Compaq Presario 700UK memory questions

I was trying to troubleshoot a friend's Compaq Presario 700UK notebook at
the weekend. Apart from needing 44 Critical Windows Updates, 22 Windows
Updates and 5 Driver Updates I also noticed that it was a bit light on
memory for running Win XP Home.

Looking at My Computer Properties at appeared to have only 96MB, although
according to the blurb for the machine it has 128MB base memory. I assume
that 32MB is given over to shared video memory but the blurb on the Compaq
website makes no mention of shared video memory. Does anyone know why only
96MB is reported? Is there a way to adjust the amount of shared memory, if
that is the reason?

I tried the Crucial and Kingston memory configurators to see what it would
cost to add some more and neither could offer a solution. Does anyone know
how/where to obtain an extra 128MB or 256MB stick of RAM in the UK for this
model? Alternatively, does anyone know the memory spec for this machine as I
have a couple of old 128MB sticks left from previous Dell Inspiron memory
upgrades and wonder if that might work.

My friends live 90 miles away so it is tricky for me to provide much help
but at the moment they are thinking of going to PC World (God forbid!) to
get advice and a memory upgrade and I'd rather save them from that
experience if possible.

TIA if you can help.

Cheers,
Tim.

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Dunno about the 700UK, but both the 700US and 700CA (Canada) entry level 700
Series laptops have 256MB of RAM standard. I doubt Compaq would bundle Win
XP on a 96MB machine. You should be able to enter the BIOS (F10 at bootup)
and adjust the amount of system memory allocated to video. I would recommend
256MB as the bare minimum for running XP, and 500 if you want to do any
serious computing.
HH

"Tiny Tim" wrote in message
...
I was trying to troubleshoot a friend's Compaq Presario 700UK notebook at
the weekend. Apart from needing 44 Critical Windows Updates, 22 Windows
Updates and 5 Driver Updates I also noticed that it was a bit light on
memory for running Win XP Home.

Looking at My Computer Properties at appeared to have only 96MB, although
according to the blurb for the machine it has 128MB base memory. I assume
that 32MB is given over to shared video memory but the blurb on the Compaq
website makes no mention of shared video memory. Does anyone know why only
96MB is reported? Is there a way to adjust the amount of shared memory, if
that is the reason?

I tried the Crucial and Kingston memory configurators to see what it would
cost to add some more and neither could offer a solution. Does anyone know
how/where to obtain an extra 128MB or 256MB stick of RAM in the UK for
this
model? Alternatively, does anyone know the memory spec for this machine as
I
have a couple of old 128MB sticks left from previous Dell Inspiron memory
upgrades and wonder if that might work.

My friends live 90 miles away so it is tricky for me to provide much help
but at the moment they are thinking of going to PC World (God forbid!) to
get advice and a memory upgrade and I'd rather save them from that
experience if possible.

TIA if you can help.

Cheers,
Tim.

--
Please remove leading underscore to reply by email.

HH wrote:
Dunno about the 700UK, but both the 700US and 700CA (Canada) entry
level 700 Series laptops have 256MB of RAM standard. I doubt Compaq
would bundle Win XP on a 96MB machine. You should be able to enter
the BIOS (F10 at bootup) and adjust the amount of system memory
allocated to video. I would recommend 256MB as the bare minimum for
running XP, and 500 if you want to do any serious computing.
HH

Thanks for the reply. The spec sheet for the 700UK is here -
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/g...name=c00030309
and shows 128MB as standard, with one free slot to add up to 256MB extra
memory. I totally agree 256MB or more is desirable (I run 512MB on my main
machines and 196MB on an old backup machine). 128MB is scraping the bottom
of the barrel and to give some of that up to video is a disgrace. Still,
that's what you get when you penny-pinch.

My own Dell/Acer laptops do not have shared video memory so I did not know
it could/should be altered through BIOS setup. I'll pass the message on to
try tweaking setting there.

Cheers,
Tim.

There are problems with the Presario 700 Series overheating. This gets worse
when the extra memory is added. It simply causes the machine to crash all
the time.

HP/Compaq are aware of this, as are several memory chip manufacturers. Which
is why you can't even buy proper Compaq branded memory for this device.

I have one myself, I'm very dissapointed in Compaq's support on this laptop.
I now have to buy a new laptop, less than two years after buying the Compaq
Presario. Just because I need more memory. Not fair at all!

I see there is a class action lawsuit going for Toshiba, for doing something
similar to their customers. I wish the same would happen to Compaq.

Sorry for the bad news, but if you do a search on google - groups, then you
will see the problem is widespread.

JD
"Tiny Tim" wrote in message
...
HH wrote:
Dunno about the 700UK, but both the 700US and 700CA (Canada) entry
level 700 Series laptops have 256MB of RAM standard. I doubt Compaq
would bundle Win XP on a 96MB machine. You should be able to enter
the BIOS (F10 at bootup) and adjust the amount of system memory
allocated to video. I would recommend 256MB as the bare minimum for
running XP, and 500 if you want to do any serious computing.
HH

Thanks for the reply. The spec sheet for the 700UK is here -

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/g...name=c00030309
and shows 128MB as standard, with one free slot to add up to 256MB extra
memory. I totally agree 256MB or more is desirable (I run 512MB on my main
machines and 196MB on an old backup machine). 128MB is scraping the bottom
of the barrel and to give some of that up to video is a disgrace. Still,
that's what you get when you penny-pinch.

My own Dell/Acer laptops do not have shared video memory so I did not know
it could/should be altered through BIOS setup. I'll pass the message on to
try tweaking setting there.

Cheers,
Tim.

JD wrote:
There are problems with the Presario 700 Series overheating. This
gets worse when the extra memory is added. It simply causes the
machine to crash all the time.

HP/Compaq are aware of this, as are several memory chip
manufacturers. Which is why you can't even buy proper Compaq branded
memory for this device.

I have one myself, I'm very dissapointed in Compaq's support on this
laptop. I now have to buy a new laptop, less than two years after
buying the Compaq Presario. Just because I need more memory. Not fair
at all!

I see there is a class action lawsuit going for Toshiba, for doing
something similar to their customers. I wish the same would happen to
Compaq.

Sorry for the bad news, but if you do a search on google - groups,
then you will see the problem is widespread.

JD

Cheers for that. The laptop in question has the Duron 900 processor so
hopefully is not as prone to overheating as the higher spec models.

I've managed to track down what I believe is the right memory on the Crucial
website and left it to the laptop owner to phone Crucial herself and confirm
the facts before going ahead with the upgrade.

Tim :-)