Upgrade RAM on a laptop

[#1]

I need help/advice from someone who understands laptops.

My friend has a laptop with only a 2GB RAM which is slow and wants to upgrade to 4GB.

If she buys a 2GB RAM card and puts it in the spare slot above the existing card will this make 4GB RAM or is she better buying a 4GB RAM and just replace the existing card it looks easy to do any hints.

Its a DDR3/L/RS 1333 RAM where is best place to obtain one from.

Thanks

[#2]

In my opinion, she's better off buying 2 matching 2 gig ram giving 4 gig, if she buys just one 2 gig stick it may not be the same memory as per make etc. A matching pair will be much better. As from where to buy from, any computer/laptop repair shop should be able to sort her out with a pair of matching sticks, and it will be cheaper than buying from a big company. Hope this helps.

[#3]

for normal day to day use it should make no difference whether it is 1 x 4GB or 2 x 2GB.
it will simply come down to price.

however, there is nothing stopping them putting 1 x 4GB AND 1 x 2GB giving a total of 6GB.

it will simply come down to cost as to which route they go down.

[#4]

It may be low profile RAM

I  would suggest starting here http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/memory-info for the best advice

Cost isn't likely to be much different between suppliers

Note that the computer may use a dual channel memory controller so  2 x 2GB may be better

[#5]

Hi,

A good site to use is the crucual website and use their tool for analyzing your system (http://uk.crucial.com/). Crucial produce and supply memory and the tool will tell you what type/speed of RAM you have and what options you have. You will find out the price, if you're happy with used RAM then you will find lots on ebay.

Also, get the make/model of the laptop and download the user manual which will confirm the compatibly memory and how much you can add.

If you have 2 slots, and assuming the maximum the laptop will take in each slot is 4GB then the possible combinations should be:

2 + 2 giving 4GB (here you buy one 2GB stick)

2 + 4 giving 6GB (here you buy one 4GB stick)

4 + 4 giving 8GB (here you buy two 4GB sticks)

Personally, I would put in the maximum (8GB is more than enough for everyday usage) and try to use identical sticks of RAM (not sure how pertinent this is nowadays, just a personal preference).

Looking for the part number on the current stick of RAM already in the laptop and buying the same will ensure a perfect match.

Hope this helps.

[#6]

of course it also depends on the OS.
if it's 32bit windows then no point putting in more than 4GB.

[#7]

It also depends on how old the laptop is. Some of the older ones (like wifey's) will only take 4gig max.

[#8]

Depending on the age and health of the computer, adding RAM may or may not help.  2 GB is typically a bit small for any supported version of Windows (I.e. 7, 8 or 10) - although I had a Vista laptop upgraded to Windows 7 that seemed to run perfectly well with 2 GB of RAM.  If it is lack of RAM then it is the use of the paging file (pagefile.sys) that causes the computer to run slowly.  I sometimes try setting 'No paging file' and see how much the computer complains about this.  Also, this file can become corrupt so turning it off, making sure that it is deleted form the computer then turning it back on again may help.   

[#9]

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@chenks76 wrote:
if it's 32bit windows then no point putting in more than 4GB.

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You will actually get less than 3GB. My 32bit box has 4GB installed, but says that only 2.83 is useable

[#10]

get the part number off the existing ram stick go to google and search for it, chances are it will give you both shop prices and offers available on ebay, then you can choose if you want to buy brand new or used

depending on the make /model of the laptop it might have a slot for a secondary hard drive if so it might be worthwhile grabbing an ssd (if you buy a Samsung one it comes with drive clone software that you need the ability to plug it in externally in order to use) you can then in theory give it a massive boost in speed, and keep the existing hard drive as storage space although none of this is worth doing if it isn't running a 64 bit version of at least windows 7 unless its being upgraded in preparation for sale....

I bought some parts for my kids laptops a few years ago when window 8 was new (because that's what they had on school pc's) and upgraded them to ssd's as well as doubling their ram but not all makes and modles have that ability /

[#11]

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@wisty wrote:

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@chenks76 wrote:
if it's 32bit windows then no point putting in more than 4GB.

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You will actually get less than 3GB. My 32bit box has 4GB installed, but says that only 2.83 is useable

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depending on the operating system your using there used to be a tweak to allow more ram to be addressed by the system, a tweak that was officially provided by MS so servers could operate with up to 256gig of ram back in the day .... 

then again if the op's friends laptop is running win7 or newer then they just need to get a 64bit version of the OS media as MS doesn't care if you use the 32 or the 64 bit version the licence key is the same either way 

[#12]

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depending on the operating system your using there used to be a tweak to allow more ram to be addressed by the system, a tweak that was officially provided by MS so servers could operate with up to 256gig of ram back in the day .... 

then again if the op's friends laptop is running win7 or newer then they just need to get a 64bit version of the OS media as MS doesn't care if you use the 32 or the 64 bit version the licence key is the same either way 

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Thanks for the pointer, but that tweak doesn't seem to work on my Win 7 Home premium, and I need a 32bit platform for an old mail program (Turnpike) I still use. I could go to a VM ( I have no the desktop), but right now a simple 32 bit machine works fine.

[#13]

32 bit programs should still run perfectly fine on 64 bit windows OS

there shouldn't be any need to stick to the 32bit OS for the program to work, if all else fails you just run it in 32bit compatibility mode, and possibly set it to have core 100% affinity with just one core (like core 3 on amd or core 2 on intel) on a multi core cpu if its a really old program that pitches a fit and refuses to run despite being set in compatibility mode...

although I have to admit I've forgotten a lot about win7 having not used it in the last few years and being spoilt by only ever using the pro versions of win8/8.1 and 10 (purely because the pro upgrade pack to win8 was £25 per copy while the home version was £90 and both 8.1 and 10 were "free" upgrades on a like for like basis) so maybe the home version is different and less useable...

[#14]

UPDATE:

We purchased a 4GB RAM card from a local computer repair shop for slightly cheaper than EBay.

I have fitted it into the laptop replacing the existing 2GB with the 4GB and installing the old 2GB in the spare slot it now shows 6.00 GB RAM 5.82 GB usable.

The laptop is now very much faster and we are very pleased with the result and would recommend anyone else to do it because its so easy.

Thanks to everyone for their contribution.

[#15]

Happy to see you got it sorted.