kintamanate Posted August 26, 2001 Share Posted August 26, 2001 I've got this laptop here, IBM 380XD, 2 sticks of 32MB. As I know from the specs, says that 96MB RAM is the max allowed. Why only that? Why a max at all? I would like to add another stick of 128 MB at least in there (since I'm running Windows 2000 on it). I've hit the search engines and it all says more ram is "better" (I know its not neccesarily true..there are other things-yadda yadda). What would happen, if anything, if I added more RAM than the MOBO specifies? Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/975-more-ram-than-mobo-allows/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
mortensen Posted August 26, 2001 Share Posted August 26, 2001 They have a limit for a reason. You go into the future and bring back 3 8gig DIMMS [the chances of DIMMs being used is slim, but who cares], and then plug them in. Now you may be lucky if the mobo runs the RAM chips at all [it sounds like you have a REALLY old mobo, so a 128RAM stick might not even work], but if it WERE to run then the mobo just wouldn't know how to handle that much RAM. I don't know the exact side affects, but I think the problem will be that the mobo doesn't know how to handle that much, and it will either not boot or have major trouble using ANY of the RAM. I'm no expert on the way mobo's handle RAM but you best bet is a new mobo... I know they are expensive, and you'll need to get a new CPU, but if you want it to run well it's best to do this... if not then there's nothing to stop you using it AS IT or upgrading to the max amount of RAM supported. NE1 more knowledgeable in this area? -mortensenj Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/975-more-ram-than-mobo-allows/#findComment-3908 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lectos Posted August 26, 2001 Share Posted August 26, 2001 The limit is due to the mobo chipset (or bios) not being able to address that amount of RAM or not supporting that size of sticks. Most newer mobo support 356 MB, 768 MB, or 1536 MB. If you add more than the mobo specs then it will either max out at the maximum ram that it can address. So if you added 128 it might only register 96. It might also make the system unbootable and beeping like crazy until the excess ram is removed. Which is what mortensen stated. That mobo probably only supports 64 and 32 mb RAM sticks anyway. It's a design limitation. It probably will not hurt anything by attempting to add an amount over the limit. It just won't work. Win2k is fairly cramped at anything less than 256 MB. I would say max it out at 96 MB and you should be fine. However, that is a tad slow CPU for Win2k in that laptop. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/975-more-ram-than-mobo-allows/#findComment-3918 Share on other sites More sharing options...
kintamanate Posted August 27, 2001 Author Share Posted August 27, 2001 Thanks for the replies. You guys probably saved me lots of time and frustration. :D Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/975-more-ram-than-mobo-allows/#findComment-3925 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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