Memory and XP

[spitoon]

Hi all,

I am currently running 320MB of memory, consisting of a stick of 256MB and a stick of 64MB. I purchased a second 256MB stick, removed the 64MB (there are only 2 slots), and inserted the new stick. BIOS reports the full 512MB, but when I try to start WinXP Pro, the computer restarts.

I have a dual boot set up and I can start Win98 fine, and the 512MB seems to be functioning normally within Win98. I put the 320MB back in and booted to XP, then I tried adjusting \MAXMEM= in msconfig, but it wont allow me to move it over 320MB when I have 320MB in the machine.

This just came to me: should I try setting \MAXMEM= to 256MB shutting down, inserting the 512MB and restarting (if it will), then moving \MAXMEM up to 512MB. Or am I missing something here?????


Any advice to offer???

 

[spitoon]

Tried that last idea there, didn't work. I was able to set maxmem to 256, then put in 512MB. WindowsXP still wont start, just keeps re-starting.

 

[stealth_blade]

take out your old 256 chip, and drop in your new one, see if you can boot, the chip may simply be dead, if that boots fine, move the chip over into the second slot and try to boot, you could have a dead ram slot

if both appear to be fine it may be that you have different brands of ram chip and they dont play nice together, or your mobo may have a limit to the amount of ram it can detect

try all that, see what happens, it could also be that the timings for your ram work for the old chip but are too aggressive for the new one, but thatd be the last thing id check

"Going to war without France is like going hunting without an accordion."
- Gen. (Ret) Norman Schwartzkopf

 

[spitoon]

They both work fine alone, and they both work fine with the old 64MB chip I had, so that rules out a bad slot. As I said the BIOS reports the full 512MB, and Windows 98 also runs fine and sees the full 512MB, so I don't see it as a hardware problem, the chips must work and the board must support it for it to work in Win98...I just can't figure out why I can't boot XP

 

[Stain]

I don't see it as a hardware problem

Maybe you should try your question in the WinXP forum if you haven't already.