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    How to unlock the bios?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by wanderer82, Jan 19, 2009.

  1. wanderer82

    wanderer82 Notebook Guru

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    Hi All,
    I need some help. I have an XPS M170, and it has a BIOS lock that only allows 2gb of memory. I want to put in 4gb (2gb x 2). Called Dell, they said not supported... so that pushes me here =) Anyone unlock their BIOS before to allow more than 2gb of ram?
    Thanks!
     
    wanderer82, Jan 19, 2009
    #1
  2. Evolution

    Evolution Vox Sola

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    Your chipset(mainboard) can only use a maximum 2Gb of ram therefore there is nothing you can do to get it to recognize more than that sorry...
     
    Evolution, Jan 19, 2009
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  3. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    The chipset, processor, motherboard, and BIOS all have to support 4GB of RAM for it to work. My guess is the motherboard and chipset do not support more than 2GB, so modifying the BIOS is not going to solve it.
     
    Greg, Jan 19, 2009
    #3
  4. wanderer82

    wanderer82 Notebook Guru

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    Thanks for the info Evolution and Greg!
     
    wanderer82, Jan 19, 2009
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  5. nizzy1115

    nizzy1115 Notebook Prophet

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    I dunno, after searching google i think it might just work if you put it in. Sometimes they say the max ram supported when they made it is the largest capacity sticks at that time. There might not have been 2gb sticks yet so they said the most it could hold is 2gb (2x1gb sticks).
     
    nizzy1115, Jan 19, 2009
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  6. minibob

    minibob Notebook Consultant

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    I have done this with an inspiron 6400. I was at a computer store and bought a 2gb ram stick thinking I would just slap it into my laptop (I currently had 1 gb on 2 512 sticks). I got home, removed one of the 512 sticks and replaced it with the 2gb one. When I rebooted the computer I got a message telling me that the ram had changed but the computer still booted up.

    I checked in my properties and saw that windows was seeing 2.5 gb of ram (so, both the 512 and 2gb sticks!!!)

    I later found out that that model laptop can only use 2 gb total and a maximum of 1 gb per slot. I had broken both those rules and still the laptop and windows functioned properly.

    While I can't guarantee that this works all of the time, it worked for my laptop. My advice is, if you can, give it a try. Worst thing that can happen is a BSD.
     
    minibob, Jan 20, 2009
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  7. wodstock

    wodstock Notebook Evangelist

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    maybe so but the extra ram was just seen, and was not actually utilized.
     
    wodstock, Jan 21, 2009
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