Compaq Presario V2000Z Memory Conspiracy!!

Hello all,
I just purchased the V2000 and I love it, howerver there is a problem. as you all most likely know, the laptop has DDR333 ram which runs at 166mhz (ddr is 2x the mhz). after doing some research, I noticed that the ram is only running at 133mhz using the utility cpuz.

I have confirmed this with HP, they state that the motherboard only runs the ram at 133 since the motherboard itself doesnt run faster than that. this sounds like a marketing gimick to me, advertising that the laptop has ddr333, which it does, but then running it at a slower speed.

There are no bios settings for memory, but there is a way that you can temporailily change it. there is a utility called a64tweaker which you can change lots of memory timing settings and such. in there you can change the mhz to 166 or whatever you want and it does work, howerver not for too long. I tried it playing battlefield2 and it works for about 20 minutes then reboots.

I have found that if you set the ram to 150 it seems to work fine. there are also some memory timings that can be changed, such as the T1 timing which makes a big difference.

By setting the ram to 150 and adjusting timings, you can get 25% more bandwith out of the ram which is good for the integrated video since its bandwidth starved.

for benchmarks, 3dMark 2001, scores went from 2700 to 3200 or so.
sandra mem bandwidth test went from 1500 mbps to 1975 mbps.

the only problem with this utility is that it forgets the settings when you put the laptop to sleep. there is a setting that you can have it apply the settings upon bootup in the a64tweaker but for some reason it doesnt work and it freezes the computer.

Thought you all would want to know this as it made me mad when I found it out since I thought I was buying a laptop that runs the ram at the speed its rated for.

 

I agree, and also very upset.

 

Well, that makes two of us...
Try running cpuz (google it) and see if under the memory tab it says 133

another thing i noticed was the wireless card seems to have horrible range.. I can barely get signal throught my house, where as before my old lappy worked with excellent signal. I played with some driver settings and it seemed to improve, if you call not dropping the signal all together an improvement. it seems to get worse the longer its on...

 

Can anyone confirm this is (or, hopefully, isn't) the case with the Compaq Presario M2000Z and Presario V2000Z?

 

run cpuz and click on the memory tab, it will tell you the current speed. http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php

 

Hehehe, I asked because I'm thinking of getting any of those, not because I have one. Actually, it was something I've been looking into since I saw your post on Anadtech (it was you, wasn't it?).

 

yap! I have issues with their forum, I cant post new topics for some reason so I moved here.

 

Well good luck then. Hope you can fix the problem.

This seems like a nice place; lots of helpfull people. I find amazing that in a few hours you have 12 posts. I have 8 in a week or two with this one, and for me it seems like a lot!

 

i ran cpuz on dv4000. it shows 166 Mhz.

 

The DV4000 is a Intel platform, its an entirely different motherboard

 

Hi, I have a v2000z with 512MB x 1. cpuZ shows that it is running at 160MHz. However, I did hear that it will run at 133MHz if 2 x 512MB are installed.

 

I just purchsed a v2000 myself with the 2x512MB and my speed fluctuates between 162.8 and 162.9.

 

Is that a Turion based V2000? What is your bios rev and are you sure that you have 2x 512?

 

leonardtan: See this thread. HP is shipping a fixed BIOS in their newer machines but hasn't posted the update to their support page yet. Anyhow, go ahead and buy one.

 

This hasnt been confirmed yet

 

Yep:


As for the Bios Rev, I'm not sure how to check that. Maybe you can guide me? Or I'll get back to you on that.

 

run cpuz and it tells you in there. google it

 

Ha, what a joke. see the transcript from their chat 'tech supprt'

Chat Transcript Begins Here
--------------------------------------------------------------
Hello Josh

hi

Welcome to HP Total Care for Presario Products.
My name is Phillip. How may I assist you today?

I need the latest bios for my V2312US

I currently have F.06

I know there is a newer version

I have a friend that has version F.0A, and has the same machine

Josh, as you would understand, F.06 is the latest BIOS Update available
for V2000 series computer.

