Question about Compaq RAM

Hi, I got the Compaq Presario R3000T that was on sale during the 2-day Office Depot sale. Yeah, it has igp but I won't be playing games on it...it's for school and programming only. I upgraded it to a 3.0GHz P4.

My questions are mostly about the RAM in the system.

1) Does this platform support dual channel memory?
2) Does this platform support 400MHz RAM (PC3200)?
3) When I go to sites like crucial.com or kingston.com, they recommend only very specific sticks of RAM that happen to be more expensive than other stuff I can find. Am I really limited to only a single type of RAM from each manufacturer or will any SODIMM at the right speed work?

Thanks in advance!

Oh, and a question for DaGreek (with a very similar system): Have you noticed if enabling/disabling hyperthreading makes any difference in your battery life?

 

1. This Motherboard (RS300 ATI) says it supports dual channel memory, for Christmas I'm getting another 512MB so I will have dual channel or at least can tell you then if it works.
2. The bios is suppose to support PC3200 I am using PC 2700 that came with my system and my future upgrade will be PC 2700 to make the dual channel work.
3. Both these sites ram will work and well for a long time. If you go with other companies you run the risk of getting bad or unsupported ram. With Bios updates most companies ram should work though.

The question about disabling HT on this system, Our bios allows no way I know of to disable the HT I would expect on the most minor increase in battery life, not work the time I think. I get 2.5-3 hours battery life with normal use.

Compaq R3000T (CTO)
P4 Desktop 3.0GHz w/HT
1 X 512MB RAM
Radeon 9600 128MB
60GB 5,400 RPM HD
AquaMark3: 24,257, 3DMark03: 3,115

 

Definately let me know how that dual channel works out for you after the holidays.

I'm gonna look around for a 512MB PC3200 chip for myself soon. Do you know why no site lists any PC3200 RAM as compatible with our notebooks? I've checked Crucial, Corsair, Kingston, Kingmax, and even a couple of other websites, but they all suggest only PC2700 ram for my system. I am wondering if it has to do with compatibility issues with the igp...maybe it can only use specific RAM.

Has anyone successfully (or otherwise) used any PC3200 RAM in a similar notebook with the ATI 9100 igp?

 

well i installed the new ram last night, it works fine no problems. My only problem is I don't have a way to test if im getting dual channel out of it, if you can think of anything let me know.

Compaq R3000T (CTO)
P4 Desktop 3.0GHz w/HT
2 X 1024MB RAM
Radeon 9600 128MB
60GB 7,200RPM HD
AquaMark3: 24,257, 3DMark03: 3,115

 

If you don't already have it, download and install sisoft sandra 2005 (the free version). It has a great set of diagnostics/benchmarks/burn-in programs.

Run the "mainboard information" module. It should return tons of info about your motherboard and the chipsets on it. You will be most interested in the data under the "Logical/Chipset 1 Memory Banks" heading. It will list the banks where you have memory installed, and a few values down you will hopefully see "Channels: 2" (as opposed to "Channels: 1"). This means you are running dual channel.

Then you can run the memory bandwidth test and compare your results to what would be expected with various other memory setups.

Out of curiosity...what brand of memory are your chips? I'm gonna buy a 512MB chip today (or tomorrow) from Newegg. I'll go with either the Kingmax or the Corsair (pc3200). I've always loved corsair in my destops, but I have been hearing better things about the Kingmax for our particular notebooks.

 

I have the factory installed 512 and a 512 from crucial. As far as I can tell its not running dual channel I believe its not implemented in the BIOS and we have to access to it anyway.

Compaq R3000T (CTO)
P4 Desktop 3.0GHz w/HT
2 X 1024MB RAM
Radeon 9600 128MB
60GB 7,200RPM HD
AquaMark3: 24,257, 3DMark03: 3,115

 

I decided to spend the extra $10 for 512MB of Crucial PC3200 RAM.

Out of curiosity, have you tried your Crucial 512MB by itself? My notebook won't even post unless I put the stock RAM in along with the new Crucial stuff. I can get as far as BIOS, and BIOS even displays the correct amount of RAM, but unless I put the stock stuff back in, all I get is a blank screen instead of Windows loading. It doesn't matter which slot I put them in, Crucial won't run without the Infineon. It runs just fine with both sticks of RAM installed. (ALL benchmarks I've tried are slower with the new stick added than they were before).

Could the BIOS in my notebook just not recognize the faster PC3200 RAM? The timing on that RAM is 3-3-3-8. Could it have to do with my crappy ATI integrated graphics requiring specific RAM speeds? Anyone have any ideas?

 

I havent tried with just the crucal memory in. I also have seen my benchmarks go down but very slightly less then 100 points. Its odd that they all did go down some though with extra ram. I have seen better game play though with my extra ram and hard drive installed though, so I think you can't only go by the benchmarks. Your having to sticks of ram now the same speed might be causeing your system trouble even though it shouldn't. Yours with both in should still run at PC2700 speed. I've read others post that when they have 2 sticks of PC3200 in it works correctly but I really don't understand why somethings work while others dont. I also don't understand HP's limited BIOS and not implementing dual channel memory.

