alexak_1,

Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.

Here are the memory specs for this system.

It's the non ecc part that may be causing you problems. Especially if you're mixing ecc with non ecc. Technically the board should downgrade the speed to 100 for 133 but you don't want to mix the speeds and pc133 is not supported at all in the system.

Hi,

I am Jean, from France and also new here. Alex, the less I could say is : "I hear you, brother !".

Having installed Win XP, I wanted to upgrade my computer. I used to run under 64+128 Mo PC100.

But installing two chips of 256 Mo PC 133 it just ran like you described : long bips shortly separated and only 8 MB on the bios ! I upgraded my bios to the A09 version but in vain.

I just wonder if the i810e chipset is compatible for any PC133 sdram chip.

Please let me know how you shot the trouble... should we sell our PC133 and buy PC100 instead ? feel free to e-mail me : jmqui @ wanadoo.fr

Bye :-)

Hello,

Well Dr. Jean, i thinks its as DHsieh says above you, Dells are simply very fussy about RAM, this far i have just been very lucky i guess as i haven't run into this problem. I too have upgraded bios to A09, and had no difference, however i will check out the sites DHsieh suggested as we have 10 OptiPlex GX110's in the office, not just one LOL, so i will have to find a solution of some sort to upgrade memory.

Anyways, i will reply in this thread if i get something that works and you please do the same.

Thanks to everyone,
alex®

Hey,

I checked out the sites, and the best price was on www.crucial.com, $70. Do you know a cheaper source?

Can anyone tell me for sure if the dell OptiPlex GX110's support PC133 RAM?
The only one that came up on the memory selectors were PC100, but this might be just coincidence...

Thanks,
alex®

See the following posting of mine regarding PC133/PC100 256mB RAM that I tested and worked in the GX110: 

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=oplex_upgrade&message.id=8120

Some of them may be less than $70 a piece. email me at dhsieh@nc.rr.com for more info.

Answering the message of Jess : it means we should only use non-Ecc memory chips ?

--
Dr Jean

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@jwark wrote:

It's the non ecc part that may be causing you problems. Especially if you're mixing ecc with non ecc. Technically the board should downgrade the speed to 100 for 133 but you don't want to mix the speeds and pc133 is not supported at all in the system.

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@jwark wrote:
Not sure what you mean by it's false, capital letters too? Ouch well I said pc133 is not supported because dell doesn't list it. And pc133 should downgrade to pc100. That's a universal truth. Not sure what you mean by false. It seems everything I said is true. And you never want to mix ecc and non ecc right? Hm well could you explain cause I'm confused.

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Never is a long time.

There is no such thing as universal truth. PC133 used to downgrade to PC100 but since they have changed the modules the timing and density most vendors now list PC133modules as incompatable with pc100.

Just because dell doesnt list it doesnt mean it doesnt work or that its wrong.  Dell lists 384Meg as the max ram for the GX1 and Inspiron 7000 but in truth you can get 768megs of ram. I am using 2 PC133 256 Meg Modules in my GX110.  They work fine. However finding these modules is getting harder and harder. There is no advantage to using PC133 modules in a GX110 because of the 810e chipset.  However Some OLD Pentium4 motherboards like the GX240 and the INTEL 845DM motherboard do use PC133 modules so I purchased the PC133 modules so that I would be able to use them later on in a newer system.  Turns out that everyone wants DDR so thats moot now.

ECC and non ECC Mixed is not a problem as the bios disables ECC when it finds there are ecc and non ECC modules.  Registered Ram is another matter. Unless your system takes Registered SDRAM it will not work.  The Dell Precision 410 is one system I can think of that DOES use Registered SDRAM.

http://www.pny.com/products/memory/

On the PNY site they have this statement.

Important Announcement
PC133 Modules are NO LONGER backward compatible
with PC100 Machines. To determine the correct
memory upgrade for your machine, use the
PNY memory configurator.

What this means in reality is that they are using high density modules now.

http://www.ramjet.com/configurator.html

http://www.peripheralconfigurator.com/ramjet/modelrsltdetails.asp?man=Dell&mod_id=5748%20%20%20%20&cat=79&model=GX110

* PC133 modules are no longer Backward Compatible to PC100 machines. Systems using the 440BX, 810 or 810e chipsets should only use PC100 memory. If PC-133 is listed in your results, that PC model has been tested for PC-133.

Hello DHsieh,

It's ten years later so don't know if you're still interested but I'll try.  I was able to order 2 each of 256Mb PC100/133 DDR (the agent said they were recommended for the GX110) for $18.49 each from Staples at 1-877-612-1185.  Should receive them 8/13/2013.  I don't know if that's expensive or if they will really work.  I'm afraid of the DDR designation and don't know anything about that.  What do you think or anyone else have comments? 

PC100/PC133 is NOT DDR its SDRAM.  Unless the ram is INTEL Compatible Low density it will not work in a GX110.

Memory Type: ,  (non-ECC)
Maximum Memory: 512MB
Slots: 2

PNY MD0256SSD-100/133 256MB Memory Module - 133MHz, 168 Pin, SDRAM