Memory upgrade likely to cause rise in heat output?

Have just upgraded my Dell Inspiron 6400/e1505 from 2 x 512mb (533mhz Dell factory supplied memory) to 2 x 1gb (667mhz Crucial). I'm sure it is causing the laptop to get much hotter than it previously did. The system recognised the new memory straight away after booting up and everything else is running as normal but the laptop seems to get hot straight away even if I'm only browsing the web.

Is it normal for more RAM to cause more heat output when doing simple things like Word processing and web browsing? It's not like it gets scalding hot but doesn't seem like just basic web browsing for 15 minutes should get the laptop as hot as it gets now. Could it be that I need to change any settings in the Bios etc?

thanks

 

The BIOS will automatically set up the best speed to use with ram, and will set itself for syncronous or asyncronous mode, etc. Bottom Line: You don't have to monkey with the BIOS when you get new ram, these days it will just work.

Where does it get hot on the laptop? chances are, the location of the heat is the culprit. If it's located on the ram opening, then clearly the ram is getting hot, which is normal, unless you can fry an egg on it.

Grab a trusty screw driver, and get to your laptop's fan. Blow out any dust in there, since that is almost always the culprit. Be sure to check, even if the laptop is brand new.

In most laptops the fan does not usually blow air onto the ram chips, as they are fairly resilient to high temperatures, as well as being designed to not need a fan on them. Unless you got some overclocked ram or some weird stuff like that.

check back and let us know if that fixes it or not

 

I have heard of this phenomenon especially when moving up to faster speed RAM. I even have heard of it happening when adding a second stick in the available slot. I agree with Lt. Glare make sure that your fan and heatsink are dirt free and clean. Also download cpu-z to analysis and monitor internal temps.

 

RAM does get fairly warm sometimes, but it shouldn't affect the general temperature of the notebook. Lt.Glare's suggestion to clean the notebook is a good idea, and it should reduce the temperatures, if there was a fair bit of dust present in the notebook.

 

Exactly the same issue is happening to me.

I have Dell 6400 laptop, and I have upgraded the RAM to 2x1 GB (667 MHz) Kingston.

And at once I noticed the major rise in the laptop temperature, it even gets too slow (affects the CPU), that I have to turn it off to cool down.

By the way I'm using Vista Ultimate 32-bit.

 

download i8kfangui, and install the fan control. Set the fans to full speed, or make your own custom profile for when the fans come on. I have the 6400/inspiron E1505 and it never gets hot at all.
I have 2gb of corsair pc5300 667Mhz memory and it does not run hot. The memory temperatures peak at around 115F, I always have the fans set to full, so it doesnt get hot.

If you try to clean the cooling fan you will have to take the entire system apart to do so. Get a toothpick and a can of compressed air.
Stick the toothpick through the mesh over the fan vent, to prevent the fan from spinning. Than use the compressed air to blow the dust out of the heatsink.
The fan is used to cool the cpu/chipset and the graphics card, so alot of heat needs to be dissipated by the fan. The graphics card is opposite the memory on the motherboard, so a dust blockage will cause the gpu to run hot and thus your memory will run hotter, cause heat will transfer through the motherboard.
Clean your fans and install the software and let us know how it works out for you.

K-TRON

 

more intergrated circuts = more current = more heat... entropy (one of the 3 laws of thermodynamics)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy