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HP Recommended
Compaq Presario CQ60-300SI Notebook PC

Hi everyone,
I wanted to ask if anyone knows where to find a BIOS update for my Compaq Presario CQ60-300SI notebook which currently has bios version F37. I'm asking because I replaced the original 2 GB of RAM with 4 GB but the system (Windows 10 32 bit) only sees 2.7 GB instead of the 4 GB installed.
Could it be a BIOS update problem??

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
HP Recommended

Hi:

 

I doubt that updating the BIOS would resolve the problem.

 

Some of the memory you installed went to support the shared graphics memory.

 

On those old notebooks you're doing great if Windows shows 3 GB out of 4 GB of memory.

 

Also, since you are running W10 and the BIOS updates were designed to be run on Windows Vista or Windows 7, you run a huge risk of permanently wrecking the notebook if you run the BIOS update on an unsupported operating system.

 

FWIW, here is the last BIOS update HP released for your notebook:

 

WinFlash for HP Notebook System BIOS (for Notebooks with AMD Processors)

 

F.54 A

 

Operating systems:
 
  • Microsoft Windows 7 (32-bit)
  • Microsoft Windows 7 (64-bit)
  • Microsoft Windows Vista (32-bit)
  • Microsoft Windows Vista (64-bit)
Release date:
Aug 27, 2009

 

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp45001-45500/sp45070.exe 

 

This is what the update does:

 

Improves the security feature.
Adds support for the next generation of Microsoft Windows Operating Systems.

 

View solution in original post

5 REPLIES 5
HP Recommended

Hi:

 

I doubt that updating the BIOS would resolve the problem.

 

Some of the memory you installed went to support the shared graphics memory.

 

On those old notebooks you're doing great if Windows shows 3 GB out of 4 GB of memory.

 

Also, since you are running W10 and the BIOS updates were designed to be run on Windows Vista or Windows 7, you run a huge risk of permanently wrecking the notebook if you run the BIOS update on an unsupported operating system.

 

FWIW, here is the last BIOS update HP released for your notebook:

 

WinFlash for HP Notebook System BIOS (for Notebooks with AMD Processors)

 

F.54 A

 

Operating systems:
 
  • Microsoft Windows 7 (32-bit)
  • Microsoft Windows 7 (64-bit)
  • Microsoft Windows Vista (32-bit)
  • Microsoft Windows Vista (64-bit)
Release date:
Aug 27, 2009

 

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp45001-45500/sp45070.exe 

 

This is what the update does:

 

Improves the security feature.
Adds support for the next generation of Microsoft Windows Operating Systems.

 

HP Recommended

Hi Paul thanks for your reply,

I updated the BIOS with the old Windows vista disk, the BIOS sees 4 GB installed but Windows shows as you supposed only 2.7 GB. Do you recommend switching to Windows 7 64 bit to use all available hardware resources?

HP Recommended

You're very welcome.

 

Unfortunately, that won't make any difference.

 

Actually, it could hurt performance because a 64-bit OS needs more memory and disk space to run than a 32-bit OS does.

 

Not double, but more.

 

I once experimented on an old PC that could only support 4 GB of memory and installed a 64 GB OS on it, thinking it would show all 4 GB available.

 

No difference.

 

But you can try a 64-bit OS and see what happens.

 

It's always fun to experiment as long as you have the time and resources to do it.

 

 

HP Recommended

I noticed that although Windows 10 is installed on an SSD disk, the operating system runs very slowly, whereas Windows Vista installed on a traditional disk moves much more smoothly.
Is this behavior normal??

HP Recommended

I'm afraid it is normal because W10 takes more resources to run than Vista or W7 did.

 

I think the 'sweet spot' OS on that platform would be W7 32 bit.

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