more memory, what will happen?

hey everybody, i recently bought a hp pavilion dv6404ca laptop, and on the website it says max memory 2gb. which i already have. my question is, what if i bought one stick of 2gb memory and stuck it into one of the slots... what will happen? will it just not read it or will it blow up .. lol

thanks

 

i assuming it is 2x1GB RAM that came with your notebook. you will get 3GB removing one and replacing it with the 2GB. window will recognize the 3GB ram installed. nothing to worry about.

 

no, it will definitly not blow !!!
it might happen that your laptop does not recognize the ram, but in like more than 95 % of the cases i´ve had there was no problem at all.

if , by any circumstances are problems with the ram, you might wanna check if there is a bios update for your notebook.

 

hey thanks for the reply.
actually my laptop came with 1gb 2x512mb. i just got the 2x1gb and is thinking of upgrading again. but on the hp website it says max supported ram 2gb.. so is there anything to worry about? because i want to either put 1gb stick in one slot and one 2gb stick in the other. or buy 2x2gb sticks... so nothin to worry about? the computer will recongize it?

thanks

 

it should.

about the max mem info from the manufacturers :
when a product is released there is a range of probably upgrades, they will test whats possible with their product at that time.
before vista, there was no sense in buying more than 2 GB of ram. and i guess the 2GB sodimms were not available then.

so all they tested were ram combinations up to 2 GB. andf they will most likely not update their charts whenever some new hardware appears.

so i think you might be safe putting that ram in your laptop.

 

Well unfortunately, you have to do some research (I don't have time to do it)

1) find out what chipset in on the motherboard or from the manufacturer. If you're lost already PM me and I'll look in the next few days...

2) there is a chance the MAX the chipset will RECOGNIZE is 2gb. That means you can put in 2 sticks of 4gb (yeah there are such things) and it will still only read 2gb- or worse, it won't boot at all


so it might not turn on if the chipset isn't capable of recognizing more than 2gb of RAM. This is a compromise on computers that manufacturers make when they are making consumer level components.

On a side note, you can put one stick of 2gb in one slot almost always (sometimes it will work in one but not the other- usually the primary slot, which is found often by a 1 in a square or simply experimenting in each slot) and leave the other slot empty and it will run. Most stores will put it on the counter and show you as long as they don't have to take your rig apart (meaning go in ready and they'll put a stick of 2gb in to show you).

However, in that other slot, if the chipset won't recognize more than what you have currently loaded, either it won't boot or it simply won't "Address" the other stick of memory -or only use "half of each".

try it out and let us know

 

hey thanks for the replies.

i also read somewhere that no laptop uses all 4gb of ram, so theres no point really.. they say 3gb is all you really need.. is this true? enen tho i would liek to get 4gb

 

Max RAM on current Pavilions is 4 GB. Read the 64 bit guide below.

 

only 64 bit os uses 4gb

 

mine is 32bit tho... so no point for all 4 gb?

 

Read the guide. That's what it's written for, so we don't have to answer the same question a million times.

 

it wont go kaboom lol

 

If you get 2x2gb =4gb it will run on dual channel for a small extra perforamance increase.

 

do u think a 2 to 4 gb increase is a small performance difference

 

I just ordered my kingston ram yesterday for $110AU and it hasnt arrived yet but im sure it will increase overall performance by at least 25% on 32bit Vista. Well from what ive been hearing around these forums, thats what i least expect. I know for a fact that it will be noticably faster

Let ya know how it goes when i get it next week.

 

thnaks alot

 

I'm also interested to know what happens if you have 4GB and a videocard that dynamically adjusts the ram..will it take 1GB and leave 3GB for windows?

 

no it 32bit will only address 3gb and thats the only RAM it will use up

 

hey flipfire, so my dv6404ca can handle it if i put in 3 or 4 gigs right?

 

yes..though i recommend getting 4gb so the RAM will run dual channel for a little extra performance

 

Not true. Any laptop with the Santa Rosa chipset (965) can support more than 4GB of RAM.

He's talking about "dual channel", not 2->4GB. But in a 32bit system it would be 2->3GB, which still would give some performance benefit.

Depends on if you are running a 32bit or 64bit OS. If the card is actually using the system RAM, then it will need to use some of the real RAM, that is RAM within the 3GB range for 32bit OSes. For 64bit OSes, it can take from the whole 4GB.

Dual channel performance benefits are negligible, and people should stop brining it up as a reason you need to have matched memory modules.

 

Santa Rosa is only for intel chips. You'll have to look at the specs on your laptop on the HP site to find out what chipset you have. It might be listed in the device manager too.