Thinkpad HELP

Sally74 · 16-12-2005, 01:41 AM

Hi everyone,

I am trying to upgrade the memory on a very old laptop, its an IBM ThinkPad 380ED. I have installed 64mb of RAM, and the laptop is still showing 48mb. What do I do to have my laptop run with more RAM? Flash the BIOS? And how do I do that?

Thanks for any help,

Anti-Trend · 16-12-2005, 01:06 AM

Some motherboards have a memory limitation, and in that case a BIOS flash is helpful in some cases and not others, depending on the motherboard. If there is a BIOS update at all for a laptop that old, I'd apply it. They were usually pretty big fixes on those old Thinkpads if they released them at all. In other cases of course, the hardware itself is limited to a certain clip and that's it. Also, some RAM is high-density, and some motherboards cannot properly utilize high-density RAM. In that case you would only be able to utilize a portion of the RAM - the portion the motherboard recognizes. That is also a hardware limitation that cannot be worked around (aside from replacing it with low-density RAM).

P.S. - Just out of sheer curiosity, what OS are you running on that bad boy?

-AT

Sally74 · 16-12-2005, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anti-Trend

Some motherboards have a memory limitation, and in that case a BIOS flash is helpful in some cases and not others, depending on the motherboard. If there is a BIOS update at all for a laptop that old, I'd apply it. They were usually pretty big fixes on those old Thinkpads if they released them at all. In other cases of course, the hardware itself is limited to a certain clip and that's it. Also, some RAM is high-density, and some motherboards cannot properly utilize high-density RAM. In that case you would only be able to utilize a portion of the RAM - the portion the motherboard recognizes. That is also a hardware limitation that cannot be worked around.

P.S. - Just out of sheer curiosity, what OS are you running on that bad boy?

-AT

This laptop is running Windows ME, I have been told this laptop can run a maximum of 80mb.

16-12-2005, 01:41 AM	#1 (permalink) Top
Sally74 Geek Trainee Join Date: Dec 2005 Gender: Posts: 2 Status: Offline	Thinkpad HELP Hi everyone, I am trying to upgrade the memory on a very old laptop, its an IBM ThinkPad 380ED. I have installed 64mb of RAM, and the laptop is still showing 48mb. What do I do to have my laptop run with more RAM? Flash the BIOS? And how do I do that? Thanks for any help,

16-12-2005, 01:06 AM	#2 (permalink) Top
Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek Join Date: Oct 2003 Age: 27 Male Posts: 4,882 Times Helpful: 538 Status: Offline My Computer	Some motherboards have a memory limitation, and in that case a BIOS flash is helpful in some cases and not others, depending on the motherboard. If there is a BIOS update at all for a laptop that old, I'd apply it. They were usually pretty big fixes on those old Thinkpads if they released them at all. In other cases of course, the hardware itself is limited to a certain clip and that's it. Also, some RAM is high-density, and some motherboards cannot properly utilize high-density RAM. In that case you would only be able to utilize a portion of the RAM - the portion the motherboard recognizes. That is also a hardware limitation that cannot be worked around (aside from replacing it with low-density RAM). P.S. - Just out of sheer curiosity, what OS are you running on that bad boy? -AT __________________ See My Desktop \| Try Linux \| Install Linux \| Visit My Server \| Support Hardware Forums \| Easily rip DVDs in Linux \| Remember Everything

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