Dell Dimension 2400 memory: max 1GB or 2GB?

[Ted]

Hi,

I have a Dell Dimension 2400 (purchased from Dell in July 2004). I
want to upgrade the memory to the maximum but I'm having trouble
finding out what the max is. I'm currently at 512MB (one stick).

- The Dell manual that came with my PC says 1GB is the max.
- Crucial says 2GB is the max.
- The Dell website today says 2GB is the max.
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim2400/en/sm_en/specs.htm

If I can run 2GB, then that's what I will do.

Can someone tell me what the actual max RAM capability is on this
PC?
Has anyone successfully run 2GB in a Dimension 2400 from the year 2004
time period?

Thanks!
- Ted.

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

> - The Dell manual that came with my PC says 1GB is the max.
> - Crucial says 2GB is the max.
> - The Dell website today says 2GB is the max

Things change over time. Higher density RAM chips become available,
BIOSes are updated, stuff like that.

> Has anyone successfully run 2GB in a Dimension 2400 from the year 2004
> time period?

Yes. What you want to do is make sure you have the latest BIOS for
your Dimension 2400. Update to the latest BIOS if you don't already
have it. Then you can install your new RAM and make the most use of
it.

William

[BillW50]

In
news:48149ffb-65fd-41e0...@y33g2000prg.googlegroups.com,
William R. Walsh typed on Sat, 14 Mar 2009 14:23:50 -0700 (PDT):

Well my two Gateway MX6124 laptops could handle 2GB from 2006 era. And
they came stock with 512MB. Although as I have found out, anything more
than 1GB, Hibernation mode sometimes works and sometimes not. Even that
Microsoft hotfix didn't work. It reports an error that there isn't
enough resources. I finally gave up and disabled Hibernation mode. So
you can expect some trouble sometimes.

--
Bill
2 Gateway MX6124 - Windows XP SP2
3 Asus EEE PC 701G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
2 Asus EEE PC 702G8 ~ 1GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2 ~ Xandros Linux - Puppy - Ubuntu

[Ben Myers]

2GB... Ben Myers

[Ted]

Thanks everyone for your help. I'll go with the 2GB.

Does the manual say 1GB because back in 2004 the best one could do was
2 x 512MB? In other words, 1GB PC2700 SDRAM wasn't available? Just
curious.

Thanks!

[Ben Myers]

Often, the manual for a motherboard or a computer states what is
available at the time the manual was written. Then something new comes
along and the manual (or even on-line documentation) is never updated.

... Ben Myers

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

> Well my two Gateway MX6124 laptops could handle 2GB from
> 2006 era.

My "herd" of OptiPlex GX400 systems (early 2002) would handle at least
that much, although they are RDRAM based. :-)

> Although as I have found out, anything more than 1GB, Hibernation
> mode sometimes works and sometimes not.

That sounds like a driver or application specific issue, and not a
fault of the system itself.

> So you can expect some trouble sometimes.

My smaller herd of Dimension 2400 systems work very well, despite the
fact that they were a budget box. Hibernation has never failed to work
the few times I've used it.

Windows power management is just that...and it sometimes has a very
interesting view of the world. :-)

William

[BillW50]

In
news:030579c6-e191-4c81...@w34g2000yqm.googlegroups.com,
William R. Walsh typed on Mon, 16 Mar 2009 06:46:07 -0700 (PDT):

I too thought it was a driver issue. Luckily I have two of these
laptops. I even put in a spare hard drive and did a fresh Windows XP
install. Same problem on both machines. If it fails (about 50% of the
time it does), it will then always fail unless you reboot. Then you go
back to a 50/50 chance again. Now I just use standby instead if I plan
on using it later.

--
Bill

Asus EEE PC 701G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC

Windows XP SP2

[Ben Myers]

A driver issue, but it also implies that the computer BIOSes in many
computers may not be compatible with the hibernation driver, or that the
hibernation driver simply was not born right. As a rule, drivers often
use BIOS services to hibernate and wake-up simply to avoid the messiness
of programming the ports than actually handle hibernation.

