PC2700 SODIMM Slowing My System down

MoreSpeed

Junior Member
Apr 15, 2003
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I'm new to this forum but I guess it works the same way as any of the other forums I frequent. Here is my problem/situation: My Toshiba Laptop originally came installed with a 256MB PC2100 SoDIMM, wanting to get more memory I decided to buy Two sticks of 256MB PC2700 SoDIMMs to bring it up to 512. However, after doing so the performance of my PC on 3 different benchmarks shows that my PC is 75% slower than with PC2100 mem in. What is going on here? I would suppose that the faster memory would make the system faster, somewhat like our desktops. I believe the chipset is an Intel 845MZ. I've checked the BIOS of the laptop only to find nothing. The system recognizes the new SoDIMMs as PC1600, which is probably the reason for the slow down. SHould I be concerned about what the benchmarks are telling me? :confused:
 

Lord Evermore

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
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Don't make any assumptions about how these forums work. You might be rewarded by being kicked off.

Well, if they're running at PC1600 speeds, then yes, it'll be a lot slower. The P4 REALLY needs memory bandwidth, and cutting down to 200MHz memory from the existing 266MHz is enough to cause severe performance drops, despite the increase in the amount of memory.

First make sure you really got PC2700 modules. Then check the BIOS of the laptop and see if you can manually set the memory speed. The 845MZ chipset does not support PC2700 memory; the BIOS should automatically fall back to PC2100 speeds when you use PC2700 modules, but perhaps the laptop maker didn't set it up that way, or the BIOS simply falls back to the lowest speeds possible when it doesn't recognize the module type.

What type of laptop is it?
 

Dulanic

Diamond Member
Oct 27, 2000
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Check their website for a new BIOS or call the Notebook manufacturer, sometimes theyll have a new BIOS for it thats not on the website if they know it should fix your problem. If it's detecting it as PC1600 thats most likely the problem.
 

MoreSpeed

Junior Member
Apr 15, 2003
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Thanks for the quick responses. The laptop that I have is a Toshiba 1415-S173. The specs are: Celeron 1.8Ghz, 30GB HDD, 15"XGA, etc.. The last I checked the website my bios was updated. I checked the memory via the stickers on the SoDIMMs to the Kingston website, they are labeled as PC2700. I'll check the Toshiba site again and see if there is anything else new.
 

Lord Evermore

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
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There is no BIOS update that will make PC2700 run at PC2700 speeds. The 845MZ chipset simply does not support it, and you can bet that Toshiba didn't build in "overclocking" features to let you do it. You may need to contact Toshiba to find out if the system will simply not work using memory with a SPD programmed for PC2700.
 

Lord Evermore

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
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Odd, the specs for that model say that it comes with PC1600, which would be right for a Celeron due to the 400MHz frontside bus. But it most likely did have PC2100 given the performance drop, and the specs also list the PC2100 part number for Kingston. Unfortunately Toshiba's manuals don't give any information about the BIOS options.
 

zephyrprime

Diamond Member
Feb 18, 2001
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Unfortunately Toshiba's manuals don't give any information about the BIOS options.
Maybe there aren't any. Or not many more than it takes to configure the date and IDE drives. Lots of retail computers don't have any ram settings at all.
 

Lord Evermore

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
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Yeah, but their User Guide and specs don't mention anything at all about the BIOS, even basic stuff. I guess it sort of makes sense, they just set it to autodetect devices, and you can set the clock from within Windows, and they've got specific settings for everything else that they don't let you change.