windows 2000 512 ram will only read as 256?

Nemesis · 20 Dec 2006 at 15:59

I need some help asap, im trying to upgrade two tills that run on win2000 and were running on 128mb of ram, i need to upgrade to 512mb and have done so, the problem im having is that the tills or OS only shows the till as running 256mb, im sure there is a reg fix but its been a while since i played with the win2000 OS.

Ronaldo · 20 Dec 2006 at 16:11

double check ** bios is showing 512 of ram

binaryknight · 20 Dec 2006 at 16:17

windows 2000 supports 512mb of ram i think there was a reg patch to allow it to use beyond the 512 region but even so it should still have showed the machine had more than 512

like Ronaldo suggests check the bios screen to see that its showing more than 256mb it may be that the machine dosent support it or perhaps it isnt fited correctly / pushed fully home

Curiosityx · 20 Dec 2006 at 16:23

Huh?! Windows 2000 can support upto 4Gb of memory!

Try re-seating your memory modules, if this fails you may have a faulty unit.

Nemesis · 20 Dec 2006 at 20:06

Re-seated the ram checked in bios any settings that might have made system hold back on 256mb max, found nothing.

Im at a loss here now as to why its not reading as 512mb, im sure i had this problem with win2000 many years ago but can't remember the fix, the spec sheet on the tills says that the till can run 512mb max that being 2 x 256mb which is what im doing.

Anyone know a reg setting i might have to change or a patch to get this running as 512mb?

scratch · 20 Dec 2006 at 20:17

You still haven't said if the BIOS is seeing all 512MB?

Andy

ghgh · 20 Dec 2006 at 21:13

maybe its a mobo that only accepts low density memory, some old pentium3 board had this problem ( what mobo are you upgrading? )

sometimes when you add high density RAM into a mobo that requires low density, the correct power cant be given to them and it results in only half of it being seen by both the BIOS and the OS.

im not sure if this is the case here but it sounds like some old posts I read years ago.

or maybe the board only accepts a certain mb stick per slot?

marc2003 · 20 Dec 2006 at 21:28

Curiosityx said:
Huh?! Windows 2000 can support upto 4Gb of memory!

Try re-seating your memory modules, if this fails you may have a faulty unit.

^^what he said. 2000 is no different to xp in this respect. no tweaks or reg fixes are needed here. any problem is going to be hardware/bios related....

Digital Punk · 20 Dec 2006 at 21:57

ghgh said:
maybe its a mobo that only accepts low density memory, some old pentium3 board had this problem ( what mobo are you upgrading? )

sometimes when you add high density RAM into a mobo that requires low density, the correct power cant be given to them and it results in only half of it being seen by both the BIOS and the OS.

im not sure if this is the case here but it sounds like some old posts I read years ago.

or maybe the board only accepts a certain mb stick per slot?

Yeah, I've seen single sided 256mb ram only show up as 128mb on older boards.

As has been said, Win2K will support 512mb easily. I think you need to look at your hardware.

Nemesis · 20 Dec 2006 at 22:26

scratch said:
You still haven't said if the BIOS is seeing all 512MB?

Andy

Bios shows 260 thats the 256 i installed and 4mb shared from vidcard.

ghgh · 22 Dec 2006 at 11:48

if the bios isnt seeing the total memory then its definitely a hardware problem.

what motherboard is it you are upgrading?

Nemesis · 22 Dec 2006 at 13:08

ghgh said:
if the bios isnt seeing the total memory then its definitely a hardware problem.

what motherboard is it you are upgrading?

Hi, this is the problem, it's a till made by epson IM320 and no motherboard name, only IM320 can't find any info on the board.

I think you was correct in saying it only will accept low density memory, there are two tills so chance of both having a hardware problem is slim, other then wrong memory.