OptiPlex GX1 BIOS problem?

Question

I am going around and upgrading some of our GX1 450Mbr+ PC's memory.  Upgrading the memory from 128MB to 640MB.  The board says it can support up to 768MB.  The problem I am having is when the machine is shutdown and you go to start it a black screen comes up and it just hangs.  If I hit the restart button on the front it will then show the Dell BIOS screen and slowly make its way to the Windows XP splash screen.  The BIOS ver. is A10.  What's going on?  The RAM is all the same speed, I have 2x256MB sticks and the original 128MB RAM in the slots.  Any help would be appreciated.   Thanks, Tony

peterfelgate_ce40d3 · Answer

The GX1 is very finicky when it comes to memory - PC133 virtually never works and often higher density PC100 doesn't either.  What memory are you using?  Is it from one of the sites such as www.crucial.com that guarantee GX1 compatibility?  What  size is reported by the bios when the machine boots?

tkriskov · Answer

I bought the memeory from Dell. BIOS is reporting 640MB. Any ideas? I am going to try taking some of the memory out. Thanks, Tony

peterfelgate_ce40d3 · Answer

I think pressing the space bar skips the memory check - does this speed up the cold boot?  You could also try running the full Dell diagnostics on one of the machines.

tkriskov · Answer

Here is what I did if you are a person searching for this problem. On my OptiPlex GX1's there are 3 slots for memeory. When I opened up the machine the stick of PC100 128MB of RAM is in the third slot located under the power supply to the far right if you are standing in front of the machine. When I upgraded the memory I used Dell memory and ordered 2 sticks of PC100 256MB RAM. When I put the new sticks in the other two slots (1&2). I left the orginal stick in the machine to get 640MB. I would startup the machine and it would sit at a black screen. If I pushed the reset button it would startup. What I ended up doing is put the two new sticks of 256MB of RAM in the 2&3 slot and the 128MB in the 1 slot. Started up the PC and it went to the BIOS screen right away. Why? Who knows.

Any questions on this I would be glad to answer at tkriskovich(at)nwls.lib.wi.us

Tony

sruleigh · Answer

(In my simple understanding, I imagine an application straddling both sticks of RAM, using features on the one that are not supported on the other.)

sruleigh · Answer

Also, you cannot mix ECC and non-ECC memory. My experience is that the memory should be as matched as possible. I have had sucess using fairly unlike memory as long as it was all ECC. However I had occaisional lock-ups that I had to attribute to the (slightly) mis-matched memory.

speedstep · Answer

Mixing ram types and vendors is NOT recommended. They should be installed in order of largest to smallest.

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OptiPlex GX1 BIOS problem?

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