HP Pavilion ze4210 Doesn't recognize all of RAM Upgrade

philb1 · 06-18-2008, 03:08 PM

I just installed 512MB to my laptop. I originally had 256MB. It will only recognizes 512MB and of course should be reading about 756MB minus the 64MB for video. (actually 768MB minus 64MB)

I tried two sticks of 512MB and it still only reads 512MB. I understand it should be able to handle up to 1GB.

what is my problem. I have swapped sockets and many various combinations with the RAM chips but it will never see more than 512MB.
I have even sent back 512MB chips thinking they were bad and had new ones sent again. still doesnt recognize all the RAM installed.

Help

New Comer,
Philb1

superdog · 06-18-2008, 05:33 PM

You may need a bios upgrade. I wouldn't upgrade my bios unless I absolutely had to and knew it would solve the problem though.

philb1 · 06-19-2008, 06:43 AM

Where do I find a BIOS upgrade?

philb1 · 06-19-2008, 06:49 AM

I should mention of course that i am useing WinXP.

farslayer · 06-19-2008, 07:22 AM

it could very well be that that system will not support that much memory..

sometimes lshw will be able to identify how much RAM a system will support, if lshw is not on your system you should be able to add it through your package manager.

Code:

it-etch:~# lshw -C memory
  *-firmware              
       description: BIOS
       vendor: Dell Inc.
       physical id: 0
       version: 1.1.2 (12/04/2006)
       size: 64KiB
       capacity: 448KiB
       capabilities: pci pnp apm upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect edd int13floppytoshiba
 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer acpi usb ls120boot biosbootspecification
 netboot
  *-cache:0
       description: L1 cache
       physical id: 700
       size: 16KiB
       capacity: 16KiB
       capabilities: internal write-back data
  *-cache:1
       description: L2 cache
       physical id: 701
       size: 2MiB
       capacity: 2MiB
       capabilities: internal varies unified
  *-memory
       description: System Memory
       physical id: 1000
       slot: System board or motherboard
       size: 1GiB
       capacity: 2GiB
     *-bank:0
          description: DIMM DDR Synchronous 533 MHz (1.9 ns)
          product: KHU006-QIA
          vendor: 7F98000000000000
          physical id: 0
          serial: A03XXXXX
          slot: DIMM_1
          size: 1GiB
          width: 64 bits
          clock: 533MHz (1.9ns)
     *-bank:1
          description: DIMM DDR Synchronous 533 MHz (1.9 ns) [empty]
          vendor: FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
          physical id: 1
          serial: FFFFFFFF
          slot: DIMM_3
          width: 64 bits
          clock: 533MHz (1.9ns)
it-etch:~#

If you look at the output, this system is telling me it will support at most 2GB of RAM, and I currently have 1 GB installed. There is no BIOS upgrade available for this system to push that to 4GB..

If you don't have Linux installed on that machine, you could try this from a Knoppix LIVE CD. Windows doesn't have any way to provide this information that I have ever found.

Hmm the Specs for that laptop say you can get 1GB installed on that Laptop.. maybe you purchased the wrong type of memory module ? Registered vs. unregistered, or something like that..

I was hoping Kingston would provide a bit more detqail on teh memory specs..

Have you tried booting it with JUST one of the 512MB modules installed ? See if only one is good or worst case you have a BAD memory socket on the motherboard.. I've had brand new notebooks with bad memory sockets

BIOS upgrade for ze4210 !! PLEASE VERIFY THIS IS THE CORRECT BIOS BEFORE FLASHING YOUR LAPTOP BIOS !!

alan_ri · 06-19-2008, 07:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by philb1

Where do I find a BIOS upgrade?

On your BIOS manufacturer web site,if there is a linux package and if it is be very careful with upgrade because you may end up with broken system.
Suggestion,512MB of RAM + swap on Linux is more then enough for almost anything,so keep it that way and you'll be fine.