My own desktop computer now hibernates properly with its replacement
Intel motherboard, so somebody was talking to somebody else on this,
like maybe Intel wrote the hiberation driver or the Microsofties
actually got the hibernation hardware specs from Intel before writing
the code... Ben Myers

[Ted]

On Mar 15, 7:44 pm, Ben Myers <ben_my...@charter.net> wrote:
> Ted wrote:
> > On Mar 14, 6:29 pm, Ben Myers <ben_my...@charter.net> wrote:
> >> Ted wrote:
> >>> Hi,

> >>> I have a DellDimension2400(purchased from Dell in July 2004).  I

> >>> want to upgrade the memory to the maximum but I'm having trouble
> >>> finding out what the max is.  I'm currently at 512MB (one stick).
> >>> - The Dell manual that came with my PC says 1GB is the max.

> >>> - Crucial says2GBis the max.
> >>> - The Dell website today says2GBis the max.
> >>>http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim2400/en/sm_en/specs.htm
> >>> If I can run2GB, then that's what I will do.

> >>> Can someone tell me what the actual max RAM capability is on this
> >>> PC?

> >>> Has anyone successfully run2GBin aDimension2400from the year 2004

> >>> time period?
> >>> Thanks!
> >>> - Ted.
> >>2GB... Ben Myers
>
> > Thanks everyone for your help.  I'll go with the2GB.
>
> > Does the manual say 1GB because back in 2004 the best one could do was
> > 2 x 512MB?  In other words, 1GB PC2700 SDRAM wasn't available?  Just
> > curious.
>
> > Thanks!
>
> Often, the manual for a motherboard or a computer states what is
> available at the time the manual was written.  Then something new comes
> along and the manual (or even on-line documentation) is never updated.
>
> ... Ben Myers

I put the 2 x 1GB PC 2700 in my Dimension 2400 today and it's running
fine. I just thought I'd post my experience and close the loop.

Thanks again to those of you that responded!

[investme...@gmail.com]

Depends on two factors; your BIOS version and your processor type. Some of the 2400's came with Celeron processors. If that's what yours has, you'll probably have to settle for 1 GB RAM. You may need to go to http://www.dell.com and enter your service tag under support/drivers and updates. Find the latest BIOS and update your BIOS following their instructions. That should set your system to run the max it can. If you still can't run 2 GB, then it's the Celeron processor limitation.

[Bob_Villa]

On Saturday, June 7, 2014 9:32:50 AM UTC-5, investme...@gmail.com wrote:

> Depends on two factors; your BIOS version and your processor type. Some of the 2400's came with Celeron processors. If that's what yours has, you'll probably have to settle for 1 GB RAM. You may need to go to http://www.dell.com and enter your service tag under support/drivers and updates. Find the latest BIOS and update your BIOS following their instructions. That should set your system to run the max it can. If you still can't run 2 GB, then it's the Celeron processor limitation.

Wake up...it's 2014!

[Ben Myers]

A non-celery Pentium 4 Socket 478 should cost pennies. 533MHz front-side bus is fastest supported by the Intel 845 chipset in the 2400. Any of the 800MHz FSB P4s will not do.

Easiest way to find out which CPU the system has is to hit the F2 key to look at the BIOS settings and info... Ben Myers

[Ben Myers]

It may be 2014 and Microsoft has shot XP in the head, but some people love their old systems... Ben

[Bob_Villa]

But the guy was giving advice on a question 5 yrs old! *L*

[Ben Myers]

Better late than never? ... Ben

[Boris]

Ben Myers <ben.m...@gmail.com> wrote in
news:de4edfe9-872c-40ab...@googlegroups.com:

I run XPHome, SP3 on a March 2003 vintage Dell 4550, which has been running
24x7 without any issues. I did replace the hard drive, because I needed a
larger one, about 5 years ago. I also upgraded the BIOS long ago, and
maxed out the (slow) RAM.

Although I also run Vista (yuck), Win7, and Win8 (yuck) machines, the 4550
XP is my go to workhorse. I'm about to move the 4550 from my office and
put the Win7 (XPS8100 box) in it's place because the 4550 has real problems
with today's internet.

The machine I'm writing this on is another XP (Dell Optiplex 390) in my
garage. I blow the sawdust and dog hair out every once in a while.

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