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Revenge of the RAM question

OmnutiaOmnutia
edited November 2007 in Everything Else
My aunt gave me here old computer which is running windows 98 and had 64mb of ram and a 2gb hard drive. I tried some PC133 ram (2x256mb) from another computer and it wouldn't get past the bios screen so I ordered some PC100 RAM of the same size and it still won't get past the bios screen. It gets stuck just before the ram check.
My question is, can the motherboard restrict the maximum amount of ram that can be used in old PCs (this thing is 8-10 years old but runs really well.) and if so how can I determine the maximum amount of RAM each slot can take?
Additionally is there anything I can do, i.e. to the jumpers, to get the 256mb sticks working?

I'm working on getting CPUZ to work so I'll post up the motherboard model in a while.

Comments

  • AprecheApreche
    You need the manual for the motherboard. Odds are that an old computer that only had 64MB of RAM will not be able to handle any decent amount.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    CPUZ was only able to tell me that the CPU is a Cyrix 6x86mx which was released in 1996 so its doing pretty well for a 11 year old system.
    Well as its stands now there is 64mb in one slot and the other one is free so I could just put another 64 in there and bring it up to 128 total or do you think I can get away with 128?
    I'm going to poke around inside. See if I can find anything written on the motherboard.
  • ThaedThaed
    Oh wow, what an antique. I used to love building Cyrix based computers. If you can find the mobo manual online, that will help immensely. Putting money into this box is really not a good idea because you can build a new machine for so little cash nowadays. Play with it until you get bored and then move on. You might be able to get a flavor of Linux to run on it and use it for a firewall or something or just keep 98 on it and use it as a browser. You can probably use the case, floppy drive and maybe the CD ROM for a future build. With its ancient bios and terrible slowness, it's not going to be good for much besides novelty. That being said, one of the greatest joys in life to me is playing with computer hardware, so enjoy and please post if you do manage to do something useful with it.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    edited November 2007
    The motherboard is a HSing Tech M571 (manuals and drivers at the link). I'm going to try and get a working linux box out of it but I think the CPU is a stonking 200mhz. Might get one of the PCs school's giving away and fit that up for her instead.
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • ......
    Eh, small Linux flavours... DSL, Slax . . . I know no more. Good luck.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    edited November 2007
    As it's for my aunt I'm sticking with Xubuntu. I'm having to create the swap partition ahead of time so the installer can load it's files. Theres another good one called Puppy Linux but Xubuntu is the easiest to use.
    Post edited by Omnutia on
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