[endGame]

ok...let's see if someone can help me out here.

i've cracked open the Dell Mini's BIOS (for the most part...some parameters were "undefined"), and i can't find the line where it says the video is limited to 64mb. is it really in the Dell system BIOS, or is it the VIDEO bios that should be looked into?

and just a screenie of what i am looking at currently: (save the image somewhere to see the whole thing)

[godgiot]

Hi,
I don't know it was possible, what kind of tool do you use to explore bios ? I've no answer to your question, but I'm looking into bios to change some values, without looking for.
Bye

[teeth_03]

guess we have to consider doing some hacking to do this,since Dell probably wont do anything about it

good luck man

[endGame]

Originally Posted by godgiot

Hi,
I don't know it was possible, what kind of tool do you use to explore bios ? I've no answer to your question, but I'm looking into bios to change some values, without looking for.
Bye

the dell bios is based off of phoenix bios, evident from the recent a01 upgrade. there's an app called phoenix bios editor floating around the net. as long as you have the rom, you can open the bios and see all its values. but again, i didn't see a section where the video ram was detailed. maybe i missed it, or maybe it's not there.

[acabtp]

there aren't any options for video settings in the system BIOS. people have just been speculating that it'd hopefully be changeable someday.

[phobos512]

I'm curious where the 64MB spec has been derived from? I read through the tech briefs on the GMA 950 on Intel's website and it states that the chipset is capable of addressing up to 224MB of memory.

Also, doesn't the fact that Ubuntu with 1GB of RAM installed or more say it only has access to 883MB suggest that the GMA 950 is using more than 64MB?

[acabtp]

Originally Posted by phobos512

I'm curious where the 64MB spec has been derived from?

not that I'd agree with them, but I'm sure Dell's thinking was that since they weren't planning on people using these for much more than desktop applications and that they were selling them with as little as 512 mb RAM, they wanted to provide sufficient resources for their intended application and minimize the impact it would have on system RAM. as far as not making it adjustable, my only guess is that's a cost saving feature or there was some other barrier to implementation that we don't know about.

[teeth_03]

Originally Posted by acabtp

my only guess is that's a cost saving feature or there was some other barrier to implementation that we don't know about.

its called laziness on Dells part

[UnaClocker]

Originally Posted by phobos512

I'm curious where the 64MB spec has been derived from? I read through the tech briefs on the GMA 950 on Intel's website and it states that the chipset is capable of addressing up to 224MB of memory.

Also, doesn't the fact that Ubuntu with 1GB of RAM installed or more say it only has access to 883MB suggest that the GMA 950 is using more than 64MB?

Dell's Ubuntu sees 883mb of ram even after you upgrade to 2gb. It's a worthless kernel, not an indication of what's being shared with video.
As for hacking the bios.. You definitely won't find a text string regarding video ram, since it's not an option. But, I imagine it's still possible, it's just one of the parameters that's hard coded in.
There is no video bios on an integrated chipset. It's all in the system bios.

[G2244]

Okay, I admittedly know next to nothing about all of this, but would get a MINI 9 if the video card could be set to at least 128 MB.

It looks like the MSI Wind had a similar issue and indeed a BIOS update gave it what they wanted (and more - to 224MB):
http://forums.msiwind.net/post33371.html#p33371

Pretty similar hardware, so any resaon that this couldn't work on the MINI 9?