I dont understand

It is a update over F.0A

its not

Please connect me to a leve 2 tech

the previous version is F.05

Josh, there is no level 2 in chat support. You can contact phone support
at 1-800-652-6672 for level 2 support.

previous version is F.05, correct?

Yes, however, that depends on the computer models. You can check the BIOS
version in your computer by performing these steps:

Click Start->Run

Type msinfo32

Press Enter.

its F.06, I knew that allready

now what??

Yes, the BIOS Update for a model/series is available if there is any issue
with the previous/current version.

I have an issue

As your computer is a new model and no issues are reported, there is no
update available from HP.

If I use 2 memory sticks, it runs at 133mhz

I see.

if I use one it runs at 166

any thoughts?

Are you using the pre installed memory sticks?

yes

if I take one out it runs at 166

I understand your computer is shipped with the 512MB DDR (2 x 256MB) at
333MHz memory modules.

yes. they are running at 266

This is an issue with the Windows. Windows XP is not detecting the correct
MHz. You can perform the Windows Update from this link:

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/

I guess im wasting my time, I know thats not the problem. I NEED A BIOS
UPDATE


--------------------------------------------------------------
Chat Transcript Ends Here

 

what a joke
I call them, talk to some indian guy who you can barely understand for like 10 mintues. after taking all my info and stuff, he says he will have to call me back in 2-3 hours since they are having a problem with some online database.... what a waste of time.

 

Mine came with 1 256MB module and i added another 256 MB. CPU-Z shows 161 MHz as the current speed

Mine did come with the F.0A BIOS. I was wondering if the flash utility allows you to take a backup of current bios. That way we could extract it from a newer machine.

 

ah ha, it does do a backup!
1st, download the OLD bios from this link:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...=500786&lang=en&cc=us&softwareitem=ob-32532-1

before you run it, go to C:\Documents and Settings\your username\Local Settings\Temp
and delete everything in there. thats where the bios will be saved

next, run the app, click next, accept, next
the phoenix flashing utility will open up
click flash bios (this doenst acually flash it, it will prompt 2x before it does)
next, a screen will appear with a bunch of suff on it, click ok (still doesnt flash)
next the screen will grey out for a few seconds, then it will start going through some line items, one of them is saving bios.

after it gets to saving bios, it will come up and prompt you with your current version and the one your trying to flash it to. say NO to this so it doesnt overwrite it.

after that say no and exit the flasher app.

go to the temp folder in the beginnig of the post and grab the bios.bak file.

I dunno if you can post it here, but if so do it. otherwise, e-mail it to me at [email protected] so I can try it and at least see if it works.

Thanks!!

 

Someone please try this ASAP!
I just got my 1gb stick and they only way it will work is if I put it in with another stick... hoping the bios upgrade fixes this issue also

 

I have a v2000z with version F.0A and it has two sticks of 512MB PC2700 (the Kingston RAM from Best Buy). It's currently running the RAM at 159.2MHz.

I did what you mentioned above and zipped the bios and tried to upload it, but it's 416.5 KB and the limit is 97.7 KB.

So, I posted it on my free web space that I get with earthlink.
Here's the link

Hope you guys appreciate the trouble I went to Let me know how it works!

Note that this is for the v2000z with an AMD proc (mine is a Turion). I don't know if this will work at all with the v2000 Intel proc.

 

(i cant figure out how to post pics correctly, so see the attached image)

Need I say more??
Dude you rule!!!!
The bios imaged worked like a charm!!
I have a Presario V2000, the exact model is V2312US, its a Turion
get this, my ram benchmarks went from 1.5GBps with the stock 2x256 @ 133 speeds to an amazing 2.5GBps with the one 1GB PC3200 soDimm from newegg!!!! wowwoowow
3Dmark01 went from 2700 to now 3726!!!
thats like almost 2X the memory bandwithd and 1/4 faster in 3dmark!

When I was getting the new 1GB stick I just decided to get the PC3200 stuff since it was the same price as the 2700 stuff. the motherboard reads the timings off the ram stick, so the motherboard does indeed work @ 200mhz. its also nice since now the ram and cpu are running syncronous instead of async, im sure that helps some.

