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System with 16 mb of memory only seeing 4 - Help!

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Guybrush3pwood

Experienced Member
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Jun 19, 2015
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So I just added some new ram to my 486dx2 system and it doesn't seem to recognize all of it. In fact, it appears to only see 4mb of it (one stick basically). Is there a spot in the bios where I need to set the amount of ram? Thanks for your help. Don't know if it'll be helpful, but my motherboard is a VEGA VS486F-3VL Motherboard with symphony chipset.
 
Actually, it's not seeing one stick... it's seeing one MB on each of the four sticks.

Are you sure you're using 4 MB sticks?

What did you have in there before you put the new sticks in?

Did you save the CMOS configuration upon exit after adding the new memory?
 
Stone said:
Actually, it's not seeing one stick... it's seeing one MB on each of the four sticks.

Are you sure you're using 4 MB sticks?
Click to expand...

That's something I hadn't considered. The guy I bought them from said they were 4mb each. How can I tell? Not a lot of info on these sticks. Here's the auction:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/351470897916?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

Stone said:
What did you have in there before you put the new sticks in?

Did you save the CMOS configuration upon exit after adding the new memory?
Click to expand...

8 1mb sticks. I didn't change anything in CMOS because I didn't see a section about setting ram amount.
 
You got skunked. Take the chip part number from one of those sticks: TMS4C1024CJ. So there are 9x1Mbit = 1MB plus parity. Your system isn't lying--and perhaps neither is the seller. He sold you 4MB of memory--I've seen this done lots before. If, for instance, you search for "1GB DDR400", you'll often be offered 2 512MB sticks or 4 256MB sticks.
 
Guybrush3pwood said:
That's something I hadn't considered. The guy I bought them from said they were 4mb each. How can I tell? Not a lot of info on these sticks. Here's the auction:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/351470897916?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT



8 1mb sticks. I didn't change anything in CMOS because I didn't see a section about setting ram amount.
Click to expand...
He did say they were 4 MB each. He lied. :)

It's probably not worth returning them as $1 each is more than reasonable and you'd only lose money in shipping them back, even if you don't need them.

The 2 Toshiba sticks are only 100 NS so you're lucky your 486 even runs with memory that slow. Maybe it runs with memory errors? :)

After changing memory amount you *must* enter CMOS and *save* the current configuration even though you didn't change any settings because the BIOS did (it counted the new memory amount) and if you don't save this value it might not know how much memory is actually installed.
 
In that case, could somebody point in the direction of 8 good sticks of 4mb memory? I have no idea who you get all the specs off of them. Whenever I google those numbers, I get either nothing, junk or info for the individual chips and not the stick themselves.
 
Stone said:
The 2 Toshiba sticks are only 100 NS so you're lucky your 486 even runs with memory that slow.
Click to expand...
Anyone remember the early 1MB SIMMs from mid 1987 or so, before the price of 1Mbit DRAM rose again? I think they were often very thick as they are based on DIP chips.
 
Stone said:
I still have some of them -- 64K and 128K sticks, I believe. In fact I made a keyring with a couple of them. :)
Click to expand...

I am talking about 1MB SIMMs. I don't think 64K and 128K SIMMs was ever common.
 
Last edited:
Not sure if I still have any 1MB ones; I do have some 256KB ones using DIP chips, however. I also remember a guy who sold the unpopulated SIMM PCBs--you installed and soldered the DIPs yourself--clipping off the protruding ends of the "legs" was recommended.
 
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