Limited RAM??

Ok, my mother has a 1.6ghz Toshiba Satillite with a P4. It came with one stick of 256DDR RAM, i wanted to upgrade so i would run better so i bought 2 sticks of 512DDR Ram. i installed them and when i boot the machine, it tells me that your not allowed to have more than 512mb Ram... is there anyway to upgrade this so i can use my other stick? or do i just have another stick of RAM lying around??

Oh ya, its running XP.

Thanks.

Are you sure you got compatable RAM? F*cking enormous hardware companies with closed configs.

of course as OZ said contact the manufacturer for the recomended type of ram, heck sometimes it might even depend if its dual or single sided depending how picky the memory controller on the northbridge is. Or how crappy the bios is for that matter.

Have you flashed your BIOS to the latest version?

Are you sure the motherboard even supports more than 512mb of RAM? If the board only supports 512mb, return both sticks of 512mb and buy just one new 256 module to supplement the already existent 256 module.

Also, Neutrino's right. Some boards are very fussy when it comes to RAM configs. I know Intel motherboards are fussy like that - whether the RAM modules are double-sided or not, etc. Dunno if your laptop has an Intel board or not though. Just some food for thought.

hmm.. thanks for the info guys...the original stick was double sided, and the new ones are too. i amde sure it was compatible with my mothers laptop before i bought it... OZ, what do you mean "flashed my BIOS"??? if you could explain that, i would really appreciate it. thanks again guys.

Look up your motherboard manufacturer's website, and check for the latest revision. It should come with instructions on how to flash it.

ok, thanks OZ.