Hello,

I am considering buying some New ram for my old Laptop and I'm having some trouble figuring out which ram to get. I think i have 4gb installed, but "Memset" says i only have one DIMM at 2gb installed and i am experiencing some strange performance drops here and there. Windows memcheck says all my mem is OK.

I'm hoping one of you guys will take the time to help me out. I'd really appreciate it!


Here is some info from PC wizard 2012 (CPUid)

General Information :
M1 (Bank 0 ) : 2048 MB
M2 (Bank 1 ) : 2048 MB


Information SPD EEPROM
Manufacturer : Samsung

Part Number : M471B5673E
Serial Number : 14F3C882
Specification : F

Type : DDR3-SDRAM PC3-85
Format : SO-DIMM (67,6 x
Size : 2048 MB (2 ranks
Module Buffered : No

Module Registered : No

Module SLi Ready (EPP) :
Module XMP : No

Width : 64-bit

Error Correction Capabil
Voltage : 1.50v

Prefetch Buffer : 8-bit
Manufacture : Week 25 of
Thermal Sensor : No

Heat Spreader : No

Supported Frequencies :
CAS Latency (tCL) : 6 cl
RAS to CAS (tRCD) : 6 clocks @ 45
RAS Precharge (tRP) : 6 clocks @
Cycle Time (tRAS) : 18 clocks @ 4
Min TRC : 24 clocks @ 457 MHz, 27


Information SPD EEPROM :

Manufacturer : Samsung

Part Number : M471B5673EH1-CF8

Serial Number : EF3C88213E680001
Specification : F

Type : DDR3-SDRAM PC3-8500 (533 M
Format : SO-DIMM (67,6 x 15)

Size : 2048 MB (2 ranks, 8 banks
Module Buffered : No

Module Registered : No

Module SLi Ready (EPP) : No

Module XMP : No

Width : 64-bit

Error Correction Capability (EC..
Voltage : 1.50v

Prefetch Buffer : 8-bit

Manufacture : Week 25 of 2009

Thermal Sensor : No

Heat Spreader : No

Supported Frequencies : 457 MHz,
CAS Latency (tCL) : 6 clocks @ 45
RAS to CAS (tRCD) : 6 clocks @ 45
RAS Precharge (tRP) : 6 clocks @
Cycle Time (tRAS) : 18 clocks @ 4
Min TRC : 24 clocks @ 457 MHz, 27


Memory Controller Information :
Memory Controller : System Memory
Location : Mainboard

Error Correction Capability : No
Number of connectors : 2

Max. Module Size : 4096 MB

General Information :
M1 (Bank 0 ) : 2048 MB
M2 (Bank 1 ) : 2048 MB

There is also the System Info panel in Windows that shows how much RAM you've got. Access it by right-click on My Computer and the selecting "properties"

Seems like you have 4GB. Why do you think the performance drops are caused by RAM? I would look at the HDD instead. Buy a nice SSD for the laptop and you'll be doing yourself a big favour.

Try using the Crucial Memory Advisor Tool. Once you find the exact type of memory your computer uses search Amazon for the modules or local suppliers. You can buy direct from Crucial but Amazon usually carries the same (Crucial as well as other brands of the same modules) for less.

Thanks alot for the replies, guys! :D I would really love to get this thing sorted out. I don't have to Money for a New Laptop and i do quite like fiddling around With old computers. :) Yes, the Windows system panel says i have 4gb (2.99gb, 1gb reserved).. Is it possible to Upgrade the HD on a Laptop? I didn't know that. Wouldn't that involve changing the motherboard. I dont think there is a SSD-Controller on this old motherboard.

Also, is it possible to change the Graphics chip? I cant seem find a definite answer. Thanks! THe tool didn't have my exact model, but i managed to get pretty Close. It seems i might be able to og faster With the ram then what is currently installed. Could that be true (looking at the CPUid readouts)?
I can't make much sense of them.

Edit:
Attached some more info from CPUid. I think my Graphics card might be PCI Express, and not soldered on to the motherboard. Can i just get any Laptop, low-heat, Graphics card and replace it?


