[Caul]

Hi,

I have a HP205 G4 Notebook with the i3 5005U, 4GB RAM and running Win10 OS. As there's a spare memory slot, a listed max RAM capability of 8GB and I happen to have a 4GB stick lying around from a defunct laptop I thought I'd add it.

I added it... and nothing, sysinfo indicates RAM is still 4GB as does Task Manager. I booted to BIOS and there the total physical RAM listed is also 4GB.

However, Speccy can see the expected 8GB, single channel and lists the 4GB stick occupying each slot. Slot1 has the stick I added and Slot2 has the stick that came with the laptop. Both sticks are Samsung DDR3 SODIMM although the older one I put in is a 1.5volt and 667Mhz compared to the existing stick's 1.35volt and 800Mhz.

After some investigating as to possible solutions I have checked msconfig and 'max memory' is not checked nor is there an option in the BIOS for 'memory remapping' which I saw suggested elsewhere.

From what I have read so far the stick differences shouldn't have an effect, hence why I am here. Is it because of 'single channel'? Any other suggestions?


Cheers

 

[JMPC]

Your laptop uses PC3L (low voltage) RAM. Get a module with the same specifications as what's installed and you should be good. Another option would be to just replace what's there with a 2 x 4GB kit (or single 8GB).

Something like this should work:
Crucial 8GB Kit (4GBx2) DDR3L 1600 MT/s (PC3L-12800) SODIMM 204-Pin 1.35V/1.5V Memory - CT2KIT51264BF160B - Newegg.com

 

[Caul]

So much for my free RAM upgrade.

Given that it requires more voltage than the board is designed for, do you know why it is that Speccy can see the added RAM stick as though it's part of system memory?

Anyhoo cheers for the info, even though I was only upgrading the RAM because I had it spare I may end up buying it as Win10 here seems to be using more memory; with just Firefox running on one tab memory used is at 56%.