dell inspiron e1505 memory and ram upgrade

I am thinking about upgrading my e1505 (T2400 @ 1.83 GHz, 1gb ram, 80gb harddrive) and buying the following hardwares.
I have a few questions, though.

1. Is 2gb maximum supported memory for e1505? I see 2gb sticks on newegg. If I get two 2gb, will my e1505 support them? (if thats possible, that would be great.)

2. Is the harddrive below a good choice? If you guys have any other suggestions, I would be appreciative.

Thank you.


G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Dual Channel Kit Laptop Memory Model F2-4200PHU2-2GBSA - Retail

* Buffered/Registered: Unbuffered
* Cas Latency: 4
* ECC: No
* Heat Spreader: No
* Model #: F2-4200PHU2-2GBSA
* Item #: N82E16820231118
* Return Policy: Memory (Modules, USB) Return Policy

HITACHI Travelstar 7K200 HTS722020K9SA00 (0A50940) 200GB 7200 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive - OEM

* Average Latency: 4.2ms
* Average Seek Time: 10ms
* Cache: 16MB
* Features: Third-generation PMR technology Best application performance in PCMark testing
* Model #: HTS722020K9SA00
* Item #: N82E16822145160
* Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy

 

I think this laptop maxes out at 2GB. I see the RAM descriptioon you have there is a 533MHz, your laptop could take a 667, which would be a wiser choice.

Look for the 667MHz PC-5300

 

thank you for your suggestion. I'll take a look at those 667mhz rams. What do you think about the harddrive?

 

The hard drive will work fine.

 

I see the e1505 as having 533Mhz PC4200. Why are people saying 2GB is the limit? I could not find. 32bit OS will never recognize 4GB RAM.

 

I have the Dell E1505, and I tried putting 4Gb of memory in it, the Bios will only recognize 2Gb.
Do not waste your money, it only supports 2 Gb, so get a 2 x1Gb bundle of memory.
Yes, PC5300 is a wiser choice than PC4200, its faster and has lower timings

K-TRON

 

thanks a lot fellas, I am gonna buy the 200 gig harddrive and a 2 x 1 gb pc5300 667 mhz memory.

 

I have the same problem as makeba except I was wondering if I could change my harddrive, memory, and OS (to a 64bit XP)? Could I then support the 4 GB or Ram in this case? How realistic would this be?

 

You can upgrade the HDD, memory (2GB) and the OS to x64 (also depends upon cpu)....
Even if you do upgrade to a x64 OS - it will have no relation or anything to do with the BIOS....
The e1505 BIOS does not recognise 4GB, then there is no chance that the OS would be ale to pick up the extra 2gig....!!
I have read that the laptop does not POST or boots, with 2/2+ gig memory....
And here is the documentation....
Even though it has an i945GM chipset....The BIOS might be hard-coded not to support more than 2GB memory..!!

 

I have a inspiron 6400 and it see the 4 gigs of ram I have put in it.
It only access 3.25 gigs of it.

 

how have you been able to install 4gb of memory?
My system will not boot with 4gb installed, and the memory works fine in another laptop.- so it is not a memory problem
What bios revision do you have, cause mine certainly doesnt support 4gb, it will only boot with 2gb and no more.

Maybe older bios revision support 4gb, cause I have the latest revision and mine only supports 2gb.

K-TRON

 

So Chev, would you suggest ordering the 2x2GB sticks in order to achieve me 4GB potential? I have read the documentation and I was unaware that the bios had anything to do with it. If I made the replacement and it didnt work, well then I guess I would have my answer before I spent extra on the Other upgrades?

 

K-Tron, How would you go about checking to see which Bios you have?

 

My bios revision is A17.

 

F12 when you boot, it's in system info in the bios.

 

Well I have Bios version A03. I cant find any info on its specifications in terms of memory limits? A little more help?

 

If A03 doesnt work, could I update the Bios? Or is this the end of the line for me?