The new bios doesnt add any new options to the bios settings area, no memory settings still. ram is still set to T2 timings, an extra 200mbps could be obtained just by this one setting change.

Overall im very impressed and thankfull of the bios extraction, thanks again!!!

 

Holy CRAP!
All I did now was enable T1 memory timings via A64tweaker:
ram in sandra is now almost 2.8GBPS
3Dmark01 is now 4218!!
I realy wish that they enabled T1 by default, it rules!
im guessing its helping more now because of the higher cas timings, 3.0 instead of 2.5

 

Oh, if anyones wondering how I actually flashed the bios with the new file:

do the same steps in the thread above to backup the bios
when you get to the point where the phoenix flash utility starts, go to the temp folder
in there will be a file called 3091F06.WPH , which is the F06 bios
download the new bios from this thread
rename the downloaded bios (after unzipping) to that file name (3091F06.WPH)
move the file to the temp folder, overwriting the old F06 with this new file which is really F.0A
go back to the phoenix utility and continue, at the last prompt before it flashes it should list the upgrade to bios ver as F.0A

Good luck!

(I think multiple rep points are in order here )

 

will the a64 settings hold on reboot ?
Also are you running two mem sticks?

 

How did you enable the T1 timings? I don't see that option in A64 Tweaker.

You get a rep point from me - cool find!

 

No, a64tweaker doesnt stick on reboot or suspend
I tried it with two sticks and it was reading 166, but now im using one 1gb stick. that stick didnt work at all btw with the old bios, the computer would even boot probably because it was trying to run at 200mhz and the bios didnt like that. all is well now though!

 

its on the right hand side of the page, says T2 Mode and its set to enable by default. change it to disable to turn T1 mode on. do a before and after sandra mem benchmark and see the difference!

 

I cant believe no one else is excited about this! has anyone else tried it yet?

 

hello every one,

i read everything in this forum about memory problem in v2000 and l2000. i bought my l2000 about 3 weeks ago. here my spec:
turion ml 37
hd samsung 60gb 5400 rpm
dvd/cd-rw
1x512 mb (micron)
bios version:F06

after i read everything about memory problem in these laptop, i was affraid to buy the new memory, i was planning to buy another 1 stick 512 mb. because i don't want my memory speed run at 133mhz after i add another 512 mb. BUT TODAY I CHANGE MY MIND. today my friend just got 1X 256 mb kingston memory.

here the spec: kingston pc 2700
part #: k
serial #: oeffff04
he bought this memory from zipzoomfly.com. i borrowed his kingston, and then i installed into my l2000, together with my micron memory. i checked by cpuz 1.30, both the memory speed were @ 160mhz with standby situation. and then i ran bencmark from pcwizard 2005, to give cpu load. i checked the memory speed ran @ 166.9 mhz. after finished, the memory speed back to 160mhz.

after all of thats, know i'm confusing :

- why my l2000 didn't get memory problem unlike other user with the same bios version?

- i didn't try yet to put memory which has speed @ 200mhz or pc3200.

-is my l2000 will support pc3200 memory, because i planning to buy this memory instead pc2700?

-should i upgrade my bios into F0A?

please help me ASAP, btw i'm sorry for the poor english, i still learning english right know.thanks

 

maybe because you have the l2000? I have the V2000, but they are basically all the same, im not sure why it would matter. if your running at 166 with two sticks installed then you are all set, otherwise flash it to F.0A

 

yeah they are same. but i was wondering if my l200 can ran memory speed @200mhz, i know turion has ability to run at that speed. how to get F.0A? and then how to flash it?

 

Looks like some people are getting confused with this bios flash. AlphaFox would you mind making a step by step deal for them???

Thanks for the info, worked like a charm!

 

hello

never mind about the how to flash bios F0A. I did last night. i saw couples changed after i flashed with F0A.:

- the bios reduce my memory speed from 166mhz to 159.5 mhz in the standby position (no cpu load)
- the bios reduce my fsb from 200mhz to 199.4mhz
- the bios reduce my turion speed from 800mhz to 799.7 mhz in the standby position

thats all changed i got. it means F0A reduce my l2000 speed. i was wondering if F06, my previous bios can handle pc3200, because i didn't get problem with 2 stick memory pc2700. let's se if F06 can handle pc3200, if can, i will reflash my bios in to F06.

