i810 mobo only works with 128mb sticks, WTH is up with this?

T

TrainTrackHack

VIP Member
So, I have an old P3 computer with intel's i810 chipset (don't laugh. I'm serious). The problem is, whenever I try to put in any 256mb sticks (SDRAM) it refuses to boot up - it doesn't even post. I'm going to be stuck with this computer for a short while, so I'd really like to get everything I can out of it. Currently it's got 98SE installed, and I'm pretty much stuck with it unless I can get more RAM to work on it, which is no good. I've tried those sticks on another computer and it works fine, so I assume they're not faulty. I've tried both sticks at once, and only one at a time, but had no luck, AFAIK the board supports (well, it's supposed to) up to 512mb ram. Anyone know what could be wrong/how to fix this?

Ah and I'm not sure about this and can't try it right now, but I think that with only one of those 256mb sticks in it posted and booted up, but only recognised 16 (or 32, can't remember) mb ram. I think this happened only with one of the sticks, with the another one in it wouldn't even post.
 
According to Intel the i810 only supports 128/64/16 Mbit modules. It's possible you have RAM made from 32mbit modules and that's why it doesn't work.
 
Modules...? Mean those little "chips" on the stick...? They're both single-sided and have 8 of those "chips", does that mean they are 32Mbit modules (256/8=32)?
 
Yes that sounds like it is high density. Most high density PC100/133 sticks have 8 chips on one side.
 
Does it have four SIMM (assuming it's SIMM since they are one sided) slots? If so, it might only support up to 128mb per slot. My motherboard has four SIMM DDR2 slots, supports up to 8GB total, but a maximum of 2GB per slot. So if I tried an 8GB dual channel kit it wouldn't work.
 
They are DIMMs. SIMM doesn't refer to having chips on both sides of the RAM stick. A SIMM has the same contacts for the pins on either side of the stick where a DIMM has different ones. DIMMs also use a 64bit bus.
 
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