Vaio BIOS not recognizing 4 GB of RAM

[me61ic]

could tango found you a slower booting Linux (i like puupy linux) theres no video options in you bios? looks like it has nvidia grafix. nvidia has its own overclock software. installing it may give you some additional video options.

Nick

Here is another video of the options I have in the BIOS, pretty much nothing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhFaij3msgY

The grafix card it is indeed a nvidia, a nVidia GeForce Go 7600, you can see the whole computer specifications here:
http://support.vaio.sony.eu/computing/vaio/specifications/index.aspx?m=VGN-AR31M&l=es_ES

This is a screen print of the Windows Experience Index Performance information screen:

http://img6.yfrog.com/img6/2038/vaio1h.jpg



and of the nvidia control panel:

http://img199.yfrog.com/img199/6296/vaio2b.jpg

[banana19]

i would try to install ether ntune or rivatuner and see if ether one will allow you to limit the shared memory. seems like somthing isnt right there. otherwise its probobly a chipset limitation. you could try 1 2meg card and 1 1 meg card for a total of 3 megs ram to see if that works better.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_5.05.54.00.html

ntune incorporates itself into the nvidia contol panel

nick

[me61ic]

i would try to install ether ntune or rivatuner and see if ether one will allow you to limit the shared memory. seems like somthing isnt right there. otherwise its probobly a chipset limitation. you could try 1 2meg card and 1 1 meg card for a total of 3 megs ram to see if that works better.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_5.05.54.00.html

ntune incorporates itself into the nvidia contol panel

nick

I have installed ntune and I have googled how to use it to change the shared memory, but I don't find any place where it says, I don't want to start playing around with the options as I don't really know what can cause. Can you please point me what to change.

I have taken a print screen of both shared memories with 2GB and 4GB, what values do you think I should change? (once I figure out how to do it):



Thanks in advance

[banana19]

i would try to install ether ntune or rivatuner and see if ether one will allow you to limit the shared memory. seems like somthing isnt right there. otherwise its probobly a chipset limitation. you could try 1 2meg card and 1 1 meg card for a total of 3 megs ram to see if that works better.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_5.05.54.00.html

ntune incorporates itself into the nvidia contol panel

nick

I have installed ntune and I have googled how to use it to change the shared memory, but I don't find any place where it says, I don't want to start playing around with the options as I don't really know what can cause. Can you please point me what to change.

I have taken a print screen of both shared memories with 2GB and 4GB, what values do you think I should change? (once I figure out how to do it):



Thanks in advance

any options that ntune lets your change would be readily seen. Not all functions are enabled with all chipsets.
Nick

[me61ic]

any options that ntune lets your change would be readily seen. Not all functions are enabled with all chipsets.
Nick

Hi Nick, to tell you the truth I don't really understand what that sentence means. Only options I can change using ntune are these although I don't figure out what to do:





If I understood right there isn't a way to unlock the phoenix BIOS so I can lower the video shared memory to leave it as it was with 2GB? Right?

[f3bandit]

I guess I will bite too, lol
just some quick questions, did you do a clean install of windows 7. And by clean I mean formatting vista from the c:\ drive. And then installing windows 7 on the newly formatted c:\ drive. Second question was your windows 7 a upgrade disc or full version disc? third question, was your windows 7 disc a restore type disc from sony, either payed for or available as a free or discounted promotion from sony? "Some OEM's did this before or during the windows 7 launch to keep customers interested in their products" Fourth question, I read you removed one memory dimm and it defaulted you to the desired boot screen. have you tried switching the memory dimms to see if it is only having a problem with one of the memory dimms. "Use one of the 2gb mem dimms and test. shutdown and replace the installed 2gb mem dimm with the other 2gb mem dimm and test. And let us know". Also be aware when you mentioned that you read in a forum that some people had purchased specific kingston memory dimms it solved their problems. this is an old trick OEM's do. they brand their memory dimms. memory dimms have bios chips too. and I have seen oem's do this. they insert a header of sorts in the mem dimm. and whitelist that header info in the laptop bios rom. if it doesn't match it clocks it down or rejects it, whatever the oem decides. it's a very sneaky tactic. and very un-fair. companies do this with motherboards, memory, thumb drives, restore disc's, etc. in some cases it's copy protection. but in alot of cases it's just the oem using these tools and knowledge to sucker the end user to only buy from them. basically it's like someone holding a gun to your head and saying you can only buy your stuff from me. I am particularly disgusted by oem's that use these tactics as it resembles Mob mentality for getting as much money as fast as possible, regardless of who gets stepped on. if all else fails you might just have to contact one of those people in that forum and get the exact model and serial number of those mem dimms and order that exact kind. try the above steps and let us know. and thx for your request. we all appreciate your visit here!

