OLD compq wont take ram

[four4875]

my boss has an old laptop, its a compaq armada 1530DM. it has 16 megs onboard and a slot under the keyboard for more, a regular PC66 / 100 / 133 SODIMM slot. we have 2 different sticks here, one is a 32 and the other im not sure, i tink its 64 megs... but the laptop wont even adknowledge that theres more ram, on POST or in windows. anyone have a suggestion? is it incompatabilities woth 100 or 133 not workin on the comp with the 66 bus?

any help would be gretly appreciated, im sure hed love to have his own laptop be useable for stuff like antenna alignment and the like instead of always havin to use mine.

[Tebore]

Did you update the BIOS. On most older laptops I've seen you have to update the BIOS before they acknowledge over 64 megs of RAM.

Second Laptops are really picky on RAM. On most of them you'll need to match the "PCxxx" rating. Not only that but you might need to get only Single or Only Double sided sticks, they are picky on Density.

[skab]

According to this site you need EDO memory but should be able to upgrade to 80MB:
Product Description
The Armada 1500 features an integrated AC-Adapter, CD-ROM and a DualBay that accepts a FDD or 2nd battery for extended battery life. Models include, a NiMH or Liion battery and hard drives from 1.4GB to 2.1GB. Some models also include an integrated 33.6 Kb/s modem. Processors range from a 133 MHz to a 166 MHz Pentium with MMX Technology. Systems come with either a 12.1" STN or 12.1" TFT display. 16MB of EDO DRAM is standard, expandable to 80MB.
Don't know if that helps or not.

[four4875]

we might try single sided if we can find some.. if not oh well.

[Mr B]

I've got an old Presario 17XL260, and it gave me fits trying to find ram that'll run in it.

It's got two available slots, 512MB max (2x256), and it takes PC100.

Funny thing with laptop ram, as opposed to desktop stuff. It's not always backwards compatable. At one point in time, I had a full GIG (4 sticks of 256) sitting on my 'puter desk, two of them were PC100, the other two were PC133.

Only ONE stick would work in the finicky bugger. :bang head One stick was clearly labeled PC100, and it STILL didn't want to work.

From what I've read, incompatabilities like this aren't nearly as common as they were a few years ago (like when this Presario was made). But finding ram for an older laptop can be a challenge at times.

I sent that stick of PC100 along to another fellow around here, and it didn't want to play nice in his IBM T20 either. :rolleyes: And no, it wasn't dead.

From the description Skab posted above, it sounds like you need a 64 MB stick of EDO PC66. Hello, Google?....

Good luck.

[four4875]

i tried a quick google, all i saw in the firs couple pages was people tryin to sell me batteries and ram and accesories, not info on what ram the lappy takes o how to get it to cooperatively take it.

[skab]

This site say's this is the memory, relatively cheap with fast shipping: http://www.memoryx.net/pc6-1982.html
This site is where I got the info for my first post: http://developer.novell.com/yes/34371.htm