FL90 will not boot with 4gb RAM & Vista64

I just purchased a 4gb RAM kit (gskill) for my FL90. I am running Vista 64bit, and the specs for the FL90 indicate it supports 4gb RAM. When I put both sticks in and try to turn on the computer I just get a black screen as if no memory is found (the blue power button lights up) (I don't even get to the screen where I can hit F2 for setup options). If I stick either of the new sticks in by themselves (in either slot) it fires up nicely. If I put a new 2gb stick along with one of my old 1gb sticks the computer boots, but Vista looks like it is in safe mode (only it seems pretty unstable)...it does recognize 3gb of ram though. I don't think it is a Vista issue because I put in another hard drive with XP Pro installed and it wouldn't enter the boot sequence either. The fact that it goes nowhere makes me think it has to do with my BIOS. When I go into F2 setup it shows version "1.07" which doesn't mean anything to me. I looked at downloading BIOS from compal and Intel and they all say they won't install on a 64bit system when I try to run the installer...

The gskill RAM specs are:
200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM, 667 (PC2 5300)

My old 1gb sticks (corsair) specs are the same as above (except 1gb each)

My other system specs are:
COMPAL 4090 Series FL90 15.4in DDR2 667
INTEL Core 2 Duo 2.20 GHz 800 MHz 4MB Mobile Processor
nVidia GeForce 8600M GT 512MB
Intel 965PM

I know enough about computers to follow your directions (probably). But detailed step by step instructions would be greatly appreciated. Let me know if more information is needed.

Thanks so much!!!!

 

Do you sp1 installed?

if not they patch for for 4 gig ram

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929777

 

I have SP1 is installed.

 

Sorry I thought you computer posted but you vista not boot

bios or hardware issues maybe ram incompbaitily


or to upgrade you bios you problay need usb floppy or usb flash or bootable cdrom or 32 bit os to install if they windows flash util

 

Which BIOS version are you running.

 

Compal 1.07 is what cpu-z shows.

 

This is a known problem with BIOS ver. 107.

The problem was resolved with BIOS ver. 109.
Issues Fixed:
1. Fix Robson incorrect location of PCM
2. Fix system will hang on boot (black screen) when attached 4G RAM
3. Fix System will fail to boot after S4 in DC mode with TPM Enabled.
4. Fix Winflash will destroy SLP2 data.

I would suggest updating the BIOS to at least 110.

 

That is very helpful. Where did you find the "problems resolved in BIOS 1.09"? Intel has version 1.12B available for download, so I'm guessing it's a beta version? I'd rather use an older version. Know where I can find other versions? (I'm not that impressed with Compal's site)... Anyone like to recommend a version?

Also, I've never flashed BIOS before, and it makes me a little nervous after reading an article online. Has anyone flashed BIOS to an FL90 before? Do you recommend using uniflash or some other program? Any cautions for flashing to FL90's?

Thanks!

 

I am running BIOS Ver. 110 on my FL90.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=206979

 

The latest version is 1.16 by the way.
You can get it here.

 

So update to the latest bios to get full support for the notebooks mainboard.

 

Thanks to all who contributed! I updated my bios to v. 1.13 using masterbw's iso found here http://forum.notebookreview.com/archive/index.php/t-182315.html (about the 10th post down). Made it really easy.

My laptop posts and shows all 4gb of RAM. It is now running about as fast as it was back when I was running XP with 2gb or RAM!! Haha!