Is the BIOS limiting RAM recognition?

[KachiWachi]

Recommended by Wim's BIOS...

[KachiWachi]

Do you mean ALi 1541/1543?

ALi Aladdin V [M1541/M1543]
FPM, EDO, SDRAM
8 Rows
16Mbit, 64Mbit
1GB Total

ALi Aladdin V+ [M1541/M1543]
FPM, EDO, SDRAM
8 Rows
16Mbit, 64Mbit, 128Mbit, 256Mbit
4GB Total

( http://users.erols.com/chare/chipsets.htm )

The chipset is ALi M1541 rev 4. (My original posting wrongly said M1545.)
There are 3 rows of DIMM sockets on the M5ALC motherboard, PC100, with maximum memory possible 384 MB. No more than 128 MB in each socket. My problem is that even with two good, but different, 128 MB DIMMs, only 192 MB is recognized.

[KachiWachi]

The 8 rows means 8 ranks, not physical slots.

The notes at the bottom of the erols page show that for 100 MHz, only 6 rows are available...which translates into the 3 slots you see on the board.

"The Aladdin V+ adds an official 100MHz bus speed over the Aladdin V. When run at 100MHz, only 6 SDRAM rows can be used in the Aladdin V+. Also, ECC does not function above 83MHz."

From the ALi site -

What is the present version of ALADDiN 5? What is the difference?

The production revision of ALADDiN 5 (M1541 & M1542) is rev. E, G & H. The differences between them are:
Rev. E: Internal Tag RAM disabled, needs to use external RAM on main board.
Rev. G: Internal Tag RAM OK, but Suspend-to RAM (a function for notebook) has some problems.
Rev. H: Fixed the Suspend-to RAM function.

Rev. 4 = Rev. D?

[KachiWachi]

dte wrote:

If I put one 128 MB in slot 1, and one 128 MB in slot 3, leaving slot 2 empty, only 128 MB total is recognised. However, the user manual shows slots filled up with the bigger RAM always in the lowest slot number, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised that if slot 2 is empty then slot 3 is ignored. (True?)

The two PC-100 sticks are different. One has 4 chips on each side, and the other has 8 chips on each side. Is it necessary that the sticks are matched in this respect?

128MB - 8 chips/side = 16 total = 64Mbx16/8 = should work OK
64 MB - unknown layout, but 128 + 64 = 192MB

128MB - 4 chips/side = 8 total = 128Mbx8/8 = will not work on the v5, but should work on the v5+

Thanks for the details.
The other piece of info that EITHER of my 128-MB chips work on their own, or with the 64-MB (which is 8 chips on 1 side). Both give 128 MB on their own, and each gives 192 MB with the 64 MB DIMM. When I try to use both 128 MB together, I only get the 192 MB. Is that expected?

[KachiWachi]

64MB - 8 chips/side = 8 total = 64Mbx8/8 = should work OK

Your chipset should be marked similar to this -

ALI
M1541 A1
100 MHz
xxxx_ xxxx
xxxxxxxxxxx#
TAIWAN

What is the letter located at #?

It's "E".

In full:

ALi
M1541 A1
100 MHz
9839 TS07
XD229370000E
TAIWAN

[Denniss]

The most produced E-Revision should have no problem with 128MBit memory density. Sounds more like a bios problem handling the different memory sticks.

[KachiWachi]

OK...the "E" is the processor revision.

You *must* have an V+, since you say the 128Mb/128MB module works by itself.

As Denniss says, sometimes the load order of the modules matters, but it seems you have covered all of that already with no joy. This assumes that the chipset (BIOS?) can read each bank (slot) independently and set up the proper configuration for each...it seems that yours cannot.

I'd have to get a hold of the chipset datasheet to see if the V/V+ can do this or not.

For now, if possible, just get three identical modules...and "avoid" the issue.

[quote="apple_rom"]...
2. Try bios from another manufacturer on ALI5. I recommend from Acorp, to example - http://rom.by/bios/Acorp/5ALI61/V3.3_66.rar
[/quote]

I looked at that file from Acorp, but my BIOS is only 128k, and unpacked that .bin file is >256k. Thanks anyway.

Send to me you e-mail. I send to you file of 1Mbit-bios with "Memory_Size"-procedure from last 2Mbit-bios.