Mitac 5114VU

[Hardisk]

Hi
I've an old motherboard Mitac 5114VU, from an old Compaq Presario 7000 and reflashed with original Mitac bios (the last I've found). This mobo is perfectly working and I use it, in laboratory, in order to test drives, cards and other peripherals.
I've installed 512Mb+256Mb ram, but the 512Mb ram is seen as 256Mb(even if it's alone) , so I have only 512Mb, instead of 768Mb.

If it's possible, I'm looking for an updated bios (unofficial) for fixing this trouble.
I've installed XP Pro without any problem with drivers.(CPU AMD K6 550Mhz)

Regards
Donald

[Denniss]

Most likely a chipset problem, unable to adress the high-density memory chips used on the 512MB stick. Similar problems apply to a lot of older chipsets, the intel i440 chipset series is only able to adress special 256MB sticks.
According to the chipset manufacturer max memory of the MVP4 is 768MB in three slots.

[cp]

just like Denniss already stated: the VIA MVP4 supports at max. 128Mbit (not Byte) memory chips which limits the size of supported modules to 256MByte. to the extend it only supports 16MxN chips which is the same limitation that the i440BX chipset has. so the same rules as described here apply.

nice to see that at least some ssocket7 machines are still doing their duty :)

[Hardisk]

Hi Thanks..
It means.. that this chipset supports only a total of 512mb Ram, or, if I use low density ram , I can go over ???

Regards
Donald

P.S. Old machines were truly reliable!

[KachiWachi]

http://www.motherboards.org/files/manuals/78/5114VU.pdf


Thanks.

[Hardisk]

Thank you.
I've already this manual, but I was looking for an unofficial bios...sometimes may works...In my laptop Compaq Evo n610C I've installed 2GB of ram and this notebook works perfectly with Windows 7 (after a little 'trick'!!!)

In any case this hypothetical ram upgrade is not important : 512Mb are sufficient for my purpose!

Regards
Donald

[cflitguy]

Donald,

I have the n610c as well, would you be willing to share your little "trick" with us so I can move from 1GB to 2GB of RAM?

Thanks!

--Chris

[Hardisk]

Hi
I've read your post, only today ...
The trick is very simple:
1) Update your bios, if is possible to the last version...
2) Install XP ONLY after having installed the whole ram amount.

If you upgrade your ram after having installed the O.S. , The laptop will recognize the ram, but it's nearly impossible to install graphic card driver!!!!!
I've noted that , before the first installation of your O.S., it's sufficient that the ram is superior to 1GB.
In another n610 I've installed my OS with 1.25GB, them I've upgraded to 2GB, without any problem, but it's preferable installing 2gb before!
Another important solution is to keep the HDD cool, in fact the hard drive is placed too near the CPU and GPU.
I've got off the original HDD caddy and I've mounted the drive only with a screw., then I've placed a thin black metallic grid, for aesthetic reasons only.