherwise phone or email the supplier and confirm. You can't trust the photos they show on their websites.Sometimes they are 'generic' pictures of memory sticks.

Your modules are single sided. double sided ones have a row of black chips on each side.

I always recommend Crucial, whos advertise on Major Geeks and have a 'memory calculator and online system scanner' - input your details and they guarantee what they supply will work. Kingston have something similar.

http://www.crucial.com/uk/?gclid=CIzM-L7Vg44CFQNuMAodGiXAPA