BIOS Updates forum

I had a problem with my computer freezing up. Finally the last rep at Dell tech support said it sounded like a memory problem. I admitted I'd upgraded from 128 to 512mb (the fullest my board can handle) and he said there may be changes to make in the bios for the new memory to work.

Well, this is pretty bad--I'm really good with computers--but I don't get all these options that I keep reading about in bios like, "DRam timing" or "turbo read pipeline". My computer accesses bios with "DEL" but I can't find any of these kind of settings on any of the tabs. Is there another way into bios? I keep searching but haven't found anything.

Not only do I want to know if I should have to change settings for this memory (and their tech support is closed till Monday) but also just how to get into those options. I've been reading about other options that could be changed and improve perfomance. If anyone can tell me this, please do! Thanks!

John

1) Call Dell back and tell them they are full of it. I use to work their and the tech you talked to doesn't know the answer so he just gave you a bunch of BS.

2) The reason you don't see the bios options is that Dell has covered them up so you can't change them. Plus the bios in a Dell system is almost a total rewrite fro the orginal code it started as.

3) Dell tech support is open 24x7... Call the 800 number. But you may have to wait a bit longer on the w/e because they have limited staff and have out sourced some tech support for nights and w/e's.

4) I woul pull the added memory and test the system. I suspect that you probably have some other problem. I have 655 meg in my system and run 98SE/ME/XP/W2K/Linux and have no problem.

5) Check to see what is started via msconfig... get rid of anything not necessary. Check this site for what some of the startup stuff is http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.htm#Select