Compaq R3000T (CTO)
P4 Desktop 3.0GHz w/HT
2 X 1024MB RAM
Radeon 9600 128MB
60GB 7,200RPM HD
AquaMark3: 24,257, 3DMark03: 3,115

 

I talked with technical support and they said my notebook supports PC2700 RAM only (or slower), not PC3200. That does explain why I need the slower stuff in the system in order for it to work. This sucks. I would have just bought slower cheaper RAM if I knew. Oh, well. Maybe I can use it in another system.

 

I would think crucial will give you no trouble to exchange that ram. Its probably good you paid the extra for there ram because I believe they will exchange for the PC2700 you need. I know it's not helping with benchmarks but I believe it has helped my games run smoother.

Compaq R3000T (CTO)
P4 Desktop 3.0GHz w/HT
2 X 1024MB RAM
Radeon 9600 128MB
60GB 7,200RPM HD
AquaMark3: 24,257, 3DMark03: 3,115

 

I think I'll just put the PC3200 RAM in my Girlfiend's R3000Z. That one supposedly supports PC2700 no problem.

*SHOCK* I just found out that my computer has THREE slots for RAM. I'll post pictures after Christmas when I get home (my camera is at home). Under the keyboard, where there is supposedly only one slot for memory in the R3000T, there are actually 2 slots. Tonight I am gonna try to run both SODIMMS in the slots under the keyboard. It would be really interesting if my memory is actually expandable to 3 GB (although I can't think of a reason to actually do this).

I really need to do more research about my particular motherboard.

 

My R3000T has an ATI RS300 Motherboard I think its also called IGP 9100. I really doubt it has 3 ram slots, I don't know of one other notebook that has 3 slots. You might be seeing a slot for something else to connect to maybe a floppy drive?

Compaq R3000T (CTO)
P4 Desktop 3.0GHz w/HT
2 X 1024MB RAM
Radeon 9600 128MB
60GB 7,200RPM HD
AquaMark3: 24,257, 3DMark03: 3,115

 

Yes, I didn't look too closely at the slot before I posted. It is definately not a ram slot. It's probably a slot for the wireless card (mine didn't come with one) or something similar (it has clips like the ram slot to hold something down).

If it is for the wireless card, is there any way to buy a card that will plug in there (or somewhere else inside my system)? I don't like my PC card because I have to remove it in order to fit my notebook into its bag.

 

From what I know you can install a wireless card but only the HP factory one. Mabye you can order if from them to install. There is either a motherboard or BIOS lockout that won't let any other type of wireless card be installed.

Compaq R3000T (CTO)
P4 Desktop 3.0GHz w/HT
2 X 1024MB RAM
Radeon 9600 128MB
60GB 7,200RPM HD
AquaMark3: 24,257, 3DMark03: 3,115

 

Hey guys..
Stupid question, but I just bought a Compaq Presario R3000 with 512 MB of ram.. and I took it apart tonight, and I only see one memory slot. The documentation that comes with the notebook says that there should be two.. am I missing something? Again, sorry in advance for the stupid question.. Thanks!!
Jason

 

no you are fine, not a bad question at all. On this model on the bottom when you open the memory compartment there is only one slot for ram. The other slot that currently has your 512MB of ram installed is on the other side of the board under the keyboard. The slot you can reach from the bottom is the one designed to be user accessable. I hope this clears things up for you.

Compaq R3000T (CTO)
P4 Desktop 3.0GHz w/HT
2 X 1024MB RAM
Radeon 9600 128MB
60GB 7,200RPM HD
AquaMark3: 24,257, 3DMark03: 3,115

 

Thanks for the reply! However, the slot on the bottom (the one designed to be user accessible), already has my 512 MB. So, I kinda figured the other one would be under the keyboard... another stupid question.. how do you take the keyboard off of this model? (I'd rather ask the stupid questions before I attempt myself, to save a disaster) ;-) Thanks for your help!
Jason

 

Not a stupid question, just bad design by Compaq. It is not that easy to get to the top RAM. The HP/Compaq service manual describes how to do it. I haven't tried it myself, but if you do please describe your experience. Here's the link to ther service manual. See section 5.9.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00212209.pdf

 

IF they installed the 512 for you then it "should" be on the side under the keyboard, it is very odd that the factory installed ram is in the user slot. Have you checked to see if they installed 1024MB by mistake by checking in your system properties? If you just got the computer I'd complain, even though its not that tough to remove the keyboard to install the new ram it could give them reason to not cover you for anything warrently related whether you break anything or not.

Compaq R3000T (CTO)
P4 Desktop 3.0GHz w/HT
2 X 1024MB RAM
Radeon 9600 128MB
60GB 7,200RPM HD
AquaMark3: 24,257, 3DMark03: 3,115

 

Hey guys I have a question about my Compaq R3000T (CTO). Right now I have only 512mb PC2700 of ram total and i want to upgrade up to 1Gb. So i want to know that can i install PC3200 or i have to install PC2700? Thanks