archived post from SillyDog701 Message Centre

[LesW]

Hi Tidus
I have read your help to others on the A440 with interest. I have been using one for several years now without a single hitch. (Hope I haven't spoken too soon). I still have the original cds that came with it, manual (drivers etc), instalation and extras disks. I am runng XP Professional and Office 2003 and now find that 256mb of ram is not really enough especially if I am creating .avi files. CPU is a Pentium III 900. I have tried a PC100 256mb 144 pin sodimm and it runs but the current BIOS (Phoenix 1.OE-5713-6221), will only recognise it as 128mb. Is there a Phoenix or FIC BIOS upgrade that will allow me to run 512mb ram (2 x 256)?
I have a stand alone that I put together myself - (a pentium 2.8 that happily runs overclocked at 3.1), but the noteBook is realy useful as I still do some database creation for my old employers.
Sorry it is long-winded, but this is my first contact on this forum.
LesW

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[Tidus]

Hello Les,

This is really a tricky topic! Flashing the BIOS on an A440 is not an easy job, in fact, it is a royal pain in the butt, because the flashing utility you have to use doesn't work! If you create a DOS boot disk, and copy the flash utility, checksum register file, and the ROM file, then boot from it, it complains that HIMEM.SYS is loaded, and it doesn't want it to be. It is virtually impossible to boot into DOS without HIMEM.SYS. Even if you leave HIMEM.SYS out, it still complains.

I've covered this topic before, and am still working on a solution. As for your RAM, you can use PC133 in the A440, and the current BIOS should detect 512MB, my sister in law's A440 has the stock BIOS still on and she is running on 512MB. Mine does, and i have 256MB PC133.

By the way, i can't believe you still have the original CD's! I lost mine years ago! What extras were there? I can't remember!

Give me a couple of days, and i'll sort this out for you!

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[LesW]

Thanks
The old Cds include the full ME restore pack (including floppy) and an extras CD with 18 programmes and driver sets from Adobe Acrobat Reader (v4) to WinDVD.
PC World are selling PC100 256mb 144 pin sodimms at roughly the same price as EBay.
As the fsb of my A440 is 100MHz. is it not better to use these rather than PC133s?.
My main concern with the BIOS is that the 256mb sodimm, on its own, is only recognised as 128mb.
If I fill both slots, 1 x 256 and 1 x 128 the post screen displays 256mb and so does the windows hardware manager.
Regards
LesW

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[Tidus]

It sounds like one of your memory slots is faulty. Does the 256MB stick work in the other slot too?

256 in one slot and 128 in the other is an allowed memory bus combination at PC100, so there is no reason why it won't work, i've used this combi myself, and it worked fine!

Try switching them around, and tell me the results.

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[LesW]

Same problem when swapped.
Both memory slots OK and correctly identify 64mb and 128mb sodimms with any combination of them.
I suspect the compatability of the 256mb sodimm. Is there a required spec for the A440 ie No. of chips etc?

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[Tidus]

My laptop (A440) currently has 256MB (2x128), and the memory has shown up fine since i fitted it. I've successfully fitted 2x256 sticks into the A440's little sister, the A360, so there really is no reason for it not to work the way you want it to.

I'll double check my service manual, and get back to you.

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[erez]

hello pepole
burn the bios image with MagicIso (write floppy disk image...)
and everything work fine (no problem with the HIMEM.SYS)
i d with my a440 and everthing works just fine....


מה יצא חומוס....

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[LesW]

Thanks
I'll look at that.

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