Dell Optiplex GXi Memory issue

[Starbase]

I got a 166Mzh Dell Optiplex GXi for nothing but it will only see 15 Mb of
ram. I have three sticks of EDO ram 16/32/128 and have tried them all
single/multiple in different slots, Bios only reports 640K base 14336K
extended and Win 95 reports 15 Mb. I have flashed the Bios to the latest
version from A04 to A06.

Any suggestions would be appreciated

Regards

The Borg

 

[Bubba]

Starbase's log on stardate 16 ožu 2004

I got a 166Mzh Dell Optiplex GXi for nothing but it will only see 15
Mb of ram. I have three sticks of EDO ram 16/32/128 and have tried
them all single/multiple in different slots, Bios only reports 640K
base 14336K extended and Win 95 reports 15 Mb.

Strange. Board supports 512 MB of RAM. However, largest size DIMM must be
installed in Bank 0 with decreasing sizes in Banks 1 - 3. There is one
more thing i had in mined ... IIRC, that board has embded S3 video card.
Perhaps it takes some memeory? Why don't you check in BIOS about that.

 

[Starbase]

Starbase's log on stardate 16 ozu 2004


Strange. Board supports 512 MB of RAM. However, largest size DIMM must be
installed in Bank 0 with decreasing sizes in Banks 1 - 3. There is one
more thing i had in mined ... IIRC, that board has embded S3 video card.
Perhaps it takes some memeory? Why don't you check in BIOS about that.

Thanks Bubba,

Yes, I got the speck on the board and have seen the RAM bank confugurations,
I thought maybe someone had encountered a similar problem with this board
before and could help, otherwise I am stumped. From the history it was
running Win98 then started going very very slow, (not surprised when it
could only access 15 Mb of RAM) so I got a 128 Mb stick off E-Bay thinking
it was one of the two memory sticks onboard when I got it. Anyway I have
since loaded W95 and can still use the machine for its intended use, it will
no doubt remain a mystery

Regards

Starbase

 

[Starbase]

Starbase's log on stardate 16 ozu 2004


Strange. Board supports 512 MB of RAM. However, largest size DIMM must be
installed in Bank 0 with decreasing sizes in Banks 1 - 3. There is one
more thing i had in mined ... IIRC, that board has embded S3 video card.
Perhaps it takes some memeory? Why don't you check in BIOS about that.

Solved,

There is a setting in the BIOS called "Reserved Memory" setting it to none
solved the problem

The vid has 2Mb (of its own I think)

Thanks