Upgrading Inspiron 6400 Memory

So I got some money for Christmas and I'm looking to get some Memory for my 6400 if I have any left over from getting a battery (aka if I don't get it from Dell). I ran a System Information thing and it says that I have 2 512mb DDR2 PC2-4300 sticks. I looked around on frys.com (I have a store close) and I can't find that type of memory. I checked online and found that I could use PC-5300 but it says I can only use 2gbs. Is this correct?

Also what would be a good brand/type to get?

 

I'm pretty sure the official maximum for the 6400/E1505 is 2GB, but I feel like I've seen/heard of 4GB upgrades too. Might just be a crapshot like the GL960. Any sort of memory with a lifetime warranty should be fine; just get the cheapest kind.

 

Thanks. I wasn't sure if therewas a diffrence between the memroy at different price ranges.

 

I got almost the same machine, im going up to 4 gig and see what happens. First I will verify what others have actually done but so far here is what I am leaning towards...

http://www.crucial.com/store/listmodule/DDRII/~HS~/list.html

 

I bought the crucial and installed it. There are folks who have this machine and have not gotten these results though. I think my Moboard may be an upgrade cuz I bought the machine with the hardware you see in its description below. I think there were ones available with the video card built onto the board, maybe thats the difference or the 64 bit processor I dont know but whatever here it is, 3.25 gig recognized for $50 including delivery!

 

I've read that you can go up to 4GB on Windows XP 32bit with PAE, google it and see, maybe you can push it even further .

 

I did put 4 Gig in it as per my previous post says, I even posted the link to the Crucial page. I used PC5300 DDR2, a set pair of 2 2Gig cards. The XP operating system I am using is 32 Bit and that seems to be the general concensus why it will only recognize 3.25 Gig of the 4 that's in there. At some point when Vista is more compatable with the vendors I must use at work I will reinstall it then maybe just maybe it will use more of whats there.

 

I can see that you have 4GB and I know about the general 32bit address limitation of Windows 32. I was pointing out the fact that since you have PAE : Physical Address Extension, which is a special hardware extension intended for overcoming the 32bit address limitation; you might be able to access all 4GBs (not limiting to just 3.25GB like the rest of use who don't have PAE).

 

Oh... I see. Now that I have no idea what your talking about I'll have to do the research and see what I come up with. Thanks for the heads up, Ill be sure to ask questions as needed and will inform this thread or forum with results

 

OK.. So far I know PAE is enabled, it is on as default in XP as long as one has the hardware to support it. This is where it gets vague. It may be using that extra space... or not. Only 4 Gig is allowed in XP SP3 and that is supposedly including the video card memory. So, if you got a big video card that would subtract from the 4 gig total. heres what I see when I go into system info. Let me know what you make of this, is what is called "available memory" all I get or is that whats available out of the 4 GIG seen on the screen and the rest of ot is in use?

 

E1505 WILL ONLY USE 3.25 Gigs of memory.. MAXIMUM.. no matter OS or speed or anything....

Dell (in their stupid wisdom) decided to lock the bios to only allow 3.25 gigs allocated to system...

I have 4 gigs of Kingston Hyper memory
667 and running windows 7 64 bit right now

I wish i could say different but i have been searching for a work around for a long time and found nothing..
BTW there are 2 different boards...
One board using an integrated intel video card while the other uses a pci express port to plug the video card into... does anyone know an update for the video card? i am using the x1400 right now

Btw i am using an msdn release of 64 bit but when the official public beta release comes out i am going back down to 32 bit.. no reason to use a 64 bit on an e1505 if it doesnt matter and wont allocate more then 3.25 gigs and it is just a pain in the behind because 64 bit is a pain

 

Numbus, I' also interested in a much better video card but... if you find one, please let me know.
heres a shot of what my task manager/performance monitor sees while running Prime.
I read somewhere that the next step is to "check your bios".. yeah like where ya gonna do that? I might as well be trying to perform brain surgery..LOL Ideas? Comments?

 

Tesla an upgrade for you would be the x1400.. since it is rated higher then the Ge Force Go7300 but i know what you mean.. one in a higher class.. not sure if any are supported by the bio and board...

 

I actually have an X1400 for this laptop in my closet!
will it make a big difference?

 

The 7300 you are using is about on par with the x1300.. the x1400 beats both of them hands down.. granted it still is a not great gaming chip... i really wish i had gone with teh t7200 instead of the t5600 but that was my mistake when i bought the machine

 

I wonder if they actually have the same Momo, you can get a processor. I think they have the same socket but the 7200 is a 64 bit processor and I would wonder if there are components on the board that are different to take advantage of this,, if not you can get the baddest azz one that your system will handle. There were one or two processors that were above the 7200 when I bought my machine

 

Hate to break it to you.. the T5600 is a 64 bit processor 2...