G40 max ram

[yha]

Hello,

I have recently acquired a G40 (type 2338-EJU) ThinkPad from eBay with 256MB RAM. The official specs of this unit suggest the maximum amount of RAM that can be used is 1GB, but having owned other ThinkPads I know that IBM/Lenovo puts these "max supported" certifications based on whatever they tested and whatever was available at the time (for example, official specs say X200 can take 4GB only when it's actually 8GB). The unit I bought according to specs has an Intel 852GM chipset, which can address a maximum of 1GB RAM. However, I've seen reports on the forums here and elsewhere that the maximum is actually 2GB. How is that possible if the chipset can't address more than 1GB? How do I know the true maximum so I can buy appropriate SODIMMs? In my case, I don't think there exists PC2100 RAM modules larger than 1GB so it's either 512MB+512MB or 1GB+1GB, but how can I tell?

Thanks.

[Shredder11]

I had two G40 machines and yes I successfully used 2GB in them with no problems at all, and all 2GB fully usable. I've also got the same currently in my G41 machine, along with SSD drive. The only thing I have not got working so far, is a Gigabit Network card via the Cardbus slot. It recognises the card and installs the driver, but that is as far as I have got with it.

[Hacker117]

My IBM ThinkPad G40 laptop was bought in 2004 and came from the IBM Store (long gone) with 2GB RAM and a 3GHz single core P4 desktop CPU under the hood + a 40 GB PATA/IDE 7200 RPM HDD. It’s still giving satisfactory performance hosting antiX Linux 19.2 32 bit. It can still render webpages and play DVD movies without a single freeze or stutter using VLC all day long.
It was a special order and cost $3000 back in the day. Not many laptops have spanned 16 years which is an eternity for digital stuff. They don’t build them like that any more.

[Hacker117]

I had two G40 machines and yes I successfully used 2GB in them with no problems at all, and all 2GB fully usable. I've also got the same currently in my G41 machine, along with SSD drive. The only thing I have not got working so far, is a Gigabit Network card via the Cardbus slot. It recognises the card and installs the driver, but that is as far as I have got with it.

... a d-link PCMCIA wifi card (g, n) works perfectly in my IBM ThinkPad G40
... where the rubber meets the road in these old beasts is the very “busy” modern internet browser interface ... the ancient (2004) IBM G40 doesn’t render webpages lightning fast but it gets the job done amazingly well for a 16 year old computer
... antiX 32 bit is the ideal O/S for older-ancient hardware