[me61ic]

I guess I will bite too, lol
just some quick questions, did you do a clean install of windows 7. And by clean I mean formatting vista from the c:\ drive. And then installing windows 7 on the newly formatted c:\ drive. Second question was your windows 7 a upgrade disc or full version disc? third question, was your windows 7 disc a restore type disc from sony, either payed for or available as a free or discounted promotion from sony? "Some OEM's did this before or during the windows 7 launch to keep customers interested in their products" Fourth question, I read you removed one memory dimm and it defaulted you to the desired boot screen. have you tried switching the memory dimms to see if it is only having a problem with one of the memory dimms. "Use one of the 2gb mem dimms and test. shutdown and replace the installed 2gb mem dimm with the other 2gb mem dimm and test. And let us know". Also be aware when you mentioned that you read in a forum that some people had purchased specific kingston memory dimms it solved their problems. this is an old trick OEM's do. they brand their memory dimms. memory dimms have bios chips too. and I have seen oem's do this. they insert a header of sorts in the mem dimm. and whitelist that header info in the laptop bios rom. if it doesn't match it clocks it down or rejects it, whatever the oem decides. it's a very sneaky tactic. and very un-fair. companies do this with motherboards, memory, thumb drives, restore disc's, etc. in some cases it's copy protection. but in alot of cases it's just the oem using these tools and knowledge to sucker the end user to only buy from them. basically it's like someone holding a gun to your head and saying you can only buy your stuff from me. I am particularly disgusted by oem's that use these tactics as it resembles Mob mentality for getting as much money as fast as possible, regardless of who gets stepped on. if all else fails you might just have to contact one of those people in that forum and get the exact model and serial number of those mem dimms and order that exact kind. try the above steps and let us know. and thx for your request. we all appreciate your visit here!

Well thank you all for taking the time to respond !
To answer all your questions, Yes it is a clean install, I formatted the drive (even took the hidden partition where sony installs its recovery away and formatted again to take up all the available space), I then installed a brand new Windows 7 OEM bought from here:
http://www.dvdbarato.net/b2c/index.php?page=pp_producto.php&md=0&ref=windows+7+pro+64

I have tried what you say about the memories and it works fine with both, when only one is installed, I don't think it is something to do with the memories, in fact let me explain, I have 4 different Vaios AR, two VGN-AR31M:
http://support.vaio.sony.eu/computing/vaio/specifications/index.aspx?l=es_ES&m=VGN-AR31M

and two VGN-AR51M:
http://support.vaio.sony.eu/computing/vaio/specifications/index.aspx?m=VGN-AR51M&l=es_ES

I have done the same installation to the 4 PCs and I bought the same memories and I have the exact same problem with both AR31M, although both AR51M work as they should with the 4GB installed and have no problems whatsoever. As you can see from the specs, the AR31M and the AR51M are basically the same computer with upgraded graphics card + processor. They also run different BIOS versions, the AR31M has R0200J6 whereas the AR51M has R1050J8

[f3bandit]

I have done the same installation to the 4 PCs and I bought the same memories and I have the exact same problem with both AR31M, although both AR51M work as they should with the 4GB installed and have no problems whatsoever. As you can see from the specs, the AR31M and the AR51M are basically the same computer with upgraded graphics card + processor. They also run different BIOS versions, the AR31M has R0200J6 whereas the AR51M has R1050J8
[/quote]

Well that's a huge help right there, so now we can compare the differences of the two different models bios roms. and go from there. who knows we might compare them and find no differences, and you might be able to flash AR51M rom to the AR31M. and just maybe it will solve you problem. So if you could provide us the link for the AR51M bios roms as well we can start digging in this direction. thx for all the info!

[me61ic]

Well that's a huge help right there, so now we can compare the differences of the two different models bios roms. and go from there. who knows we might compare them and find no differences, and you might be able to flash AR51M rom to the AR31M. and just maybe it will solve you problem. So if you could provide us the link for the AR51M bios roms as well we can start digging in this direction. thx for all the info!

If by BIOS rom you mean BIOS Firmware here is the one for AR31M:

http://support.vaio.sony.eu/computing/vaio/downloads/info/info.aspx?l=en_ES&url=en_GBoads/PH/B/SYS/PHBSYS-01175117-UN.exe&m=VGN-AR31M&ip=PHBSYS-01175117-UN.htm

and here you have the one for the AR51M:

I could not find a link from SONY but gloogling the ref. I found this thread where somebody posted the R1050J8 firmware extracted from his own computer (http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads....?p=203514) He is in fact trying to load the firmware I have in the AR31M which is giving me problems in the newer AR51M, I don't understand why ??? Please let me know how to extract the BIOS from one of my computers if you think it would be safer.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2D0H7113

I also used a program called symcmos to get some data from both BIOS and allow virtualization on both models which I was able to do on both, I got a file with a list of registries and values, which by the way are pretty different between both models, that is why I never thought the firmware of one could work on the other. I don't know if it could be of any use here. If BIOS rom mean something else please let me know how to get it as I have no clue.

---

[f3bandit]

Ok well we know both your systems uses a phoenix bios, which is a plus if this continues to move forward. And I have dumped both roms successfully. So now one of our super genius can look at the files closer now and hopefully narrow is down to the specific module that's causing the problem. And if all goes well we can scavenge the right one from the AR51M bios dump. there's alot that look similar in both dumps and very few differences. I'm hoping this will play in our favor.

I have uploaded both bios roms and the dumps from both. and I will give theWiz a PM so he can have a glance at the dumps to see what is going on in there!