Weird Memory Problem!

[Bird Strike]

I'm posting yet again, for which I apologise.

The notebook that I am intending on replacing decided to sulk and developed a fault.

The system is only seeing half the memory that it has got.

It's a Hitachi notebook, running Windows 2000 SP2, with 256 MB memory (128 MB in each slot). It was OK till yesterday, and I have not made any changes to the system since yesterday. However it is only seeing 128 MB of memory.

My initial reaction was to assume that one of the memory boards has died. So I took one out, turned the system on, and it came up with 64 MB of memory. Huh?? So I put it back in, and took the other one out. Turned the system on, and again it came up with 64 MB of memory. The same thing happened when I changed the slot.

What could it be? Any comments and suggestions welcome.

(Do you think I pissed 'him' <- my laptop is a 'he' - off by looking to replace him? :D )

[Bird Strike]

aisleman,

Thanks for your thoughts. Checked 'his' manual and it can be one or both sockets, and the memory thingies are 128 MB each. There doesn't seem to be anything on board. Weird. I've had a fair share of bombed out computers but never this!

I have apologised to 'him', but he is still sulking. I am now worried that he would sulk further and stops working altogether. BTW I call him 'he' because he's not normally temperamental, he doesn't have bloody minded days every month, and he doesn't want to go shopping every day. :D

[What_does_this_button_do?]

What model of Hitachi is it?

[Bird Strike]

Sorry Buttons, I should have said. 270E. It's made by Hitachi Singapore.

[Nightrider]

What do you mean with the system sees only half of it...is that Windows or is it the indication during the boot phase?

Enter the BIOS, how much do you see there, exit the BIOS with the SAVE and EXIT function, any changes???

By the way, as far as I know, you need to enable the second slot as it is not active as standard option, maybe some interference has caused somehow to alter the setup....consult the manual.

[Bird Strike]

The system only sees 128 MB on startup, and Windows only sees 128 MB. I also ran a memory diagnostics and it only sees 128MB. But there are 2 x 128 MB there.

They were seeing 256 MB for the past two years, and suddenly it only sees half of what's actually there, whatever I do (i.e. I take one 128MB chip out, and it sees 64 MB).

Anyone else with clues?