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RAM size limits

DimensionDude

Experienced Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2005
Messages
363
Location
Arkansas, USA
Now this is really odd. The stated RAM limit on my K7S5A is 1GB. However, it had been long enough that I had forgotten and added an additional 1GB for a total of 2GB. BIOS sees it, Windows sees it and uses it, works great.

WTF?

Kent
 
I used to have an HP that had a "limit" of 1GB, but the manual for the mobo listed 2GB max. Indeed, Windows and BIOS saw all the 1.5GB I added to it. I think that like most holidays, it is just corporations trying to fool you in to buying way more than you need to(a whole new comptuer, for example) when in reality, you can spend a lot less an get the same thing.

Anyone else who knows what they are talking about want to take a crack at this?

--Ryan
 
Kent, did you ever upgrade the BIOS? It could have been a limitation in an earlier version, or that at the time of manufacture there didn't exist compatible memory modules larger than you could obtain 1 GB.
 
Kent, did you ever upgrade the BIOS? It could have been a limitation in an earlier version, or that at the time of manufacture there didn't exist compatible memory modules larger than you could obtain 1 GB.


The board I'm currently using is an all original version 1, no BIOS upgrade. However, you may be onto something about the size of available memory modules at the time of manufacture.

On a related note, I have some other boards that really do have limits. It seems that 64MB is a popular cutoff point.

Kent
 
i usually find that even mobo manuals tend to be wrong about what they can accept. i think that yes it usually just has to do with what was available at the time and/or the most they tested it with.

for example, here's one that still astounds me. i have an olllllld pentium 1 motherboard with a copyright date of 1997 on the PCB. i used it as an IRC server running debian for a while. it has two PC100 SDRAM slots on it, the manual states a maximum of 256 MB with two 128 MB chips.

i had two 512 MB PC133 sticks sitting around so i put them on it, and it of course only runs as PC100 but it reads the full 1024 MB! any OS i put on it works fine and sees all the memory.

that's probably the most memory a 166 mhz pentium has ever seen. :D
 
Wow, a Socket 7 motherboard that takes several SDRAM modules. Well, I have seen them before but I had forgotten about their existance. I have an old 200MMX that takes 72-pin SIMM + one SDRAM EDO module in combinations such as one bank of SIMM must be present for SDRAM to work, but both banks may not be populated. I used to run it with 16+16+32 = 64M, but it strikes me that I may never have tried a 64M SDRAM.

But yes, 1 GB may be a record.
 
Like Yzzerdd said

The "limit" is usually put there so if you want to upgrade, you have to buy a new mobo or a new computer. Just a way to get you to buy a new computer.
And what Mike said about him having 1 gig ram in a p1, usually they can handle that large, its just at the time of manufacture, nobody have ever heard of more than a 128mb stick.


That said, i wonder if my ECS RS482-M754 can handle more than the stated 2GB (currently maxed out,) I'll have to try that sometimes.
 
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