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    Sentia m3450 Ram/Bios question

    Discussion in 'Alienware' started by Biscuit2k, Aug 9, 2009.

  1. Biscuit2k

    Biscuit2k Newbie

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    Hi all, just signed up on here as I cannot find any answers to my questions on the web, I hope you can help.

    I have had my laptop for 2 years now and decided i would get 4gb of ram for it as win 7 is coming out soon. Since then I have installed the 64bit win7 RC as the OS. In windows the ram is picked up as "4.00GB installed (2.99GB useable)". The laptop is using 224mb for video graphics (intel 950gma) so I should have more than 2.99gb useable. Despite windows picking up 4gb installed... on the post screen it only shows 3gb.

    I have the bios r1.00.04al currently, so i thought i might need a bios update as it says on the intel website the chipset on the laptop (intel i945gm) supports upto 4gb of ram. I logged into my "my hive" account on the alienware website and the only bios available is r1.00.02al. I called alienware and they said this is the newest bios, they then could not answer why i had a newer bios installed already! They also did not know if the lapotp supports 4gb of ram or 3gb.

    I have looked all over the web and cannot find any new bios's or info on max ram for the laptop. Looking at PC wizard 2009 the mainboard is Clevo M5x0N yet there is nothing about this on the Clevo website...

    Does anyone know if there is a solution to this or am i just out of luck?

    Also, while im posting the question, is there a way of disabling sppedstep on the sentia m3450 as this is not an option in my bios either and the laptop drops the speed of my cpu when its getting hot. Thanks for any help :)
     
    Biscuit2k, Aug 9, 2009
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  2. Kdawgca

    Kdawgca rotaredoM repudrepuS RBN

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    'Support' is a tricky word. To some it means totally usable, to other its means able to boot. Since you have a 945 chipset, you will not be able to fully use 4gb of physical memory(how much less depends on hardware components).

    See the below link for what is needed to see/use 4GB(notice you need a chipset that can address 8gb of address space):
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us
    (it applies to Wind7/XP)

    As for the speedstep, have you tried finding ways to cool down your laptop(like undervolting, cooling pad, or thermal paste-see cooling central)?
     
    Kdawgca, Aug 9, 2009
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