I there is a way to have 4gb ram on a 32bit system using PAE (Physical Address Extension). PAE is supported but not enabled in most 32bit version of windows. At least that’s what microsoft say’s. The following article describes how you can enable PAE:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366796%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Thank you for the link.

Good luck and post results

Also, the ‘baking’ process works multiple times on the 7900gs (250C for 5mins), and gives you a great story to tell others “i got a free laptop by baking it in the oven” :really” “yeah, pop it in at 250C for 5 mins, take it out, let it cool for 10mins and Voila! fresh laptop!” you can see how this ammuses people, they usually dont believe you the first time xD. However, if you are unfortunate like me, you will want to get either the ati x1400 card or the 7900gtx (FX2500m if you want to put in the effort). but thats just my opinion.

so yeah, heads up on drivers would be great,

Cheers guys

I just upgraded my Dell Inspiron E1705 Laptop. I added a new CPU an Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 64bit processor and 4GB of RAM. After you add these items and power on for the first time, it will take a couple of mins to boot while it recognizes the changes. It will then say something like Time and Date are incorrect … hit F1 to continue etc as well as Memory config has changed…hit F1 to contunie etc. Once ur past that it should boot into your OS.

I am running 32bit Windows 7 and my latop is only recognizing 3.2GB of RAM. I also upgraded the BIOS to A10 which is the most recent version made in 2009. I’m not sure why we can’t get more than the 3.2GB it allocates. That’s the only part that sux.

The system is faster and now I can run VMware Workstation running a single VM which is Windows 2008 R2 and installing Citrix inside that VM and it works great….just like my wife’s late 2008 Toshiba latop. I purchased my Dell in spring of 2006 so am happy that I can at least Virtalize it.

FYI… if you’re gonna do the same, when you install your new CPU, go into the BIOS and enable virtualization…assuming you have the same or similar BIOS as A10. I recently upgraded to that from A04…prior to my CPU upgrade as I didn’t want any BIOS probs…eg: not recognizing the new 64bit cpu etc…

Hope this helps! FYI…so from what I’ve learned on this thread…even if I were to install Windows 7 64bit which I was about to..it looks like it would only see 3.2GB still. Oh, as well, when I went into the BIOS ver A10 it did say that it has 4GB of memory but only 3.2GB is usable as the rest was for system memory.

I think the Video card also uses some of the RAM…from what I recall so perhaps that may have something to do with it…

If it were cheap….I would love to try 4x2GB = 8GB and see if the system gives me at least 7GB after…:)))) Anyone willing to try?

Take care,

KC

I appreciate the advice and suggestions, but alas, I need a replacement card. Booooo!

I just picked up a XPS M1710 with a bad video card. Just want to get this XPS up and running.

Looks like Dell XPS M1710 is one of those models mentioned on the NVIDIA settlement website.
I guess it has failed NVIDIDA chip.
If you have nothing to lose, you can try these tricks to fix the video card:
http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2010/04/06/fixing-compaq-presario-v6000-motherboard-no-video-issue/
or
http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2011/02/23/fix-laptop-motherboard-with-failed-nvidia-graphics-chip/

I was just wondering does installing the nVidia Quatro FX2500m 512MB graphics card pose any problems where the system limits performance, in the same way it limits memory.

Also I am told the best CPU is a T7600, but has anyone tried a faster CPU? after all Dell did say the system was limited to 2GB ram.

Cheers

Kenny

I got this upgrade but my dell 9400 use just 3.2Gb memory, help me why!?

Are you running a 64-bit version or Windows 7?