 

You can update the bios, just go to dell's website. Then go to support and then type in the express service tag, and then go to downloads and select Bios. download the bios update, burn to bootable cd and then install and follow the guides dell has with the file download.

I will try changing my bios to type A17 as you do and see if that makes any difference. If it does, you are awesome

K-TRON

 

Thanks K-Tron! I've got the update downloaded and ready to burn. I'll do ot when I can. No CDs at the moment. Do u think it will work? I'm hoping so. I appreciate all the help.

 

It should work, I have yet to try, I think I have A16, but I am not sure, I thought I had the latest bios revision.
I have 4gb of memory from another laptop which I can test,

Just follow the instructions and you can upgrade your bios. I hope it works, cause I wouldnt mine 3-4gb in my laptop.

K-TRON

 

i hate to bring up old threads, but i need to know whether changing the bios worked or not. i have the same laptop (e1505) and i really want to put 4gb of ram in it.

 

Its not happening. The E1505 only supports 2GB of memory. I have the E1505, and I have tried three different 4Gb memory kits. It doesnt work with them.

The bios is limited to 2Gb, the only way that one guy could possibly have 4gb in his, is if he had a custom Bios made by Biosman. I highly doubt it, he was probably lying.

K-TRON

 

hmmm. im so confused. cause the gentleman in this thread i just started also says he has 4gb of ram.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4476971&posted=1#post4476971

 

I posted in the other thread. We will have to see if this is true or not.

I guess its possible if he is using pc4200. I know all three 4gb PC5300 memory kits I have arent working in my E1505.

K-TRON

 

Look, I mean absolutely no disrespect, but I couldn't disagree more! It IS possible using factory bios and I've done it. Here's a screenshot of my computer properties screen. I just submitted a long tutorial with step by step instructions of what I did but somehow I got logged out and lost the whole thing. I don't have time to retype it at this moment but in a nutshell, here's what I did.

1 - started with Dell e1505 running Vista home premium, 32bit with (2)1GB,533,128X64,8K,200 SODIMMs.

2 - Flashed my bios with A17 from the Dell website (not a tweaked or hack bios, but a factory one)

3 - Installed new Memory. I used (2) 2GB PC2-5300 CL5 200-Pin SODIMM, DDR2 667 (i know this is a faster speed than the original, but DDR2 is normally backwards compatible)

4 - At this point, windows imediately recognized 3.25gb of my 4gb

5 - Installed all windows updates

6 - Upgraded to Vista SP1 (i believe this was the key to open the full size)

7 - Bingo! 4GB!

Look, I don't believe for a second that Dell would make one Laptop (mine) in the 10's of thousands of e1505's produced that's capible of doing this. My parts are no different than anybody else's so with that thought, anybody should be able to do it. Good luck!!!

 

Hmm, upon restart I found I have Bios A16.
I will have to try upgrading to A17. If version A17 recognizes 4Gb, I owe a lot of people an apology

K-TRON

 

I also have an Inspiron E1505 with A17. Installed 4GB RAM from my XPS M1330 and it works fine. The BIOS only shows 3.25GB but Windows Server 2008 x64 shows the full 4GB. Although I am sure it will only actually use 3.25GB (Physical Memory in the Task Manager shows 3325).

 

Okay, why is it that mine is only seeing 2GB?

I have Windows XP Professional SP2 32 bit. Why is it that some are getting 3gb picked up, but mine is only reading 2Gb.

It makes no sense.
My bios picks up 4Gb, but windows and cpu-z both read 2Gb

K-TRON

 

I had to buy a 2gb upgrade for my HP Mini. In the back of my mind though, I was hoping it would work in my e1505.

I just installed the 1x 2gb DDR2 667 chip on my E1505 alongside a 1x 1gb DDR2 667. First boot up and the bios recognizes 3gb and of course Windows sees it - all is good.

I checked the Bios and I am running A12 12/18/2006.