 

I couldnt post with a 3200 stick before, as soon as I flashed it it began to work.

a few mhz in fsb isnt going to do much, im sure it ramps up to a faster speed when needed anyways. I never saw the ram run at exactly 166mhz with F.06, it ran at 159 I believe.

 

I would speculate that F.0A increased compatibility with more brands of RAM. The BIOS appears to be choosing more conservative RAM settings when it doesn't recognize the chips rather than risk instability. Crucial/Micron and Kingston are the two best brands out there (IMHO) so the F.06 BIOS already knew how to deal with them. Anyhow, nice to see that HP is taking RAM compatibility more seriously than they have in the past.

Ditto what Alphafox said.

 

Alphafox,

Thanks a lot... followed your instructions and got reflashed to the newest bios. Seems to be a little more stable; every once in a while, when running at 166 MHz with 2 512 MB So-DIMMS, my L2000 would start having display issues. Since the reflash, seems to have gotten rid of that.

Tried to crank up my Mem speed to 200MHz with PC2700 and that resulted in the blue screen of death. Stable on 166Mhz though. If PC3200 seems to work at 200MHz stably, maybe I'll swap in for 1 GB stick like you.

Victor

 

sounds good vic

I still have only one lowley rep point....

 

that 1GB stick of ram I got was Crucial and it didnt recognize it.. Im not sure what the bios changed, im just glad it works as advertised!

 

Yeah, and your rep point was from me - but I didn't need to flash the memory. I provided the bios and also got only one rep point - probably from Alphafox Oh well, hopefully the bios update is useful to people.

 

yep, that was me!
It was usefull to me, thanks again!

 

Has anyone tried running DDR400 instead of DDR333? (The SO-DIMMs I ordered still hasn't arrived yet) I'll post results when I do.

EDIT: nvm, I saw Alphafox's screenshot, btw, is that stable at 200 with windows Memtest

 

I havent run memtest but have had no stability issues in windows, benchmark apps or games.

 

I'm using 2x512MB DDR400, and I'm running into stability issue with windows memtest.

I'll flash the bios and try again.

EDIT: New BIOS didn't help, btw, Alphafox, is 200Mhz at 1T timings btw?

 

im not sure your question, but I am running at 200mhz + T1, yes. I havnt run memtest, I find it more frustrating to run that thing since the computer can be fine and memtest can find a problem. I have yet to have a blue screen or app crash. perhaps you have a bad stick? I have only one 1GB stick and you have 2x512, maybe the motherboard doesnt like that. try it with only one 512 and see if you get better results. if you do, then try the other stick, perhaps one is going bad.

 

hmm...I did that, and memory still runs at 133mhz.

I am using an L2000 with 2 GB.

Odd. any thoughts?

 

that quote was telling you how to enable T1 mode, which doesnt change the mhz. to change the mhz you need the new bios, or you can use a64tweaker to do it temporarily

 

I figured it was a mobo problem since individual stick worked fine.

I've contacted OCZ about the problem, they're sending me a PC3200 1GB stick as a replacement for the 2x512MB at no extra charge. (Their customer service rocks!)

But I'm worried about OCZ's low latency 1GB stick (CL2.5 vs 3), that might put extra stress on the CPU itself. I'll give it a try and see how it goes.

As for memtest, on the desktop side, I've find that while all the appz and games are running fine and windows not BSOD-ing. Overtime, there's a tendency for Windows to corrupt itself due to main memory. (Had that happened with my Crucial Ballistix before, sticks went bad after 2-3 months, didn't notice it, everything was fine. Then out of nowhere, my downloads are getting corrupted, and other window files start getting corrupted)

So now on the safe side, every overclock I do on my desktop is always bundled through my standard memtest86, prime95, windows memtest before I consider it stable. And time to time to loop windows memtest 2-3 loops to make sure they're ok.