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90059
April 25th, 2014 07:00
[Vostro 200] Max RAM limit?
According to specs, my old Vostro 200 box (with intel G33 motherboard) can only support 4GB of RAM max. Is this a hardware limitation or a software limitation that could be addressed with a new BIOS version for example?
Another words, is there something that can be done to allow me to install more than 4GB RAM in this machine?
Thanks,
Pete
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30yearexpert
459 Posts
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April 25th, 2014 11:00
Right, but 2GB DDR2 sticks do exist. Are you saying my chipset would not recognize them?
[/quote]
Right, chipset is maxed out at 4GB, if you need more then a motherboard that has a higher RAM chipset is needed.
Pete7874
20 Posts
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April 25th, 2014 08:00
Thanks. I did see that page, but it does not answer my question. The page says 4GB RAM is max regardless of which Windows version is used. My question was: why? Is it because this motherboard can only recognize 1GB memory sticks, and there are only 4 slots? Or is BIOS or something else the limiting factor and I could potentially install 2GB sticks in each slot?
FYI, according to Intel, the G33 chipset can support up to 8GB:
http://ark.intel.com/products/31914/Intel-82G33-Graphics-and-Memory-Controller
30yearexpert
459 Posts
0
April 25th, 2014 08:00
HI,
This is your machine's RAM:
SOFTWARE LIMITATIONS:
Pete7874
20 Posts
0
April 25th, 2014 09:00
Right, but 2GB DDR2 sticks do exist. Are you saying my chipset would not recognize them?
speedstep
9 Legend
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47K Posts
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April 25th, 2014 09:00
No. Its DDR2 and the chipset. You will notice that DDR3 is an option for the chipset but there are no DDR3 sockets on the motherboard.
Memory Type: DDR2 PC2-6400, DDR2 PC2-5300, DDR2 (non-ECC)
Maximum Memory: 4GB
Slots: 4
Although the memory can be installed one module at a time, the best performance comes from using matched pairs of modules.
How much memory your Windows OS will recognize depends on which version of Windows you are running. 32-bit versions of Windows will see (and utilize) only 3GB or 3.5GB. To utilize more memory, install a 64-bit version of your OS. More information about OS memory maximums can be found here.