Bios and memory

[Chamorga]

I have an HP/Compaq NX9600 Laptop with system board 8082, phoenix bios F.34.
The specs say it has a max memory of 2 Gig but I was playing around one day and stuck a 2Gig chip in it, suddenly I had 2.5 Gigs available (the other was a 1 Gig).
Hoping for more I stuck in another 2 Gig chip and the motherboard still showed 2.5 Gigs (actually listed at 2560 K) in BIOS. When I boot up to Windows 7 (32 bit or 64 bit) Windows knows the machine has 4 Gigs but says 2.5 Gigs usable.
I was wondering if any machines had a compatible BIOS that I could use to flash mine with and make the other 1.5 Gigs available.
The NX9600 has an ATI X600 mobility radeon with 128 Megs RAM on board, so I don't think the BIOS is reserving 1.5 Gigs for video shadowing.
P4 3.6 Ghz processor, 17" 1680 X 1050 resolution.
I tried a couple of the Ramdisk programs hoping they could use the extra RAM but it seems that the motherboard just will not allow it.
Thanks.

 

[_JP_]

Welcome to TPU!

Well, I can say I'm surprised you got to see the extra 512MB that shouldn't be there. But I don't think there is anything out there that can help you have more RAM. The limit is either set by the chipset (Most likely) or the BIOS.
BIOS tampering with a OEM maker like HP is not recommended, unless you are a serious BIOS modder and know exactly what you are doing.
At the time the laptop was manufactured, such amounts of RAM were uncommon, so by default they used a chipset that supported a maximum of 2GB, give or take a few megas.
I've also got an HP that has a limit set for 4GB DDR2 and although there are 4GB DIMMs out there, I doubt that if I crammed two in there the chipset would manage such amount of RAM. At the time the laptop was bought, average RAM amounts on 1k priced laptops were of 2GB, so there was no need for a RAM controller that could handle 8GB.

 

[Chamorga]

About what I thought

Thank you for the welcome. It looks like a great forum.
I was hoping if it was the BIOS then a BIOS from another similar machine might work, if it's the chipset, well. It looks like it might be hopeless but at least I do have 2.5 Gigs and it's running at max speed on the RAM (they are both PC6400). Windows 7 rating 5.2.
While I'm wishing; any way to speed up the Mobility x600

 

[_JP_]

After some thought, I'd point to the chipset. My board (in system specs), for instances, was limited to 2GB by the BIOS, then I got a modded BIOS that allowed me to have more RAM, but it's limited to 3.2GB and this is the chipset limitation. Although I have 2x2GB, even if I installed a 64-bit OS (and I did), it would still show 3.2GB available (recognizing 4092K in system spec), because that's how much the memory controller on the chipset can handle. Note that this was on a Desktop motherboard, there are lots of modded BIOS out there for desktop mobos. For laptops it's harder to find anything that can be modified, hence being very hard to find a laptop with a modded BIOS.
As for the X600, you could always spend some time reading this thread. Just make sure you pay serious attention to the warnings.
Have fun!

 

[Chamorga]

Nice, using the ATI tool right now

Got my core to 435 and memory to 360 at the moment, going to see how it runs.
Will try out the cpu tools also.
Thanks again.

 

[_JP_]

Watch out for those temperatures!
Get a temperature reading software like Real Temp or HWmonitor to check on them constantly.
All this is necessary so you don't get a brun/melted laptop. Laptops have simple and inferior cooling systems, compared to desktops, so it's harder for it to pull all the heat out.
And if that wasn't enough, Pentium 4 laptops heat a lot. It's best not to OC them. If you had a Pentium M, I'd say try it at least, but with P4s and Athlon XP-Ms it's very risky. The thing is Pentium M processors were optimized Pentium 3s for laptops, running fast but using low power, which translated in low TDP. The Pentium 4s (and Pentium 4 Ms), on the other hand, were direct copies of their desktop counterparts, requiring more power and having a bigger TDP. The bigger the TDP, the more heat it (needs to) dissipate.
Those darn processors already run so hot, it's best to stay put. The GPUs may not heat so much, but keeping an eye on their temps isn't a bad idea either.

 

[Chamorga]

Heat

Yeah, i was a bit worried about the heat issue, especially after seeing all the posts on the DV8000 series. It seems heat was a real killer for the video cards or screens. I'm thinking about a cooler pad and maybe stuff like removing the battery and DVD drive while pushing the video card. I may play with the processor but I don't think I'll get serious on it, it already plays the only game I use a lot (LOTRO), and with a small boost to the video it would only be noticible in high traffic areas or massive battles.
If I need real video I'll grab my desktop back from the kids!
Overall not bad for a $220 laptop, $95 for the laptop, $80 for 300g H.D. and $40 for RAM!
17" screen, 1680X1050 display.
Thanks for the tips.

 

[cadaveca]

.
I tried a couple of the Ramdisk programs hoping they could use the extra RAM but it seems that the motherboard just will not allow it.
Thanks.

You need to enable "memory remapping", an option in the bios. Of course, it might not be there for you to change.

 

[95Viper]

Did you try this RAMdisk: DataRAM Nice, simple, and it works.

 

[Chamorga]

No option in BIOS for remapping

RAMDISK and a couple of other programs I tried could not access the RAM either. Seems to be a chipset limitation. I've been looking at buying a better laptop but it's almost impossible to find a 17" or 17.3" screen that does more than 1600X900 resolution nowdays. Even some 18.4" will only do 1680X945. Maybe this could be another forum topic, best resolution laptop screens.