FAQ: Memory Upgrade on eMachines M68(XX)/ Gateway 74(XX)GX, MX75(XX) - Page 6

I hope someone's around to read this cus I'm pulling my hair out. I upgraded my emachine m6805 ram stick (the one i could get to) to 1gb. No trouble there, but i got bold and upgraded the inner one. After a little work i got it in but it wont boot up. It runs in cycles or freezes or comes up with a screen saying my windows/system config is missing or corupt. I took out the stick under the laptop and it booted up fine. So i dont think it's a bad stick. And it works with 1.25gb ram, but darnit i want my 2gigs. I updated my bios to the shadow bios and still nothing. I checked the stats on the bios screen at powerup and it's registering the two sticks but cant handle them. They're both crucial pc2700 sodimm 200 pin 1gb sticks. I've read all over the place people saying they got it to work. I not very computer consious but I do my best. Please oh please help me.

ok well, i memtested all sticks all locations and had no errors. Untill i put both 1gb cards in and memtested, it failed after 8 seconds:

Athlon 64 (0.13) 1804 mhz
L1 cache: 128k 14788 mb/s
L2 cache: 1024k 3268 mb/s
memory: 2047 1155 mb/s
chipset: UIA k8t800 ECC: disabled
setting: Ram 164 mhz DDR 328 CAS 2.5-3-3-7 DDR-1(64bits)

Unexpected interuption
Type: Gen_port
PC: 00003b46
CS: 00000010
Eflag: 00210012
Code: 00000000

Is that L1 number my problem? Shouldnt it be 1024 also? Now the real kicker is, the computer wont finish booting up now. No matter what stick i put back in and no matter where i put it, the computer wont get to the windows splash screen. Just stops with the mouse arrow and a black screen. I'd rather not reformat. Any ideas?

no L1 cache is very small. and if you're getting system32/config/system error it would seem to be unrelated to the RAM actions, that's a registry file corruption. though it won't even start booting now it looks like it's been corrupted even worse, might want to get an XP disc and try fixbooting it

The only cd's i have from the laptop are for reformating it seems. The only choices i get when i put them in is 1: reformat 2: dos prompt

does anybody know or can confirm more memory than 1gb max for an M5312? my system is an Athlon XP-M 2400, 512 l2 cache, 266 fsb.... factory has 512mb pc2100, i installed 1gb pc2700 but it only registered 512mb of it.... I am assuming it can only accept 512mb per socket and it probably wont even accept the ddr333< just clocks it down to the 266? Just looking for a confirmation here.... can I upgrade the processor??? thanks!

Specs say 768MB max ram, PC2100.

I personally recommend against the CPU upgrading, you are not gaining anything this. Try a faster drive?

cheers ...

ok just curious about teh CPU. The system is supposed to get up to 1gb based on documentation and from eMachines themselves. I found 2 memory slots so this would make it possible, heard things about 2gb but that must have been only for M6***

in regards to the 6811, does anyone know what type of HD it uses? and is there anyway to get restore disks..... thanks!

2.5" up to 120gb (my recommendation). Drivers are plentiful at support sites and within forum section.

cheers ...

2.5 IDE right? not sata.... i noticed someone here had stated in their sig they had a 7200rpm HDD, thats what threw me off because I have not been able to find a 7200 IDE notebook drive.

Sure you can, IDE, ATA, P-ATA ... anything that is NOT S-ATA

cheers ...

what is the max HD I can use for a M6811.... I noticed you recomended up to 120 but is that the max? I havent seen any documention on any new BIOS or anything that would get it past the 120.... just thought you may know, you seem to be very knowledgeable of this comp. I just bought it on ebay for $150... everything but the HD. Oh I wanted to let you know I opened up my m5312 and installed a 512mb pc2100 and now my comp is registering 960mb ram.... pretty cool. It does seem that it HAS to have pc210o though, not 2700 or it wont register.

I heard and read that others could get more than 120gb in there. I never could on my M6805. That is the reason of my personal recommendation.

Congrats on the extra memory. Yep, on good "old" machines, it is always good to stay and max within specs.

cheers ...

is the m6811 really so picky with memory that it wont flintch to even start if i put a brand it doesnt like it? i installed a 1gb pc2700 corsair inside and a 512mb corsair(says hynix) pc2700 in the ram door below...... it doesnt even kick on and now it seems to not even accept the power cord..... any ideas? is it the memory or is there another issue here?

How about 1st swapping the order of the ram modules around? the 512MB inside, and the 1gigo outside.

Not taking in power could be something else, can you describe the issue in a bit more detailed (leds, beeps etc ...)

cheers ...

ok... when i first got it (from ebay) when I tried starting it the blue power light next to the touchpad was on and the orange light in the front was on solid, when i hit the power button the blue power light would come on for just a flash like it was going to try and power up and didnt have enough juice... i used a different powerd cord (from my m5312) and then it started up like it should, no sounds or anything. It doesnt have a hard drive though so I wasnt able to get any firther than to just check the bios, everything was good. I pulled the computer apart just to see inside, only looked under the keyboard. Put everything back together and it would start up the same. Now... I took it apart a little bit more to get to the inside ram, did that and put everything back together again. The orange light in front and blue power light next to the touch pad were on with the cord plugged in. I tried to hit the power button... nothing.. i forgot to hook up the power board.... oops. So then i pulled that off after taking the battery out and unplugging the cord first. Hooked up the power cord back up and plugged the battery back in, now nothing is turning on..... i tried moving the cord around thinking bad connection but still nothing. I let it sit for 10 minutes then plugged it back in and the orange light went back on and so did the blue light next to the touch pad.... hit the power button and the lights went off, no sound or anything what so ever like its dead....

i feel like i have killed the darn thing somehow but i also know it could be something really stupid and simple... could be..

what i am going to try to do first is re-install old memory... see if that works first, if it does i will try eac piece of ram in the external bottom slot... see what that does. I just have a bad feeling I killed the thing and I dont know what I killed. Motherboard maybe... I am hoping its just the memory and i should have tested it that way before I opened it up, just got too excited and it worked in another system so didnt think there would be an issue.