Dumby modules

[Guest]

I just got under the hood of a fairly new HP Pavilion and of the 4 (DDR I suppose cause its not DIMM) memory slots, 2 of them had 64mb modules and the others had dummy modules or terminators.

Are these dummies or terminators?
Are they required?
And do they need to be paired with real module?

I need to add memory and its a WinMe system so 512Mb is the max?? any other considerations?

 

[Toejam31]

Yeah, they are called C-RIMM's, or Continuity RIMM modules. RDRAM modules must be installed in pairs, and the otherwise empty slots must be filled with the C-RIMM's. If you fill up the other two slots with memory, you won't need the C-RIMMS's anymore.

While the actual amount of memory that WinME can address is 2GB, 512MB is the "real" working limit. And due to the inherent weaknesses with Win9x memory management, anything beyond that limit will not provide enough enhancement to the performance of the system to be worth the money spent on the extra RAM. It has been proven that at anything past 128MB, the performance increase with larger amounts of memory actually decreases exponentially. It can also slow down the system, and produce out of memory errors, such as is addressed in this article:

<A HREF="http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q253/9/12.asp" target="_new">http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q253/9/12.asp</A>

The only real solution is to upgrade the operating system to Win2K or WinXP. Memory management is much improved in a true 32-bit operating system, and these two OS's can support up to 4GB of RAM without errors.

As a rule-of-thumb, my opinion is that 256MB is the best price/performance amount for Win9x. There's just not enough of a gain in system performance to increase the memory to 512MB. But if you have multimedia programs that can take advantage of the memory, then it might be worth the investment. But in that same vein, the better investment would be major upgrade to the operating system before adding the extra memory. Then you could have better stability, as well as true enhanced performance to the system when adding memory.

Note: Your computer is proprietary ... be certain that you purchase the correct modules for your mainboard when adding RAM. You may need to contact HP to obtain the necessary information. This also applies to an operating system upgrade, if you wish to have an OEM system recovery disk.

Toejam31

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[Crashman]

You most likely have a Pentium III with RDRAM. You shouldn't worry about memory over 256MB, unless your running Photchop (full version) or something. But you can upgrade to a maximum of 512MB in your OS. If your's is a P4, you need to upgrade in matched pairs, the PIII can do single modules. IF you ever want to upgrade the motherboard, most HP's use standard ATX or Micro ATX power supplies and cases.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?