Compaq RAM

[ober]

Hey all,

(hopefully TravisS will see this)

anyways... I'm doing some work for a customer of mine and they need more RAM... it's an old compaq... 200 MHz, I think... and they want to install a burner. First question is, it's a 48x burner with recommended specs of 800MHz and 128 mb RAM... is their computer even powerful enough to burn efficiently?

And more importantly, they only have 60 mb of RAM and I've heard of Compaq being propietary bastards before... do I need special RAM or can I just get some decent RAM from a good online store?

[scott27349]

i worked on a compaq 200mhz a while ago, and yes it did have Proprietary ram. i think a 128 mb stick was something like $200 for it, it uses parity checking and had to be for that computer.the whole thing wasnt worth that.anyways you can go to the kingsington site and put the model # and it will tell you what kind of ram it will take.about the burner, it might work and it might not.you might have to slow the burner down some or use slower disks.if the computer will find the burner and plug and play it, there probly wont be any problem. on the other hand if you have to install the driver disk for it you might run into problems.one thing it might check the ram or the processor and say it wont work, another thing is video resolution.some software wont let you install the drivers if its resolution is in 256 colors, if you have a good driver in for the video card that will be over that resolution it might be alright. just have to play with it and try.

[ober]

well... I found some Kingston RAM on pricewatch that claims to work in all major vendor PCs, including Compaq... I'm just a little worried tho.

[scott27349]

claims to work in all major vendors? that is probobly standard ram. i would make sure before i got it that the computer you are working on will take standard ram.newer compaqs will take the standard ram, the older ones will not.

[ober]

*smacks self*... I didn't even get the model number for it before I left.

[TravisS]

Agreeing with Scott.

Yes, some Compaq's have propietary RAM. Pain in the ass I tell ya

If you have a spare stick sitting around try putting it in there to see if it works. That's the best way to find out for sure I know I've run across a lot that are proprietary, but an equal amount that aren't.

As for the burner. You and I both know that it probably won't burn at full speed, but that really isn't a problem anyway. If they can find a slower burner, there's nothing wrong with 24X. Heh, maybe you could convince them to buy a new computer

[ober]

they actually asked me if that's what they needed to do. I figured the burner will work, just not quite as fast as it claims, maybe I'll mention that to them. I think I might go ahead and order the RAM... if it doesn't work, no big deal, it's 20 bucks and I can use the RAM for one of my servers.

Any idea what 128 of the propietary $hit will run me?

And thanks for replying Travis.

[TravisS]

Assuming it is proprietary, you may not be able to find RAM for that old of a computer . I really don't know what Compaq does for their RAM, like if different models use different proprietaryness (it's a word, I swear ). But yeah, just order up a stick and if it doesn't work no harm to you

[ober]

Alright, thanks.

[TravisS]

OMFG!!!! I've never actually taken a look at the prices for these kind of things, but this thread made me interested.

Do you want to know, do you really want to know the cost? I don't think you do...

http://sillworks.com/product_info.ph...a9df728ec11cfd

Assuming that link doesn't work for you, $75!!! $75 for a single stick of 128Mb PC133... that is just insane.

[Captain Penguin]

you should be able to go to www.crucial.com and put in the model and find appropriate ram... plus they have free 2 day shipping!

[ober]

one more thing on this... other than the shock value of the price of their ram...

Does it matter if I get the right FSB? I was just going to get PC100 and figure it'll work... or should I get PC133?

[TravisS]

The FSB shouldn't matter. They more than likely actually have a 66 MHz bus, so PC66 would be the proper RAM. But, that shouldn't make a difference.

[ober]

That's what I figured... I'll just shoot for PC100 and hope to hell it works.

[frenchfry164]

A lot of times you can get PC133 cheaper than PC100.