Need system bios for an older gateway laptop

[Pepperidge]

I've been searching everywhere and haven't come across it...

This is for my mother-in-laws PC

I need the System bios for a gateway notebook mx3225 running win XP (have found it for vista)

this notebook is supposed to be upgradeable to 1Gb of ram...and the thing keeps running low on virtual memory and is slow as heck...So I reformatted with Win XP pro (oem)

but the system does not recognize the ram and won't boot to bios/startup...put the original 256mb back in and it will fire right up... I bought the ram new for her...kingston 1GB PC2-4200 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM SODIMM

this seems to be the only one others have had success with in upgrading to 1Gb...

any help would be appreciated...

Thanks,

Pepp

 

[SuperTuscan]

Hi Pepp,

I found this thread:

http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/577467-memory-upgrade-problems-gateway-mx3225.html

Looks like you already have the memory they said works (you've probably read everything I have on the subject).

Gateway's website does not show a BIOS or any worthwhile software for that matter for XP.

Would you happen to have a spare HD and a vista disc? You could install vista on the spare drive without activating it, do the BIOS update and then replace the original drive and see if the BIOS will see the memory.

Are you sure it is a BIOS issue? I didn't read everything that was out there so I'm not sure if it's a known issue with the BIOS as the fix or not.

 

[Pepperidge]

I'm just grasping with the bios...I checked the bios revision upon startup and the bios shows as 73.08 which according to gateways website is for a vista equipped mx3225 laptop...don't know if when I was installing some of the drivers for the laptop to get some hardware issues worked out if I accidentally dl'd the vista bios and installed it or what...everything works fine except the ram upgrade...does exactly like the problems others are having when upgrading...

not sure if the wrong bios is causing it but the system will only recognize 192mb of the 256mb of oem ram...I ran Ms win diag for ram testing and there are no errors with the oem 256 just that it recognizes 192 not 256 in my computer properties...

 

[Franko914]

Hello Pepp,

Sorry, no luck with the BIOS for XP although several hits with success using more expensive RAM modules.

Try downloading (freeware) Belarc advisor to get an accurate picture of what's loaded on your PC (hardware, software, OS, BIOS, drivers, etc.).

Some motherboards will report less RAM "available" because peripheral resources go past the HiMem boundary and use up extended memory (RAM). I just built a PC with an Intel Mobo and Belacr reports 2942 KB of memory installed, but clearly indicates the 4 memory slots populated with 1 GB each. Boots up to count only 2.9 GB because 1.1 GB is used by peripherals (USB, 1394, PCIe). In my case, I believe the main culprit is the PCIextended slot for my video adapter.

 

[Pepperidge]

I have the gateway operating system CD...is there anyway to extract just the system bios from it to revert back to? or is a complete reload in order?

or can the bios even be changed from the CD? is it preloaded on the system board prior to gateways install of the operating system? hence a reload would not even change the bios?

Franko:I thought Kingston was the one everyone got to work on them...maybe you found a couple different threads than I have...What more expensive ram modules are you referring to? name&price?

 

[Heartbeat Hauler]

I have been out of the PC/Laptop repair business for awhile now, but just cruising the net found this site. It says you can download the BIOS upgrade for your mx3225. Scroll about half way down. Don't know if this will help or not, hope it does.

http://www.user-guides.co.uk/download/bios/biosupgrade/bios-upgrade-gateway-mx3225.html

 

[Franko914]

Hello Pepp,

There are several Kingston SODIMM modules that match the specifications you indicated, here are just some:

-- p/n M12864E40
-- p/n KVR533D2S4/1GBK
-- p/n KTH-ZD8000A/1G
-- p/n KTT533D2/1G

One guy claimed another part number worked (it wasn't even a SODIMM). At least two hits I found quoted the first p/n M12864E40 as successful installs and it can be had for ~$30+shipping nowadays ($99 about a year or so ago).

The BIOS for WinXP is a female dog to find. You can try the following (scan the laptop for current BIOS/drivers and they may have BIOS options):

-- http://www.wimsbios.com/biosupdates/gateway.jsp
-- http://driverwhiz.com/drivers-en?br...-90000001012&gclid=CPqH29KT6KQCFVB95QodL0JG1w

The recovery CDs most probably do not have the BIOS files...if they can be extracted (or downloaded from somewhere), they can be installed from within Windows, rather than from a boot diskette/CD. Another option is to replace the BIOS ROM, and there are a few outfits out there.

Will keep searching...

 

[Franko914]

Hello Pepp,

I've searched high and low and cannot locate the XP bios file. Found just one MX3000 series BIOS and it's for a different model.

What I've found, though, are a few BIOS chip replacement outfits, one of which is at: http://www.biosman.com/replacement.htm

The website provides instructions and is "reasonable" in price (relative, I guess). Check it out. I did one in the mid-90s after a flash BIOS update died and was unrecoverable...scavenged one from another PC with mobo problems. Good luck.

Regards,
Franko

 

[mario]

Hello
I have the same problem as you. I was trying a RAM by Kingston KVR533D2S4/1G and it shows only 512MB. My bios is 73.08. The guy in store told me to use PC3200 but this is not what manufacturer recommends. Maybe this module M12864E40 by Kingston will work but I have to order it. No stock. Please update if you had any success with this issue.

 

[Franko914]

Memory modules are not made alike. If you ever wonder why some are more expensive than others, even though they may have the same or even identical specs, it's what's on the chips, literally. Some have very advanced memory managers (actual code on processor chips) that handle tasks such as timing (eliminating the majority of retries, etc., resulting in higher performance) when passing data between the memory chips and the PC's CPU. Apparently, the DIMMs that have their full capacity reported when the BIOS program runs work because they have these advance memory managers.