Here is the Memory that I purchased:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145172

I plan to buy another chip and install it to hopefully get the full 4gb. I'm running Vista Ultimate 64-bit.

Hope this helps.

 

Just received the next 2gb chip. Installs and works ok. Bios and Windows both recognize 4gb, however in the Task Manager it only says 3225 Total. Windows (on Properties) shows 4gb.

So I need to figure out what is locking out the rest. I'll check out the BIOS and the video card (x1400)

 

The "Memory Controller". It is 32-bit. So, even if you install 4GB or more, you'll never get more than the amount of RAM that is accessible now.

 

The truth is that all 4GB are not being used. Windows Properties reports the amount installed (4GB, per what the BIOS can tell it, in your case) and Task Manager gives you the correct figure of what is actually capable of being used, after applicable devices have been mapped to the 32-bit address space.

 

So because of the limitations of the hardware "Memory Controller" on the e1505, the max memory available to the system will be 3,325?

Just out of curiosity, can other systems devices like the ATI x1400 HyperMemory card which shares memory use the remaining ~.7 gigs first or is that completely locked out from any use?

 

Dont complain about 3.325Gb of memory.
My E1505 will not read more than 2Gb.

Their ATi X1400 for the E1505 is a 256mb card.
It has 128mb dedicated memory and a 128mb shared memory
It will only borrow memory when it is needed, since it has its own memory

What operating system are you running?
I am running XP Professional SP2 32bit

K-TRON

 

When I go to the Catalyst Control Center and look under "Graphics Hardware" it reports:
Memory Size 1535 MB
Memory Type HyperMemory

I think I'm confused. I thought this was the "amount" of memory it would share from the system when/if available. If it only uses 256mb, then what does the 1535 MB HyperMemory refer to?

Thanks for your help... Sorry that your e1505 is not recognizing the 3-4gb in bios. Are you running a C2D? I wonder if they alter the motherboard chipset at all based on the Model CPU running. I'm running at T7200 with A12 Bios.

Vista Ultimate 64-bit SP1. Very very stable and high performance by the way. I did have some trouble with the Broadcomm based WiFi, but once I swapped it out for Intel's 3945 - all was good.

 

This 32-bit is a hardware limitation, right? Upgrading the BIOS/firmware won't affect the memory controller ability to handle 4gb vs. 3.325?

I'm currently on Bios A12. I think A17 is the latest.

 

I am running a T7400 in mine with A17 bios.
When I first tried putting 4gb of memory in, over the summer, no matter what my system wouldnt turn on.
When i tried about 2-3 weeks ago or whenever it was the system turned on, the Bios read 4Gb, and than when I went into Windows taskmanager, my computer and CPU-Z only showed 2Gb
Maybe I need to upgrade to SP3 or something, it is really strange

I am using XP, but catalyst control center states:
256mb Hypermemory,
and GPU-Z states 128mb
Here is a screenshot:


Maybe vista is allocating more memory to your graphics card for some reason.
Or maybe your catalyst control center drivers are old.
Download GPU-Z. Your values should match mine.

K-TRON

 

I'll check on versions. Here is what my CCC shows:



So your BIOS does recognize 4gb, but windows only shows 2gb under properties? Are you on XP Home or Pro?

 

I am using XP Professional Sp2 32 bit
What a mouthful

I have not run automatic updates since install, maybe there is some kind of memory updater?
I know when I had the 4Gb installed, I went into MSCONFIG and I tried to enable 4Gb, by changing the maximum memory support, but when I went to change it to 4096, my system automatically set it back to 2047mb

I am 100% sure that the E1505 has a 256mb graphics card, I have the dell manual in front of me:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins6400/en/om/specs.htm#wp1054574

Both of our cards have the same video Bios. I think your catalyst control center is wrong. Try downloading GPU-Z, it is free software.

