On 18 Mar 99, at 21:43, Paul A. Shippert wrote:

> I hope someone will correct me if I am wrong, but it was(is) my
> understanding that the VX chipset is limited to caching only the
> first 64 MB of RAM, and that installing more will actually provoke a
> performance hit.  How well does your machine run if you simply put in
> the 2 32MB SIMMS?

  The only measurements of the performance hit I remember seeing were
for boards using the TX chipset (not VX, but same limitation).  On some
boards, it was only 2-3%; on others, it could be as high as 15%.  I
never saw any explanation for this disparity.
  Going beyond 64MB might be of limited usefulness, but this doesn't
explain his other problems....

> Another avenue to investigate, should the above not be the problem,
> is are the SIMMS all of the same type, and will the motherboard
> accommodate unequal amounts of RAM in the two banks.  (I tried to
> configure a Supermicro superTX chipset m'board with a P233 MMX with
> 96 MB of RAM.  It would have none of it, and I'm reasonably
> certain--after several exchanges of the 2 32 MB SIMMS I
> purchased--that the memory types were the same.  I tried 2 32's in
> bank 0 with 2 16's in bank 1 and the reverse.  Neither was stable.  I
> went back to just 64 MB and the machine has been stable.  I suspect I
> will have to add another 64 MB in order to increase my RAM and retain
> a stable machine.)

  4 MB, 16 MB and 64 MB SIMMs should work in all motherboards.  8 MB
and 32 MB SIMMs are "double density", "double sided" or "double banked"
(or similar terminology), and not all motherboards support this.

  If he can put in just the two 32 MB SIMMs and have them consistently
recognized as 64 MB, that may be the best this board can be relied on
for with the RAM he has.


David G

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