Video RAM now says 256mb on T43 X300 w/ BIOS 1.25 / ECP 1.05

[hoya]

After updating to the latest BIOS 1.25 and Embedded Controller Program 1.05, the Advanced Display Properties on my T43 now says "256 MB" (should be 64mb). the System Memory still shows 1.5GB so it's not 'borrowing' any memory, not that this is even possible on this system.

has anyone else seen this issue?

[CoolDragon]

Have you checked your system memory? Has that been changed? It should be that the extra video memory comes from the main memory. My guess is the preparation for Vista?

[hoya]

Have you checked your system memory? Has that been changed?

the System Memory still shows 1.5GB so it's not 'borrowing' any memory. AFAIK don't think that would even be possible on this system.

[christopher_wolf]

I don't think that is a prep for Vista; video cards with dedicated memory can use system memory, but I really doubt that a driver update would re-allocate system memory and then report it as on-board dedicated video memory. I have the latest BIOS and I get 64MB as indicated video memory.

[DIGITALgimpus]

I have this too.

System memory is the same, but ATI reports 256MB.

My bet is it's just a software glitch in reporting.

In EVEREST (Home Edition) it reports 256MB under Display->Windows Video->Video Adapter Properties.

BUT

Under Display->GPU it reports 64MB.

Go figure.

[Hanson]

Same here - reports 256mb video memory.

[hoya]

I tried reinstalling the video drivers to no avail. performance and stability seems fine so I'm not going to worry about it.

I did,however, notice the following "fix" in BIOS 1.25:

(Fix) ATI Display property does not show a correct memory type.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-60131

[taishan]

Reports still 64MB VRAM. Trying to update the video driver from 6.14.10.6497 to more recent version from IBM web site.

Some reports say that video driver version 6.2x will report 128MB VRAM instead of 256MB.

I will post my report of the VRAM change after updating the driver.

[own6volvos]

ATi mobility cards have a semi-shared ram setup for use in games and other activities. This is not used until that situation, so you will never see it used like a integrated video card would show. Its basically an extension of the hypermemory.

It is there, it is not a glitch. Most of you guys will never even notice it is working behind the scenes.

My z60m with its x600 shows this. You can tell it isn't a glitch right away, because games that require over 128 megs of ram to operate because of large textures work perfectly.

[taishan]

well, after updating the video driver, the memory did show an upgrade from 64MB to 256MB. But now interesting to notice that IBM or Lenovo has pulled the updates for BIOS(V1.25) and ECP(V1.05) out of their web site. not sure if this is a non-beta updates or whatever the reason could be. just hope this updates wouldn't damage any hardware.

[christopher_wolf]

ATi mobility cards have a semi-shared ram setup for use in games and other activities. This is not used until that situation, so you will never see it used like a integrated video card would show. Its basically an extension of the hypermemory.

It is there, it is not a glitch. Most of you guys will never even notice it is working behind the scenes.

My z60m with its x600 shows this. You can tell it isn't a glitch right away, because games that require over 128 megs of ram to operate because of large textures work perfectly.

That happens in any case; whether or not it actually shows it has 64MB or 256MB. The only thing differenet, in this case, is that we are expecting it to indicate the dedicated, on-board memory; clearly, this isn't the case. Here is the description about HyperMemory

http://www.ati.com/technology/hypermemory.html

It looks to me as if they are simply pre-allocating the memory into quickly accessed blocks, much like you would alphabetize names in a rolodex for quicker access by the program; so you could *say* that you had X amount of memory available to you where some part of the X amount is emulated by a designated region of the system memory. This, however, was done before HyperMemory; HyperMemory just makes it a tad more efficient by organizing the storage and flow much better than in a scenario where you would just randomly write values to RAM and read them off as you found them, without any sorting whatsoever.

[JHaislet]

Interesting, mine shows 128MB of video ram for the X300 under the advanced settings.

I think IBM pulled the bios & controller updates due to the windows installer not working correctly.

I had to install both the bios & controller update by using a USB floppy drive.

The Lenovo Software Installer would NOT install the updates...it would try to shut down Windows and all the LED lights would turn off except for the Battery LED (power, network, bluetooth, ect all would go off). Then the display would just hang with a blue colored screen (not a "ms blue screen).

[leif]

Mine says 256MB too. But I don't know why Lenovo remoted both the BIOS and ECP updates from the website.

I can update both successful, and also heard that some user can't updated BIOS or ECP.

I think there must have some problems with the updates.