K-TRON

 

Hi All,
I have the Inspiron E1505 1GB, DDR2, 533MHz 2 Dimm RAM. Can I add another Kingston 2GB DDR2 667 RAM to that.

Thanks
rsennat

 

Yes, you should be able to upgrade without a problem.
Please note that when you change the memory, the system may be unresponsive for about a minute after the memory installation. The system is just trying to see that their was a memory change.
Just wait a good minute or two, and than the system will say:
press f1 to continue, or press f2 to enter the bios.

Before I was impatient, so when it hanged recognizing the memory I thought it wasnt recognizing them.
The system will recognize 2 x 2Gb memory cards, and it will power up with them.
However the amount of memory actually gained is variable.
Most people say that theirs reads 3.0Gb or 3.25Gb in XP/Vista.
Unfortunately mine for some reason sees 4Gb, but only reports 2GB by my operating system (It seems like I am th eonly one who gets this problem, so it could just be an operating system issue)

K-TRON

 

i'm soooo confused ... my laptop:
dell inspiron 6400
C2D T7200
ATI Radeon x1400
BIOS A17
Windows Vista Ultimate x64
3gb of ram (explaining below)

the bios sees 3gb of ram
system properties in vista -> 3gb of ram
system info (msinfo32) - 3gb installed physical memory BUT! total physical memory - 2gb
task manager 2 gb of ram


same 'problem' with 2+2 gb sticks of ram:

bios 3,33 (or 3,25) can't remember right
system properties: 4gb
system info (msinfo32) - 4gb installed physical memory BUT! total physical memory - 2gb
task manager 2 gb of ram

memory config: 2+2gb sticks corsair 1066mhz (got them from a friend to test - can't remember exact part numbers)
memory config: 1 - factory default stick and 1x2gb samsung 800mhz (another test)

very strange situation, seeing that people are reporting 4 gb of ram and working... with the same bios rev like mine .. and i don't get it ... it would have been a cheap upgrade to do and extend the life of this laptop ...

any ideas guys?

 

you are in the same boat as me, I dont know if there is an answer for it.

The first thing I thought was that the system cant see the memory because of a limitation.
So I tried changing the maximum memory settings:

Go to the run command and type in MSCONFIG.
Than you can go to the "BOOT.INI" tab and click advanced options.
Click the maximum memory box, and type in 4096 and hit okay

What happens on my E1505, is when I press okay, the 4096 automatically reverts back to 2047mb of memory

Does that also happen on yours?

K-TRON

 

hey ... something weird happend on my way home from work... at the time i wrote the previous post the laptop showed me 2gb of usable physical memory.. but when i got home i've noticed that it sees and access the whole 3gb of memory installed ... maybe the trick is after you run the laptop with 3gb + ram .. to leave it an hour or so ... dunno exactly what did the trick... maybe i'm talking bult right now ... but the fact is .. it has worked... and tommorrow i will try with 4gb of ram ... maybe i'll get lucky ... and already seen an improvement in overall performance



insert image doesn't work ... but grab the link and take a look

 

Okay Guys,

Firstly, I'm sorry I'm months late to this party, but I was researching upgrades for an E1505 I just inherited, and came across this thread.

Now.

None of you are ever, EVER gonna get the full use from your computers (especially memory!) if you don't upgrade to a current (please...not Windows XP), 64-bit OS. Vista; 7; Snow Leopard OSX; Linux...any of these are well worth your time and effort.

Get a copy of Vista (64-bit) if you must - I've used it since it's inception (two-and-a-half years ago), and, despite the fact that it IS a resource hog, with all the updates (BTW - if you do not utilize the built-in and very necessary Windows Update...well, you should DEFINITELY be keeping your OS up-to-date), it is a solid and usable OS.

Give 64-bit Linux a try - it's a bit more involved, and you won't (realistically) be able to play games on it, but, as a day-to-day workhorse rig, you can't beat the performance and stability.

