memory error in ThinkPad T20

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mark Edgley
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Mark Edgley

Folks,

I'm putting a new disk and adding memory to a friend's Thinkpad T20.
I got a 40 Gb disk and two 256-Mb Viking chips (PC-100 compliant). If
I put in both chips, I frequently get a BSOD that appears to indicate
bad memory. However, if I put in one of these new chips and one of
the older (either a 64-Mb or a 128-Mb), then it works fine. It does
this with EITHER of the 256-Mb chips, in either slot. So I can't pin
this down to one or the other of the chips being bad.

Is there any kind of known problem with the T20 not being able to
handle more than 384 Mb of memory? Does anybody have any ideas?

Thanks!

Edge
 
Is there any kind of known problem with the T20 not being able to
handle more than 384 Mb of memory? Does anybody have any ideas?
Click to expand...

If you have the complete model number, it would make things easier. "T20"
encoumpasses a *lot* of different hardware. Though I think you should be
able to get away with 512K on any of 'em.

The model number should be a seven digit number with four numeric (the
model) and three alpha-numeric (the type). With this seven-digit number
you can search IBM's site too.
 
Folks,

I'm putting a new disk and adding memory to a friend's Thinkpad T20.
I got a 40 Gb disk and two 256-Mb Viking chips (PC-100 compliant). If
I put in both chips, I frequently get a BSOD that appears to indicate
bad memory. However, if I put in one of these new chips and one of
the older (either a 64-Mb or a 128-Mb), then it works fine. It does
this with EITHER of the 256-Mb chips, in either slot. So I can't pin
this down to one or the other of the chips being bad.
Click to expand...

You need to be *sure* it's a memory fault with a memory check - first try
running Prime95 (www.mersenne.org) Torture Test for 15mins or so. If that
passes, try memtest86 (www.memtest.org) for a couple of passes.
Is there any kind of known problem with the T20 not being able to
handle more than 384 Mb of memory? Does anybody have any ideas?
Click to expand...

Thinkpads have been known to be picky on memory. Are the SODIMMs you have
qualified for the system? It could be that two of them is just
problematic.
 
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