Upgrading memory on Pavillion A7181 past 3.2Gigs ?

[Orpheus Bacchus]

Processor & Speed Intel® Pentium® 4(P)515 Processor - 2.93GHz/LGA775
Chipset Intel® 915GV
Motherboard Grouper-GL8E (PTGD1-LA)
RAM 256/3200 MB 400 DDR SDRAM
Maximum 3 GB
Sockets Four 184-pin DDR DIMMs
Size 128, 256, 512 AND 1024 MB DDR DIMMs
Free DIMM Sockets Three
Pairs Required No
Type Supported JEDEC unbuffered DDR SDRAM DIMM specification

I am wondering why I can't push the memory beyond 3200Megs. by putting 4 1 gig
simms in the 4 slots. In other words why is one slot reserved for a 256meg simm
?

thanks for any information or advice !

OB

[Ben Myers]

Might be a chipset limitation. Check the Intel web site for the 915GV data
sheet or detailed spec. It'll tell you for sure... Ben Myers

On Wed, 21 Sep 2005 02:29:50 GMT, "Orpheus Bacchus" <obac@mysteriummagnum.eye>
wrote:
Processor & Speed Intel® Pentium® 4(P)515 Processor - 2.93GHz/LGA775Chipset Intel® 915GVMotherboard Grouper-GL8E (PTGD1-LA)RAM 256/3200 MB 400 DDR SDRAMMaximum 3 GBSockets Four 184-pin DDR DIMMsSize 128, 256, 512 AND 1024 MB DDR DIMMsFree DIMM Sockets ThreePairs Required NoType Supported JEDEC unbuffered DDR SDRAM DIMM specificationI am wondering why I can't push the memory beyond 3200Megs. by putting 4 1 gigsimms in the 4 slots. In other words why is one slot reserved for a 256meg simm?thanks for any information or advice !OB

[Orpheus Bacchus]

ben_myers_spam_me_not @ charter.net (Ben Myers) wrote:
Might be a chipset limitation. Check the Intel web site for the 915GV data sheet or detailed spec. It'll tell you for sure... Ben Myers

Thanks, Ben, the chipset spec :

http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/915gv/

Says it supports 4 gigs, 4 sata ports, 8 usb 2.0 : what I wonder is if the
motherboard actually implements support for all that chipset functionality.

I'm going to get a flashlight and start studying the motherboard :)

OB

[Orpheus Bacchus]

Found the motherboard specs via an interesting website :

http://www.elhvb.com/mboards/OEM/HP/

which appears to have information for many of the proprietary motherboards made
for HP by companies like ASUS.

The specific motherboard in my A7181 is :

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&docname=c00196251&locale=en_US

This states HP approved for 4 gigs. But the fact that HP is using a proprietary
BIOS gives me pause : is it possible the BIOS is hard-coded to always expect a
256MB simm in the slot its in ? Maybe BIOS would not recognize 4 gigs ?

Has anyone replaced the CPU on a motherboard like this with a faster clocked PIV
?

thanks, OB

[Ben Myers]

Given that the 915-series chipsets support 4GB, the only practical way to answer
the memory questions about the A7181 motherboard is to try installing more
memory. It makes no sense whatsoever to limit the first DDR2 slot to 256MB.
The 915 chipsets, like their predecessor 865/875 chipsets, run the memory bus
faster when the memory configuration is balanced with identical capacity in each
stick of memory.

It would be stupid of HP to limit the first memory slot to 256MB, but HP has
done stupid things before... Ben Myers

On Wed, 21 Sep 2005 08:26:36 GMT, "Orpheus Bacchus" <obac@mysteriummagnum.eye>
wrote:
Found the motherboard specs via an interesting website :http://www.elhvb.com/mboards/OEM/HP/which appears to have information for many of the proprietary motherboards madefor HP by companies like ASUS.The specific motherboard in my A7181 is :http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&docname=c00196251&locale=en_USThis states HP approved for 4 gigs. But the fact that HP is using a proprietaryBIOS gives me pause : is it possible the BIOS is hard-coded to always expect a256MB simm in the slot its in ? Maybe BIOS would not recognize 4 gigs ?Has anyone replaced the CPU on a motherboard like this with a faster clocked PIV?thanks, OB