Do I have to remove the cover on a computer to find out what hardware is there?

Question

I received an older computer from a friend and I would like to find out about the ram brand name and if it is upgradable, would'nt that info be in files or folders? The computer is a premio with 64MB of ram.

Answer 1

Hi There - your computer is likely very well listed with all drivers and parts on the website:

http://support.premiopc.com

(Next time you ask a QUESTION, please list the model, and you will get more direct help, faster and easier ! )

Which seems very helpful. BUT, no matter what diagnosis software like DXDIAG etc. that you use, you will have to look at what is physically inside the case - for example, a diagnosis or CONTROL PANEL / SYSTEM / Device Manager might tell you that you have a harddrive. But if you wanted to add another one- is there a bay? You might find that you have a stick of SDRAM in
a slot. Great, but if you want to add more, how many other slots are there? Sometimes a computer will have 2 SDRAM slots, and 2 DDR slots, with different amounts of different speeds and voltages are possible in the different slots. You would either need a very detailed MAP in the manual, or the listing in the manual of the different types used.
If the boot bios states " 256 Meg Ram " - what ram? where ? What other types can be upgraded.??
You can get an idea of what is inside by just going to the link I listed above. However, before you go out and buy or gather upgrade parts, you really should open the case - do the floppy and HD/CD bays use slide-in prorietary rails and clips? - If so, you cant install anything in the bays until you get the correct slider rails...
I often find unlisted, undocumented features on motherboards and every metal case has " features" and clips and bays etc. that sometimes will cause problems if you don't have the correct parts handy.
Going into a computer store and buying a bunch of computer ram and Harddrives and upgrades is a really BAD idea if you haven't bothered to open the case to see what mechanical limitations you might encounter.
By all means use diagnostic tools to determine what is installed - like Device manager, or Dxdiagostics, but do open the case as well. There are hundreds of different mechanical layouts for any given computer class, so you really should be forewarned and prepared.


Tools that might help you " look " inside the computer to access
what you have might be some of the following:

EVEREST
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html


COMPUTER CENSUS
http://tucows.com/preview/502506


ASTRA32
http://tucows.com/preview/348128

MvPCinfo

http://tucows.com/preview/404367

Motherboard Monitor

http://www.sofotex.com/Motherboard-Monitor-download_L15737.html

Belarc Advisor

http://www.belarc.com


CPU-Z 1.36

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

However, you really must be aware that, as you state in your QUESTION, you want to know what type of ram you have, and the most that any software will tell you is the GENERIC amounts, and perhaps, a bit about the slots that the ram is sitting in, but there will be little about who made the ram, whether it is single sided, or double sided, or whether it is arranged in memory locations such as 1 x 64, 2 x 32, 4 x 16 etc. or, whether or not that brand or configuration will work in your computer. To make the ram issue even more interesting, a stick of ram may work just fine in your computer BY ITSELF, but refuse to work if added to your existing stick(s) of ram. I find sometimes that I have to remove all existing ram, boot from the new ram, and then add the old ram one by one rebooting each time - in EXACTLY the right order, to get them all to work together. There is nothing in any manual - either by the motherboard manufacturer or the ram manufacturer about this common problem. Sometimes, a new stick of ram simply will not work at all in any given motherboard.
I have started taking in my computers, sitting them on the counters, and putting in the new ram right in the store, until I get one that works...
Also, you do not state just what the purpose of the upgrade is. One answerer stated what you might do to add XP, etc. but this is just guessing. The motherboard will have definite limits as to what CPU will be allowed at what speed maximum. This will be the most critical factor. Be certain to get the latest BIOS download, and read about the features of the BIOS - it may include CPUs that were not available at the time the MANUAL was printed, so that higher speeds may be possible to tweak the speed up a bit.
Once you have read the manual on the premio website, and determined by opening the case and looking at what slots are filled with what ram, you can add or remove and replace ram with larger amounts ( to the limit that the motherboard is pre-wired for ).
Then you can upgrade the next most critical " Speed " factor - the RPM and the cache of the harddrive - you would be amazed how much faster an entire computer will run with a newer drive that has more memory and higher RPM.
Finally, a large part of the computer's time is spent writing dots to the monitor, 60 to 100 times a second, so that if your motherboard has an AGP ( video ) slot, you can upgrade to a faster video CPU with more video ram, and get better overall computer performance.
There will be a limit to all of this, and you have to determine if all the " UPGRADES" you are doing, will be worth the costs involved - will the end result be a computer good enough to do the work you have planned?
If you are lucky, you can increase the CPU speed, the ram, the harddrive and the video card, and make the unit fast enough to perform a specific task.

Good luck.

Answer 2

Do a web search on premio and see what the specs were. What you have is fine for Win98. To jump to XP you will not only have to increase the ram (preferably to 256 if not 512) but will have to replace the hard drive as I doubt what is in there is very large. Keep in mind that you will still have a slow system. You may be able to up the cpu as well but you will not be able to do anything with the fsb. If you are lucky you will have an AGP slot but it may only be 4x.

Answer 3

Emachines.... lol.... oh no's.... 9 in 10 odds that it really is the flexibility grant. There would also be undesirable caps on the board. Emachines is undesirable information. have you ever those days further a ramification card to the computing gadget, like a video card? once you've the OEM power grant only isn't waiting to cope with it. First, open the case and examine out the motherboard. make certain not one of the capacitors are leaking or bulging. next change out the flexibility grant for a superior 400 or 500 watt. If that would not clean up the precedence, re-seat your memory. If that would not clean up your problem change out the memory. If that would not clean up your problem, it really is possibly a useless board. 9 out of 10 it really is the flexibility grant although. it somewhat is possibly what it really is.

Answer 4

If you are using Windows, and also using Direct X, type in "dxdiag" in the run line (without the quotes) and that will display system information. Click on the tabs to learn more. If you have a Mac, I can't help you.

Answer 5

No all you have 2 do is go to start, control panel, performance and maintenance, administrative tools, double click computer managment, then click device manager. But for wut u want 2 know im sure you need to open it up and look at the label

Answer 6

don't open up the pc unless you have to everest home edition usually tells what brand of memory and how much is there