A Straight Answer Please

I have an hp Dv 9200 cto and 2 gb of ram. I called hp because i wanna upgrade ram they say i cant my comp wont recognise more than 2 . then i get on this fourm and people say it can recognise up to 4 but only shows 3 im confused . if i buy 2X 2GB of ram will my computer show that or is it a waste of money.

Also had this same problem with a hard drive is there something limiting the amount of hard drive space you can have cause HP said i can only have 2X 120 GB for a total of 240GB is this true

 

If you are using a 32 bit operating system (Windows XP or Vista 32), your computer will only show and utilize 3 GB. This is a limitation of all 32 bit Operating Systems.

The BIOS may be limiting the amount of hard drive space available per drive, but what is the largest you have tried, and does your computer use SATA or IDE?

 

On the DV9000 series of laptops you can put 2x2GB sticks of RAM in it, but since you have a 32-bit OS, the OS can only see upto 3.2GB of RAM as thain1982 said. I believe that HP stated the motherboard could only handle upto 2GB, but there was a BIOS update which allowed the motherboard to see 4GB of RAM, or HP just lied about their laptop, it was one of the two if memory serves me right.

For the HDDs, HP is saying that because that is the largest configuration of HDDs they sell with the laptop. There is no limit to the size of the HDD you can place in your system. Here's one thing to remember, if you only buy one HDD and want to add another one later on down the road you need to purchase the HDD cradle and adapter so if can be installed in your laptop. The cradle and adapter can be purchased for about $40.

 

I have a 160 gig in drive bay 1 and a 100 gig in drive bay 2 with no problems.
Envision is correct, you can put almost any size hard drive as long as it is the correct format. ie SATA or IDE etc.

Jim