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    SR240, SR290 - 8Gb no, 6 Gb yes.

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by go_ahead_ed, Dec 20, 2009.

  1. go_ahead_ed

    go_ahead_ed Notebook Consultant

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    My friend with the SR240 notebook wanted to see if it would work with 8Gb of ram. He bought the Crucial CT2KIT51264AC800 8GB (4GBx2) 200-pin SODIMM DDR2 PC2-6400 Memory Module kit from Amazon and I did the installation for him.

    After installing the new ram I booted up into the BIOS setup. The BIOS showed all 8 Gb of ram. So far, so good.

    I rebooted into Win 7 64bit. Not so good. Windows startup just hung at the throbbing/glowing Windows logo screen for at least 10 minutes. I tried this several times but it never got to the log-in screen.

    I rebooted into Win 7 32bit (he dual-boots both flavors). It successfully loaded and the System information window showed all 8 Gb of ram.

    I booted up an Ubuntu 9.10 64bit LiveCD and it saw all 8 Gb.

    After imaging his existing HD, we tried to do a fresh install of Win 7 64bit, but the installation hung up at the throbbing/glowing Windows logo screen.

    I restored his original HD (with Win 7 64 and 32bit) and pulled one of the 4gig modules (from Slot 2) and replaced it with one of his original 2G modules. Windows 7 64bit and 32bit booted successfully and reported 6 Gb of ram.

    I swapped the modules around in the slots and it still worked fine.

    Next, I put both 4G modules back in and ran Memtestx 86+ overnight. After 6 complete passes no errors were reported, so I think the ram itself is good.

    I repeated these tests with my SR290 and had similar results with a few exceptions:

    I don't dual-boot with Win 7 32bit so I don't know how that would work, but I do dual-boot with Ubuntu 9.10 x64. It only saw 4Gb when I had both 4G modules installed. When I removed one from Slot2 and installed a 2G module (for 6Gb total) it saw all 6Gb, as did Windows 7 64bit. Win 7 64bit won't boot or install with 8G of ram.

    To summarize:
    SR240 - Sees 8Gb in BIOS, Win 7 64bit won't boot or install. Win 7 32bit boots and sees all 8. Ubuntu LiveCD 64bit sees all 8. All three OS's are happy with 6Gb (one 4g and one 2G module, any combination of slots)

    SR290 - Sees 8Gb in BIOS, Win 7 64bit won't boot or install. Ubuntu 9.10 64bit only sees 4G of the 8. Both OS's are happy with 6Gb (one 4g and one 2G module, any combination of slots).

    Both notebooks have the latest BIOS version (R1130Y1) and the latest chipset drivers (9.1.1.1019).

    I ended up splitting the cost of the new ram with my bud so we are both sporting 6 Gigs in our SR's now... :D

    Here's a screen cap from CPU-Z and the Windows System info window for the SR290:
     

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    go_ahead_ed, Dec 20, 2009
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