I have a compaq presario 5202 that came with Windows 98 and 320mb ram. I've upgraded it to XP and was wondering if it was possible to stick in at least 1 gig dimm stick. I heard xp supports up to 4 gigs of ram.

That would be a negative, while XP can support more RAM your 5202 cannot. It wil only support a maximum of 384Mb of RAM. (this being PC-100)

http://www.pcmemorystore.com/Compa [...] 02-ram.htm

Is this your desktop?

If yes, then according to mem specs, it can only support up to 384mb. The XP (32bit) itself can support up to 4GB (around 3GB actual). But it has to be supported by the mobo. Looks like to me that your mobo doesn't support more than 384mb. Check again your manuals, if you still have one.

Also I found this site with useful information regarding your products as well:
http://www.edgetechcorp.com/memory [...] ?cid=19698

Yes, Xp supports up to four GB, but your next problem is the actual physical capability of your laptop to hold another stick... It has 3 slots, but that still doesn't mean it can manage as much as you can put in there.

From what I've seen, "You can upgrade your Compaq Presario 5202 to up to a maximum of 384 MB Memory." So, it sounds like the chipset or motherboard itself won't support more than that, even if you shove in a GB stick... If I'm not mistaken, that is a 350MHz K6, so I really don't think a whole 'nother GB would do you a whole lotta good. After all, that proc will have a bit of a time running XP... I would recommend lowering all settings to a minimum in windows...

My hunch is that your motherboard won't recognize that much ram, regardless of your operating system. I'm not that well versed in computers of that age, but I'd still say that it won't run anymore than basically what you have and it wouldn't really be worth it if it could. I don't think a GB would make a difference over 512 in your case, or maybe even 384... If it could even run it