Thinkpads Forum

Hi all. Got a 600E (366mhz) with 128mb ram (32onboard plus 2 sticks - 64+32) With ac adaptor all works well - and bios/windows reports correct figures. Got 2 goodish batteries ( ie a main plus the ultrabay one) BUT.....if I boot just on batteries the bios reports 097728 memory OK - windows (XP) under system properties etc says only 96mb of ram too!! Any ideas/advice please?? Seems like either the on board 32mb or the stick/slot of 32 isnt recognised/works if on battery power??!!

maybe the infamous memory problem. The first bank only recognize half of the memory stick being usable. Did you put the 64mb ram in the first bank?

To my knowledge, the memory problem is only on the TP600's, not the Es and Xs. And it is related to using PC100, on a PC66 machine.

Now, I guess this problem could roll over to the 600E, in theory, if you are using PC133, instead of PC100. I haven't heard of this happening, though.

I don't know about that, but someone in this forum have memory problems with their tp600 and tp600e. The problem didn't get solved by putting in pc66 sodimm in instead of pc100, it was more of a problem with certain motherboards being too picky on the type of memory chips being used.

I think "picky" about memory is right!! I am now trying 2 sticks of 64mb which are definitely pc 66. ( one out of a c240 - one from an old portege7020) So one is labelled as an ibm part - other is samsung labelled) I booted about 4 or5 times (on battery fwiw) with all 160mb recognised etc. But then suddenly bios reports only 96mb !! ( odd?? because that isnt the "recognising half" problem - if my maths is correct! But a whole stick/slot suddenly missing!! ) To test further - i've swapped the 2 sticks over in the slots - so far - 3 restarts later - all seems ok. If I can be reasonably sure that the slots are ok - might just buy a 256mg new. But some sites/posters/ibm support suggest 288 max - so is 2 x 128 the way to go ? or a single 256 ?? ( though those tend to be pc100? ) Maybe 128's of pc66 will be best?? It's all rather confusing - reckon "trial and error" is best at end of the day!? Thanks for the replies folks!!!

Shirley-

Go with only PC66, or low-density PC100(tho I wont use anything other than PC66) in the -E's. I havent ever seen 256MB PC66, but I have 256MB PC100 in my 600X's. The -E's wont run stablely(sp?) on PC100, and 600's wont run on PC100 at all.

Go with two PC66 128MB's (or PC100 if you dare), plus the onboard 32MB mem. will give you 288MB.

TJ

I have one stick of pc100 in my tp600 and it runs fine.

She is and hers isnt..

I have never run into this problem with memory (50% of second stick) on any 600E that I have worked on, and I have worked on many.

I HAVE however, run into bad memory slots which will "sometimes" read the second stick (100%), but it was due to the ram slot itself, not specifically PC66 or PC100 sticks. They do go bad. Sometimes, it was just a matter of cleaning the slots with a pencil eraser.

If you decide to add a 256MB memory stick just remember to get the low-density PC100. 16 chips, 8 on each side...this helps with visually checking the memory first, if possible. I'm not sure if there ever was a 256MB PC66, and if there was, I am sure that it would be well over $100 a piece.

Thanks for replies folks - appreciate all taking trouble to help. Was wondering myself if slots and /or ram sticks were not seated properly or somehow making a poor contact?! So I took out - blew compressed air through and then used a contact cleaner/hard eraser thing which a "model railway" owning friend said was used for track cleaning ( presume ok??) - anyway so far the 2 sticks of 64mb have been recognised and seem to work fine - through about 10/12 reboots. Maybe I've found an answer?! Still would like to update to 256 though!! But appreciate has to be low density.