Windows XP on Pentium 2 help

[zuko1]

I have installed XP on an old Compaq Deskpro 333 mhz and it ran exceptionally well on 128 MB of memory. I looked into the specs for the Deskpro and it can run 256MB in one slot and 128MB in the other memory slot so i installed a brand new 256mb 100 memory card alongside one of the 64MB 100 memory cards which was half of the 128MB it had previously ran on. I booted it up and it recognised the new memory setting and prompted me to save the new setting by pressing F1 then it began to display the windows XP boot up screen and everything seemed fine but it stopped and displayed the start in safe mode/last previous good setting etc screen so i tried safe mode and it was the same. I removed the 64MB memory card and it still didn't work but i know it will boot up with the two 64MB memory cards installed. The bios settings are very limited on this old pc so i don't realy know what to do. Any help would be very appreciated.

zuko1

[kurt476]

Hello zuko1, Did you try updating the bios?

[Joe K]

You might try changing the positions of the memory chips. Some computers are finicky about this. The largest size should be first. I put XP Home on an old 450 pent II with 256 ram. The original 2 64's chips and added a 128 while still on 98 and it worked fine. I did a quick check and the 256 chip may be the problem I think it can only handle 128 per slot. Go to Crucial http://www.crucial.com/ and use the memory selector to check.

Joe

Edited February 7, 2007 by Joe K

[Ponch]

but i know it will boot up with the two 64MB memory cards installed.

I'd recheck that to be sure the problem comes from the memory and not from a cable that has been unintentionally moved during the operation.