Dell Vostro 1500 Second Memory Slot?

Making a separate thread for this because this is a separate issue. I recently (last night) bought a cheap dell vostro 1500 laptop, and it came with 2gb ram, but some day i do want to replace that.

My concern is cpu-z shows 2 physical dimms installed, they do match, but i look on the back and the "M" cover only gives access to one of the two slots. Does anyone know how i would gain access to the second slot?

I've worked with computers for years.. i do realize that if i upgrade ram in that second slot in the back, and the added chip doesn't match with the one in the other slot (that i can't find) it'll lead to unstability.

So along these lines, surely dell thought to give us access to both memory ports.. or did they intend for us to add a 4gb dimm to a 1gb one? (that sounds scary from a stability point of view).

I know they have 4gb single dimms and despite dell saying this model supports 4gb total (2 * 2gb) i'm sure it would take 8gb (4 * 2gb), my old dell lattitude from 1999 said it only took 512mb (2 * 256mb) yet it's been running for nearly 8 years with 2gb (2 * 1gb). I just last night replaced it with the vostro

Does anyone have any input? Maybe own one of these laptopps and has done a memory upgrade?

 

I think you may have got lucky with your old Dell.

Pretty sure you are limited to 4GB on your current chipset/bios setup.

You will need to take the keyboard off for you to access the second sodimm.

Cheers!

 

Thanks! that's the info i needed to know, i'll try the memory sizes myself. And i wasn't lucky, i've done the same things with 10 different family-models of dell desktops in the past several years, dell always under-rates memory compatibility. "buy the more expensive model because it supports higher memory".

 

I'm pretty sure the 1500 will take more than the official 4GB. Maybe not 8GB (I heard some Inspiron 1520/1720 - same hardware as Vostro 1500/1700 - owners had trouble with 8GB), but 6GB seems like it'll work reliably.

 

Sounds like Dell...

Found this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=226666

(Link doesn't work to the Intel PDF, but the quote is helpful - I think you have the same chipset).

Now, whether Dell allows (BIOS limitations) is another story.

Good luck.

 

memory upgrade will probably be like, fall 2010.. when ever i get money, first on the list is a SSD and upgrade it to a 3d video card.

I'll dig up this thread and see what i come up with when i get to the memory part.

 

I'll keep a look out for the update.

You may not need 8GB or RAM (unless it was dirt cheap, of course):

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5611835#post5611835

 

do u really need more than 4GB RAM? 4GB is more than enough unless u do RAM intensive apps like Photoshop... but from what i read 6GB should work...8Gb might cause problems...