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    Thinkpad with dummy memory sticks?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by Augmented, Jun 16, 2012.

  1. Augmented

    Augmented Notebook Consultant

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    A friend of mine asked me why his Thinkpad has dummy sticks in the 2 underside RAM slots? The manual also states that RAM should not be installed into these slots. Any ideas why this is?
     
    Augmented, Jun 16, 2012
    #1
  2. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

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    Which Thinkpad is this? Never heard of this before.
     
    MidnightSun, Jun 16, 2012
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  3. Augmented

    Augmented Notebook Consultant

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    Thinkpad W530
     
    Augmented, Jun 16, 2012
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  4. sjefferson

    sjefferson Notebook Consultant

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    he got dual-core model, right? dual-core supports only two memory slots. lenovo is too cheap to remove the unusable memory slots in more permanent way...
     
    sjefferson, Jun 16, 2012
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  5. Augmented

    Augmented Notebook Consultant

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    No, all W530s use Ivy bridge...

    My only guess is that the system has DDR3 that is running at a speed that becomes unstable when running RAM in all 4 slots?
     
    Augmented, Jun 16, 2012
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  6. kirayamato26

    kirayamato26 Notebook Deity

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    It must be a CPU with support for only 2 DIMM's. This is the case with Sandy Bridge dual cores. And yes, I have 2 of them, though one of them is under the keyboard, the other is under the bottom RAM slot. As a kind of unrelated remark, the dummy sticks are a lot easier to install than actual RAM modules.
     
    kirayamato26, Jun 16, 2012
    #6
  7. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

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    Ah, forgot about that.

    Uh, I don't think that's ever a hardware limitation.

    Since the W530 comes standard in a quad-core configuration, I'm not sure why the manual would suggest that you can't use the 2 underside slots; all 4 RAM slots should be available (the T530 dual-core version, however, does only have 2 RAM slots). See this relevant thread. Note that in the W530, the two dummy slots are both on the underside, to facilitate user addition of RAM, rather than split between the keyboard and the underside as in the W520 and W510.
     
    MidnightSun, Jun 16, 2012
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  8. mikew3456

    mikew3456 Notebook Consultant

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    um, i'm pretty sure Ivy Bridge comes in both dual-core and quad-core options..
     
    mikew3456, Jun 16, 2012
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  9. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

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    Yeah, IVB has both dual and quad-core options. The base model W530 has a quad-core, however.
     
    MidnightSun, Jun 16, 2012
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  10. mikew3456

    mikew3456 Notebook Consultant

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    i think you can select i5 though
     
    mikew3456, Jun 17, 2012
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  11. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

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    I don't think so. The W520 was available in select configurations with a dual-core i5, but the Tabook only has listings for W530 configurations with quad-core CPUs. Likewise, Lenovo's website starts the base W530 with an i7-3610QM.
     
    MidnightSun, Jun 17, 2012
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  12. mikew3456

    mikew3456 Notebook Consultant

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    mikew3456, Jun 18, 2012
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  13. baii

    baii Sone

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    Does that mean you can try 4 stick even though it "may" not be supported?
     
    baii, Jun 18, 2012
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  14. K_Wall_24

    K_Wall_24 Notebook Evangelist

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    So, wait, there's dummy sticks of RAM in the W530 as it may not support 4 sticks? Is this only with certain processors or what? I'm getting the i7-3720QM, and I need to be able to upgrade the RAM, and was planning on putting 4 sticks in myself. Can someone just explain why there are dummy sticks?

    EDIT: the tabook says its only for the dual-core models, so yeah, crisis averted haha.
     
    K_Wall_24, Jun 25, 2012
    #14
  15. greatrokr

    greatrokr Notebook Enthusiast

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    The quad core support up to 4 sticks for a total of 32GB and the dual core supports up to 2 sticks for a total of 16GB - since you have the QM you will be fine =)
     
    greatrokr, Jun 25, 2012
    #15
  16. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    It should be the same as the W520. The dual core models have a different motherboard that do not support 4 SODIMMs, despite there being 4 physical slots (due to use of the same chassis). The quad core models work with 4 SODIMMs just fine.
     
    sgogeta4, Jun 25, 2012
    #16
  17. OCM

    OCM Notebook Geek

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    The W530 base model can be upgraded to the i7 3520M which is a Dual Core processor, thus the apparent limitation
     
    OCM, Jun 25, 2012
    #17