Question on Upgrading RAM on zt3000

I just recently purchased a custom ordered zt3000 a few months back from Best Buy and was looking to upgrade the RAM on it. When I had originally ordered I had requested to have my ram as a 1-512MB instead of 2-256MB. Needless to say I was disappointed when I realized they had not done what I had ordered.

Now I currently have 512MB PC2100 DDR266 in my laptop and am wanting to upgrade to two 512MB PC2700 DDR333 but am unsure if it would be compatible with my computer. I went to check what motherboard I have and all I have come up with is my board: COMPAL 0860 8051 Version 24.1D. Now I do not know anything about this company and do not know if this would be supported.

I tried contacting HP Customer Support but they were unable to answer any of my questions. So my question is do I have to stick with two 512 PC2100 DDR266's or would I be able to upgrade to two 512 PC2700 DDR333's?

Thank you for your help.

 

The memory should be compatible for this unit. Using PC2700 memory will just slow down to the maximum speed your system will run at. So, if your system can only use upto PC2100 and you add PC2700, it is backwards compatible and will just drop the performance back down to 2100.

FYI...The second memory module is located under the keyboard.

-Vb-

 

Is that backward compatibility and slowing down the system somewhat related to the front side bus bandwith(which is 266mhz in HP Zt3000 series laptops)?

 

So essentially there wouldn't be any real benefits to upgrade to PC2700 I assume?

 

PacoMan,
Actually, your notebook has a 400Mhz FSB, so putting in 333Mhz memory will actually increase performance compared to the 266Mhz memory you had in there originally.

Kapon,
The FSB is the maximum speed your memory can send data to the CPU & vice versa. So putting in memory that can communicate faster, eg. 333Mhz, in a system that can only talk at 266Mhz means that your 333Mhz memory will only communicate at 266Mhz max., in otherwords, slow itself down (memory, not system) to the systems/cpus limit.

-Vb-

 

Thanks for giving that info Venombite.
I was going to buy custom built Zt3000 series laptop too, but when I looked at the specs of ZT3000 series, I saw that FSB is 266Mhz. I called the HP technical support, and asked them if FSB is really 266 mhz, the representative confirmed that it is 266 MHZ! And you say it is 400Mhz, I am confused! Do you think that the FSB info is somehow mistyped and the TECHGUY just relied on that mistyped info in the computer? Because, nowadays, I haven't run any laptop other than Zt3000 that has less than 400Mhz FSB! I have a question mark in my mind that why HP would use 266 in that model! Thanks in advance.

 

Well, that's kind of wierd. I went to the HP website and found some info on the NX7000 which is based on the identical platform to the ZT3000 series & it's listed as a 400Mhz FSB on page 2:

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/north_america_04-2004/11667_na.PDF

Also, here's a link to the actual Service Guide for the ZT3000, X1000 & NX7000 series (since they're all based on the same platform), & it clearly states on page 27 under Features, that the FSB is 400Mhz:

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00047479.pdf

And another link from Intel's own website that gives the specs for the Pentium-M processors both the origianl & Dothan chips.

http://www.intel.com/products/notebook/processors/pentiumm/index.htm?iid=ipp_note_proc+highlight_pentiumm&

So, unless HP modified Intel's design of the 855PM chipset & the Pentium-M CPU's, the FSB should be 400Mhz. The only reason I could think of that would make HP put in 266Mhz memory, would be to save money. The ram will work & costs less than 333Mhz memory.

-Vb-

 

If you look on page three on

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/north_america_04-2004/11667_na.PDF

it says standard and maximum memory is (266 mhz)

 

It doesn't mean that the maximum memory speed that you can use is 266Mhz, it just means that the memory that is included in the system is 266Mhz. What they list on their page Standard/Maximum, this just means what the standard capacity of memory is included with the unit and what the maximum CAPACITY of memory this unit can have.

Also, on the top of page 3, it specifically indicates that the FSB is 400Mhz.

-Vb-

 

this link is specs page for ZT3000
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_store/computer_series_detail.do?tab_switch=true&catLevel=2&series_name=zt3000_seriesnull&tab=specs

And, this one is for compaq
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_store/computer_series_detail.do?tab_switch=true&catLevel=2&series_name=x1000_seriesnull&tab=specs

If you look at below of the pages, it says FSB is 266Mhz. T
Besides that I am really curious about exact FSB(Cause I really want to get ZT3000), I still think it is 266Mhz though, It is not a good site management or documentation of HP.

 

My unit doesn't seem to let me get on the HPShopping.com website, works for the Canadian site, but not the US...weird. But in any case, HP's info on their site & manuals do seem to be a bit off, it was better on Compaq's site, they new how to keep their info consistent. I believe their website is incorrect. There's too much evidence against HPShopping.com's info. Intel says the Pentium M CPU's & 855PM chipset run with a 400Mhz FSB, HP's own Service Manual (on previous post) which their own service techs use indicates it's a 400Mhz FSB and the specs for a unit based on the same platform (NX7000) indicates it's a 400Mhz FSB. The only place it says that it's 266Mhz FSB is on their website and if the tech support people said that, it's probably because they also looked at the website. And the final place that would make you assume it was 266Mhz FSB is on the ram itself, but that could just be because the 266Mhz ram is cheaper to use. If you put 333Mhz ram in it's place, it'll be assumed it was a 333Mhz FSB because it says so on the ram. I'm pretty confident it's a 400Mhz FSB. Try checking around for other models/brands that use the Pentium-M 1.6Ghz CPU's (I assume that's what is in this ZT3000) and see what their FSB is, it'll probably be listed as 400Mhz.

-Vb-

 

I have a zt3000 with 1 GB RAM. I wish to upgrade it to 2 GB. I don't know if I have two 512MB chips or one 1 GB chip (eg. is there an available slot?). Assuming I have an unused slot (under the keyboard) can I mix old (slow) memory with new (faster) memory? Can I buy an extra 1 GB, or must I discard the old chip and buy two new 1 GB chips?

 

To check whether you have 2X512MB or just 1X1GB use a system information utility like CPU-Z...
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

You can mix memories of 2 different speeds but the faster memory wont run faster than the slowest one - example, if you have DDR333 stick and you add a DDR 400 stick, then it will downclock and run at the same speed as the slowest one. This is true of any chipset limitations on the speed of the memory. Also most RAM's sold these days are DDR2, so if you are buying one make sure it is DDR since DDR2 & DDR are not compatible with each other.