How can I find out what RAM I have.....

kduncan5

Golden Member
Apr 22, 2000
1,794
0
0
.....without removing the case? FPM? EDO? 72-pin? Tin or Gold? Parity or Non-Parity? RAM speed? I know I have 2-64mb SIMM's installed now. I have 2 slots open. PCPitstop tells me I can add 2 more 64mb SIMM's without removing the existing SIMM's, giving me a total of 256mb of RAM. that's fine with me, but I want to match two 64mb SIMM's to the ones I have now to lessen the risk of incompatibility. Is there a freeware program out there that will give me this information?

BTW, I posted this here, instead of Technical Support because I figured I'd have a better chance of getting a quicker answer.....

Thanks in advance, -kd5-
 

JotaJ

Member
Dec 2, 2001
75
0
0
If you go to Crucial.com and enter your motherboard's model, they will give you the right type of ram
 

Novgrod

Golden Member
Mar 3, 2001
1,142
0
0
You'll have best luck in the general hardware forum with this'un.

You can download such programs as madonion's 3dmark (for some reason I haven't found my good 'ol Sandra shareware in convenient downloadable form recently) and it'll tell you what sort of ram you have.

What sort of a motherboard do you have? CPU?
 

kduncan5

Golden Member
Apr 22, 2000
1,794
0
0
I have a Gateway 2000 (G6-200), Intel Pentium Pro, 200mhz., System board is Intel VS440FX, Chipset is Intel 82441FX. Crucial can't help me, my brother replaced the original SIMM's (2-32mb SIMM's) a couple of years ago and all Crucial can tell me is what was originally installed. I know for a fact my brother won't remember the details so asking him is pointless.

Thanks, -kd5-
 

Novgrod

Golden Member
Mar 3, 2001
1,142
0
0
If you know the original type, then you can certainly know what you'd need to replace what you have currently :) Just get the same type, since what replaced it will be that type too. Right?

Just a word of warning: legacy RAM can get a little pricey. No chance you could get a new system entirely?
 

kduncan5

Golden Member
Apr 22, 2000
1,794
0
0
All I know is that I have 2-64mb SIMM's. But I'm finding out that matching them is a little trickier than I originally thought. Like, for instance, mixing tin with gold can cause oxidation which will shorten life expectancies..... Mixing parity w/ non-parity can cause incompatibility issues.

I only want to do this once, and I want it to work right the first time, if at all possible. The more information I can get beforehand, the better. -kd5-
 

Novgrod

Golden Member
Mar 3, 2001
1,142
0
0
thanks for the link.

Hope all goes well with your memory help, but my expertise (though it's only expertise compared to knowledge outside this narrow limit, not really expertise proper) is limited to pc100 and beyond
 

AnthraX101

Senior member
Oct 7, 2001
771
0
0
The easy way to tell parity/non-parity is crack open the case...if it has 9 or 5 chips on the stick, its parity. 4 or 8 chips mean non-parity. It's SIMM so it is almost definatly NOT ecc. You can check for parity settings in your bios somewhere. The only real way to tell if it's tin or gold is open it up. Gold = yellow, tin = grey. And its just on the contact tips.

Armani
 

d33pt

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2001
5,654
1
81
i really doubt you have parity ram in there...as for mixing gold and tin..it's really no big deal.. by the time there's oxidation, you wouldnt care about that computer anyway.. hell.. i am wondering why you wanna upgrade that thing anyway...
 

kduncan5

Golden Member
Apr 22, 2000
1,794
0
0
I know I'll have to remove the case in order to install the RAM, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to remove the case to find out what I have because in order to find out what I have I'd have to physically remove one of the existing SIMM's to find out, and I was hoping I wouldn't have to do that:eek: That's the basic reason I asked about a freeware program that could provide that information.

PCPitstop tells me that I have ECC | SIMMs..... (what is ECC?:eek:) -kd5-


BTW, I'd love to get a new system, but that's out of the question.....financial considerations.
 

Tates

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Jun 25, 2000
9,079
10
81
You might give ctSPD a try. It's a great program, tells you all you want to know about your ram.

This site is in German, so if you need it, here's bablefish.