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Do Gateway Computers use propriatary memmory?

T

Toro 45

Diamond Member
I tried to add 64megs pc100 ram to a friends Gateway PII 266,it would'nt load Windows & rebooted & then shut down,when I added it.It has 32 megs(most likely pc66) in bank 0,I put the 64 in bank1.

I've never had a problem mixing pc 100 & pc 66 before. The logical thing to do is to remove the 32 from bank 0 & put the 64 in there by itself,but he's kinda the paranoid type who knows nothing about computers & got worried when it did'nt boot properly.It has 3 ram slots normally I would have started swapping slots but started to wonder if Gateway was using some type of propriatary ram. Compaq is the only one who I've seen using "special" ram & I have still installed standard ram in those without trouble.

Possible that memory setting inthe bios that needs to be changed? The boot screen still showed 32 when I added it but when I removed it said that the memory size had been reduced hit f1 to continue, then all was fine.

Toro🙂
 
They don't use proprietary memory.

Try putting the larger stick in the first bank. Some BIOSes will only work that way. If he's computer-illiterate (and you aren't 🙂) just do it without his knowing, make something up while you're moving parts around.

Another problem I have run into, but only on Pentium-class machines, is that the new RAM chips are too high density. Like if the stick is 32MB and has just 2 or 4 RAM chips on it then it won't work, but a stick with 8 or 16 chips will. But that shouldn't be a problem on a PII I wouldn't think.

Also, maybe the new stick is bad?
 
You might want to check into a BIOS update as well. Some older BIOS's on the LX chipsets had memory incompatability problems.

I had to upgrade a Dell for somebody, and it wouldn't take some 16 meg sticks until I updated the BIOS.

Hit gateways support pages and see if there is a BIOS update.
 
Second the BIOS upgrade. I've never seen a Gateway, but I hear most of them use Intel boards, AL440LX Atlanta in your case. The one I've seen was VERY picky about memory (and HD too), but a BIOS upgrade cured both problems.

-PJ
 
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