vaio fe11s ram upgrade problem

Hi, I have a Sony Vaio FE11S and I decided to upgrade the ram
I read in a site that I can Upgrade to 4 GB ( www.memory-up.com) so I bought 2 dimms of 2GB but.... I have two problems.
1) In Bios Counts 3072 gb
2) When the logon of winxp ends before display the fast user selection screen it stops.
Have anyone any idea why is this happening???
Thanks in advance.
Joche

 

You sure it supports 4GB....Anyway you need a 64-bit OS to recognize the full 4GB ram....
And from what I see, your notebook can only support a max of 2GB DDR2-667 ram....You can reinstall the old memory, upgrade the BIOS and then try the new memory modules again....
See if you face this problem with one 2GB module installed....
Try different combinations with your new and old memory, to find out the max stable amount of ram your notebook accepts..!!

 

I have read this http://www.memory-up.com/memory_finders/memorySelector.aspx?modelid=3406

 

That test must be based upon the chipset....since i945PM can support upto 4GB, your motherboard's expansion capabilities maybe locked through a jumper or the BIOS....and you can't contradict the info in the notebook's documentation..!!
So try out one 2GB module and see if it works well....

 

The BIOS should report all 4GB even if 32-bit Windows can only use ~3GB. The Intel 945 chipset can handle 2 x 2GB modules.

Do I understand that XP is not completing its start-up process?

John

 

It must be a hardware limitation, since the specs on Sony's site also indicate 2GB max....

 

Intel 945PM can support up to 4gb RAM physically

But its a 32bit chipset (hence no c2d cpu support) so you can only see 3gb RAM

 

Exactly it stops on switch from win xp log on to fast user select window.
hard disk is still working but nothing happening.

 

It is a 32-bit chipset, but what does it have to do with C2D and 3GB ram..?!

 

32bit limitation of addressing space

Did you think that it only applied for Windows?

To have more address space, you need:
-64bit Chipset
-64bit CPU
-64bit OS

 

That means it does not support C2Ds and 4GB ram..?!

 

We are getting side-tracked here. The problem here is that the FE11S does not want to support 2 x 2GB modules although the Intel 945PM can support 2 x 2GB modules.

I therefore wonder if Sony put a 3GB limit in the FE11S BIOS, which would explain why the BIOS reports 3072MB. However, when the OS loads it doesn't know which 3GB to use out of the 4GB available and comes to a stop. 2GB modules were still an unaffordable dream when most of the notebooks using the 945 chipset were designed so the development teams didn't actually test their BIOS and hardware with 2GB modules. Most manufacturers only claimed that up to 2GB of RAM would work.

Question to the OP: Did you find any user reports that 2 x 2GB actually works? Crucial is offering 2 x 1GB as the maximum upgrade for the FE series. What does the Crucial scanner advise.

You could try 2GB + 1GB. The BIOS should report 3072MB and perhaps Windows will load properly.

John

 

Uhmm sorry, didn't wanted to hijack the thread..!! I was upgrading my old notebook to an i945PM mobo because I wanted to use 4GB ram and a C2D on it, and always heard and read in the datasheet that it supported both..

And trying 2+1GB is a good idea else stick to 1+1GB....I think it is more of a BIOS issue..!!

 

I'm experiencing the same problem. I've tried with a 2GB bank plus the original 512 ram bank and Win finally starts, but it can recognize more than 2 gigs.

I've already put the /3GB "tag" in boot.ini. Anyone has any idea?

 

What's a T5600? Isn't that a C2D?

Or T7600, isn't that also a C2D?

I can run a 64bit OS without a problem. That shouldn't be possible if we should listen to you, but what do you know.. ?


It's definately a BIOS-issue here. I have the same series of notebook from sony. But i don't have any problem booting up with 2x2GB. Though BIOS will only report 3GB as the BIOS limitation is 3GB. the 945PM chipset can support up to 4GB, that doesn't mean it will support 4GB. Though it's clearly that sony has put a limit of 3GB in the BIOS.