DDR2 PC2-6400 on a PC2-5300 laptop?

I was just wondering if this will work without problems.
I have a spare 1gb DDR2 PC-6400 ram stick that I pulled out of my little netbook when I upgraded. So, I was wondering if I could install it into my Dad's Acer One ZG5 netbook. Currently he has 512mb built in and a 512mb stick in there which is OK, but 1.5gbs would do better for Win7 (very bare install).

The thing is that recommended RAM for this netbook is DDR2 PC2-5300. My question is will this laptop work with DDR2 PC-6400 ram?

Just looking at it, I would thing that it wouldn't work, but I think I read somewhere that it will work, but just at a slower speed.

 

it will work. The faster ram will downclock to 5300

 

It might work, it should work - it has to work!

Especially if you have an Acer One netbook that needs this level of disassembly to get that stick of RAM in.

See:
How to add RAM to the Acer Aspire One netbook | AspireOneUser.com - Acer Aspire One User Resource Forum & Blog


With 1.5GB of RAM, the system will have effectively twice the usable RAM for programs the user runs - but, will you be able to assemble it as it was before with no extra (bonus!) parts?

More importantly; will you be as enthusiastic to take it apart again if the RAM causes issues for your Dad?

Funny thing is, I just had the same possible project to do (not for my Dad though...) - I refused to - returned the notebook back how it was (well, I tweaked it a little...) and told them next time, get the model with twice the RAM!

Just to be clear: yes, the faster RAM module will downclock and match to the lower module's speed - but that also depends on the chipset too. This is the 'standard' for notebook's, but netbooks can be a little, uh... proprietary.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the confirmation. Will try it later this week.

Thanks for the heads up, but I have already taken the little thing apart few months ago when I replaced the harddrive.
It's actually not that hard to take apart this netbook. Takes about 10 minutes.

 

Is this an Acer Aspire One with the Atom Processors, Intel Celeron, or AMD Processor (Should be a sticker on palm rest).


If its an Atom Processor the max you can have is 1GB of Ram. The ZG5 is normally the Atom Processor so the max should be 1GB of Ram.

Edit: Nvm, I see how it can have 1.5gb from the built in ram. I've just never heard of them having 512 built in.

 

so what it doesn't under stand higher density 2gb module or has bios lock out? chip set can't allocate more than 1.5gb?