Or hell - make sure your hard drives are running in AHCI mode and whip a copy of the latest OSX on there - it's not my cuppa tea, but I must admit, it IS a hell of an OS!

Or...download a free copy of Windows 7 64-bit (or you can buy one after it debuts later this month) - it's legal and free and good for another ten months and, let me tell you - it is the smoothest, most stable, best-performing version of Windows... ever. And did I mention that the Release Candidate (which, again, I've been using since February) is FREE? Directly from Microsoft.

More on keeping your OS up-to-date: K-TRON, sir - I cannot guarantee this, because I don't have direct access to your computer or the OS running it, but I am DAMNED sure that any failings or shortcomings in your OS's performance/reliability are directly related to the fact that it needs to be updated. Have you updated it to Service Pack 3? Has Windows Update been run since then? There have been many, many tweaks/upgrades STILL from the day SP3 dropped. Of course, in my not-so-humble opinion: drop the 9-year-old OS and keep your software up-to-date with your hardware - that's the only way they're gonna work.

Peace, y'all,
Fester

P.S.

Anyone know if I can shoehorn a Mobility X1600 into this E1505? I've already upgraded the memory (to 4GBs) and the hard drive (7200 RPM), and I'm about to toss the shoddy Core Duo for a real Core2Duo (T7200), and I was wondering about ye olde video chip. Thanks in advance!

P.P.S.

To you guys having weird OS problems (K-TRON; busca): this is not gonna make any logical sense, but I heartily recommend doing a clean install of whatever version of Windows (or whatever) you can get your hands on (64-bit, preferably), and, when you get to the desktop, run Windows Update until your finger falls off. THEN take a look and see what Windows sees. That's the only way to be sure that the problem isn't with your software.

 

Even if you use a 64-bit OS on a computer with the 945PM/GM, the chipset has a 32-bit memory address or controller thing which will not allow the whole 4GB of RAM to be available to the user.

For the e1505, it's either the GeForce Go 7300, X1300 or X1400.

 

Thanks for the reply, namaiki.

Well, when the T7200 comes in, I'm gambling on the fact that the processor has 64-bit extensions. As far as the chipset is concerned, I haven't found anything absolutely confirming or denying its 64-bit capability.

Either way, though, the laptop does recognize 3.325 out of 4.000GBs, and that's more than 2GBs, and, anyway, the T7200 is a much better processor than the T5200 that came stock.

I'll let you all know what happens in a day or two, when I get the processor installed and everything up and running again!

Peace,
Fester

P.S.
...why won't the X1600 work? Will it (physically) not fit into the onboard PCI-E slot or something?

 

The GPU doesn't go in a PCI-E slot. It goes in a proprietary Dell connector. Dell simply never made an X1600 for the E1505, so you're never going to find an X1600 that works.

 

Well, not to split hairs, but it IS in fact, a PCI-Express slot...just not the one we're used to seeing on desktop motherboards.

Now, whether or not it's a proprietary (as opposed to universal) laptop slot...that's the question.

Further, I'm aware that there were X1450s made, which slightly upped the clock speeds and came with (and this is why I want an upgrade) twice the amount of onboard memory - 256MBs.

Anyway...I'm still researching this, but I have hopes...even if I can only find n x1400 with 256MBs of RAM, that would make a huge difference.

Thanks again for all the replies!

 

@stebook: Hey, man - make sure the (latest) BIOS flash took, and took well...then whip on a good clean install of Windows (Vista? 7?) 64-bit.

If at that point you still cannot access the full 4GBs of RAM, then either you have a hardware limitation...or hardware damage, and you may need to RMA (or otherwise replace) your laptop.

On a different note: I'm getting my T7200 Thursday; and... voila! lookit what *I* found! Again, it's only an upgrade in the dedicated memory...but it WILL make a difference! I'm gonna look around for somewhere besides eBay to purchase one, but...I am excited to switch it out.

Peace, y'all!
Fester