Why Memory Limit at 384MB

A

awsiemieniec

Gawd
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Jul 2, 2004
Messages
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I have an old Sony VAIO PCG-C1MVP picture book / laptop. The model has 128MB soldered to the mobo and a uDIMM expansion that reportedly only accepts another 256MB. So the question is, why is this system limited to a total of only 384MB of uDIMM RAM? If I were to stick a 512MB stick in there, would the system:
1.) only register/see the first 256MB of that RAM but work;
2.) sound off error beep codes and not post;
3.) work and the full 512MB would be accessible;

?

Is it an issue that "back in the day" when this picture book was being constructed there weren't any uDIMM 512MB chips out there so the documentation only references 256MB (328MB total)? Unlikely, but....

It's a great little unit that I use solely for GPS while traveling and the occasional web browse. It's just slow as dirt at the moment because I only have 128MB of RAM in it now. I'm looking to upgrade the RAM by putting in another 256MB but wanted to make sure I couldn't put more in.

Thanks.

AWS
 
Its likely an issue of Chipset and/or BIOS support. Find out what kind of chipset the laptop has, and then check to see if the chipset supports more memory than Sony says the unit does. As to how the system would react, the only way to find out is to try it out.
 
My coworker who I just ran this by said he had a P4 that the mobo only supported 4x1GB sticks, but he put 4x2GB sticks and with an os upgrade it recognized it all...
 
brokenarrow03 said:
My coworker who I just ran this by said he had a P4 that the mobo only supported 4x1GB sticks, but he put 4x2GB sticks and with an os upgrade it recognized it all...
Click to expand...

The bios and chipsets in notebooks are often more limited than desktops so this is not really a valid comparison.

For the OP, I'd stick with an 256MB module as you may run into an IC density issue.
 
SiSoftware Sandra labeled the chipset as a "Sony LongRun Northbridge." A little bit of digging yielded this nugget of helpful info...

The SDR SDRAM memory controller supports up to four banks, equivalent to two Small Outline Dual In-line Memory Modules (SO-DIMMS), of Single Data Rate (SDR) SDRAM that can be configured as 64-bit SO-DIMMs. These SO-DIMMs can be populated with 64M-bit, 128M-bit or 256M-bit devices. All SO-DIMMs must use the same frequency SDRAMs, but there are no restrictions on mixing different SO-DIMM con-figurations into each SO-DIMM slot.
Click to expand...

So looks like I'm stuck with only an additional 256MB chip. Oh well.

Thanks for your assistance and ideas.

AWS
 
It's obscene that one can get a 2GB SO-DIMM for $54.00 but a 256MB, uDIMM is $80. - $90.00! Kinda reminds me of the days of Intel's RAMBUS memory and the price hit it had. Online I see references to a Lenovo laptop that accepts a 512MB uDIMM stick but I haven't seen a 512MB uDIMM PC133 stick anywhere for sale in the online stores.

If anyone sees a 256MB, PC133, 144-pin, uDIMM for sale less than $80, let me know. Thanks

AWS
 
awsiemieniec said:
It's obscene that one can get a 2GB SO-DIMM for $54.00 but a 256MB, uDIMM is $80. - $90.00! Kinda reminds me of the days of Intel's RAMBUS memory and the price hit it had. Online I see references to a Lenovo laptop that accepts a 512MB uDIMM stick but I haven't seen a 512MB uDIMM PC133 stick anywhere for sale in the online stores.

If anyone sees a 256MB, PC133, 144-pin, uDIMM for sale less than $80, let me know. Thanks

AWS
Click to expand...

Laws of supply and demand at work...I saw one on ebay for like $7...Just do an ebay search for 256mb pc133 sodimm
 
brokenarrow03 said:
Laws of supply and demand at work...I saw one on ebay for like $7...Just do an ebay search for 256mb pc133 sodimm
Click to expand...
It isn't a regular so-dimm, hence the cost. Micro-dimms always fetched a nice premium because they were seldom used.
 
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