Need some help to understand how RAM works

[Black Panther]

I built up this old pc from stuff I had lying around.

-Soltek SL-62C motherboard which already had a 333Mhz Celeron.
-Nvidia Vanta 16MB Graphics.
-Aztech 2320 sound card
-Some 200W PSU
-One stick of some 512MB of RAM (unknown brand).

The problem I have is that I keep getting only 128MB of RAM recognised.

At first I thought that it was because I had installed Win98, so I replaced the 6GB HDD with a 40GB one and installed XP. However I still get 128MB of RAM (even upon POST before windows loads).

Is this limitation from the motherboard? It has 3 RAM slots and okay I'm not looking to install some 3GB of RAM but anything like 512MB would do me fine.

There's someone in my same country who has
1 stick 128Mb, and
2 sticks 256Mb, of PC133 SD-RAM to sell.
I could get them for 20 Euros, but how can I know if this pc will persist in recognising only 128MB?

 

[dark2099]

Either for some reason you are mistaking the ram (no offense) or the stick is bad or the slot is bad, have you tried the same stick in every slot possible?

 

[Darknova]

It is possible that on a motherboard that old that it's a limitation.

However, not remembering that far back I don't know. I guess the only other option is to find a 128mb and 256mb stick, try them and see.

If you can't see more than 128Mb then it's a board limitation, if you can, well dodgy RAM.

 

[Cybrnook2002]

It is possible that on a motherboard that old that it's a limitation.

However, not remembering that far back I don't know. I guess the only other option is to find a 128mb and 256mb stick, try them and see.

If you can't see more than 128Mb then it's a board limitation, if you can, well dodgy RAM.

I found this http://www.motherboard.cz/mb/soltek/SL-62C.htm your rams slots do have limitations, It says 256 MB max, so its 128 MB per slot. Dont forget the thanx

 

[lemonadesoda]

The Intel 440BX was a revolution in its day. It allowed up to 1GB RAM on SDRAM or EDO memory. It was pretty fast... and in fact, better than its direct successors, the 810, 820 and 815 chipsets. The advantage of the 815 was greater flexibility on the FSB/AGP divider. But the 815 was limited to 512MB.

To have a system with more RAM, it was necessary to buy server chipsets.

The 440BX was expensive when launched. The 440ZX was a direct copy of the BX but designed as the "economy" version with 2 address lines missing. That resulted in max address space of 256MB.

The ZX was usually found in laptops. I'm surprised a ZX can be found on a desktop... just goes to show there was a market for budget mainboards even back in 1998.

The BX and ZX mainboards could be *hacked* to be compatible with Tualatin CPUs.

 

[Black Panther]

I found this http://www.motherboard.cz/mb/soltek/SL-62C.htm your rams slots do have limitations, It says 256 MB max, so its 128 MB per slot. Dont forget the thanx

Thanks given

Supports 8MB to 256MB (maximum) DRAM Size

Doesn't that mean that each slot can take a 256MB stick?

2 x 168-pin 3.3v DIMM Sockets

Does that mean my RAM is getting 3.3V delivered to it?