Poof! there went my RAM

i have a dell inspiron 5100 laptop. it's a few years old and used to have 512 MB RAM (2x256).

i was running an Everest test and noticed it only has 255(?) MB now.
so i (carefully) opened the case and switched them around thinking one might have come loose, but then the computer wouldn't even boot.
i tried different combinations with the cards/slots. only one combination works and it seems one of the slots blew out somehow, taking a card with it!

so i'm stuck now with this message in the Everest report:
"Problem AGP aperture size is more than half of the system memory size. This may cause performance penalty."
AGP Aperture Size 128 MB

and this: "Suggestion: Install more system memory to improve applications performance."

the video card is an ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 (32 MB)
and it was pretty slow before, but now it's really choppy when i play games.

i think i'm screwed here because even if the RAM and slot is in fact blown,
the AGP Aperture size cannot be changed in the BIOS on this model laptop.

any ideas?

 

probably should have mentioned i'm running Windows XP Pro SP2..

 

bump

 

Ok, it does indeed sound like one of your slots died and took the RAM stick with it.

Now that mobility probably uses system ram (as most laptop graphics cards do) as well. Since Dell didn't count on you downgrading the ram, as it were, they will have set the AGP appature to whatever was required for your initial setup.

I've got to say Everest's report is a bit odd. Your bath is overflowing. Get a bigger bath!

Solution: Install more RAM or make the appature smaller Change it to 64MB and you should be good to go.

I believe in order to change the appature size, you tap F2 while it boots and somewhere in there there is an option to change appature size.

Hope that helps

 

goldfish, thanks for the reply.
i'll be looking into replacing the slot and RAM card here shortly.
is that something that requires a lot of work, or sould i just have it professionally serviced (i'm not too keen on hardwares)?

oh, and i checked the BIOS setup and there was no AGP option in there, just time/date, password, screen brightness etc. no AGP...
for the time being, is there another way to set that after windows boots up?

 

I don't think you're going to be able to replace the slot, as generally it is on the motherboard. You can't really replace the motherboard, unfortunately.

I have a Dell Inspiron 510m, so I'll have a look around in the BIOS and see what I can find. You might want to make sure you've got the most up to date bios by going to the Dell website, plug in your service tag (which you can see in the BIOS if the sticker is gone) and see what you can come up with.

 

I just found this regarding the ATI Mobility chipset:
http://www.myplc.com/sony/agp_aperture.htm

Looks like you can indeed modify the setting from Windows, but it isn't easy or safe. But by the sounds of it when you upgrade the BIOS it will automatically recalculate what the aperture needs to be.

So, I would give a new BIOS a go, even if it's the same version as before. Perhaps it will do those calculations when flashing!

 

I know that on some motherboards you need a stick of ram in a certain slot. If there's no ram there it won't work. If you put the bad stick in the slot then it won't work. So perhaps your slot is still good. You would have to check the docs for the laptop to see if it says anything about installing the ram.

 

@goldfish: thanks again for the suggestions. i flashed the BIOS (version A32) and re-ran the everst test. it still found the same problems.
the instructions in the link you dropped seemed pretty straight forward.
i was ready to have a go, only the site to download the tools (WPCREDIT, WPCRSET, KT133 Plugin for WPCREDIT) doesn't appear to be hosting them anymore.

@Dawnpatrol: you're probably (hopefully) right about that. the slots are labeled A and B. i can't remember off the top of my head which one seems to be corrupt, but when finances allow, i will try installing a new stick of RAM in just to be sure.

in the mean time, i'll try to hunt down those tools and start the whole underclocking process