PCI-Express Information :
Number of connectors : 7
PCI-Express Base : 0xE000000


Bus PCI-Express :
Device : 4 Series Chipset PC
Version : 1.0
Port : 2
Physical Slot : #0
Slot Populated : Yes
Link Width : x16 (max. x16
Link Speed : 2.5 GB/s



Bus PCI-Express :
Device : 82801IB/IR/IH (ICH9
Version : 1.0
Port : 1
Physical Slot : #0
Slot Populated : Yes
Link Width : x1 (max. x1)
Link Speed : 2.5 GB/s



Bus PCI-Express :
Device : 82801IB/IR/IH (ICH9
Version : 1.0
Port : 2
Physical Slot : #0
Slot Populated : No
Link Width : max. x1
Link Speed : 2.5 GB/s



Bus PCI-Express :
Device : 82801IB/IR/IH (ICH9
Version : 1.0
Port : 3
Physical Slot : #0
Slot Populated : Yes
Link Width : x1 (max. xCH9
Link Speed : 2.5 GB/s



Bus PCI-Express :
Device : 82801IB/IR/IH (ICH9
Version : 1.0
Port : 5
Physical Slot : #0
Slot Populated : No
Link Width : max. x1
Link Speed : 2.5 GB/s



Bus PCI-Express :
Device : G98 [G 105M]
Version : 2.0
Port : 0
Link Width : x16 (max. CH9
Link Speed : 2.5 GB/s

Unless you're using a Macbook Air, the HDD and RAM are among the only things that one can easily change on a laptop these days.

You do not need an SSD controller, that's already on the SSD. What you need to have is a SATA interface on the laptop. From the looks of it you do. Also, no need to change the motherboard either.

I have 1067mhz ram installed but crucial ramtool says i can use 1333mhz ram. There is also the line "Supported Frequencies : 457 MHz, 533 MHz, 610 MHz" from CPUid.
Does this mean i can Upgrade to 1333 MHz ram?

Sorry for all the basic questions.

I still don't get why you're hell-bent on upgrading the RAM since you claim and show you are not that tech savvy. Just FYI, even if you were able to upgrade to higher clocked RAM you would still not see too much benefit from it in your particular case.

What is the make and model number of your laptop? What OS are you running as it determines the amount of RAM?

It's unusual that the Crucial tool doesn't have a system but it could happen. Usually they have most systems and give recommendations for all the RAM types supported by that system.

You could also look your system up on the manufacturers website. It should also list all types of RAM that is supported by your computer.

I would first suggest you only upgrade your RAM as that usually helps your performance more than anything else you could do. I would not even consider replacing the video card on a laptop but that is just me. Replacing the hard drive will affect battery life but that may not be a factor if you are always "plugged in". Make sure you have burned the system restore DVD's prior to any HD replacement. I personally would only replace the hd if it is failing or if I am out of hd space.

I would suggest a good clean up with (I use the slim version at the bottom) a [url=http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/]defrag along with a disk check rather than a lot of changes that may or may not help. If you use the Auslogics Defragger ignore all the other stuff it wants to do, analyze, optimize, protect, etc.

For the disk check go to file manager and right click on the C drive, click properties, click the Tools tab and click the "Check Now" button under error checking. It will tell you it can't check the disk while in use would you like to schedule a disk check at next boot, click yes and reboot. It can take a long while to do so don't initiate the check unless you can let it run to completion. It won't take as long if you don't check the "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" box but it could still take several hours depending on the size of your hd and your CPU speed. BTW, it will stay between 10 and 15 % complete for most of the check so let it complete without turning your computer off.

I only give the instructions for a disk check because I don't know your skills so ignore the info if you are already aware. =)

Edit: Needless to say if you are having sudden performance issues you should have first updated and ran your AV program to eliminate viruses or malware as the culprit.

I don't know how to read the CPUid info to a Level where im comfortable buying parts. But i have no problem putting a Desktop PC together, taking apart and putting togheter a Laptop or soldering older broken hardware. I haven't really kept up With the times, so I'm not really confident enough in my knowledge of what is supported by what anymore. I have built several desktop PC's and I'm keeping my Amigas and joysticks up and running With a soldering iron.

Upgrading ram used to give a huge boost in performance. I'm on Win8 32bit (so I'll need to Upgrade to 64bit). I usually have about 900mb of free mem, when just running IE and Outlook etc. But running games results in a crawl after a while. They start out fast and fluent but start crawling after about 15min. I'm thinking this is a ram-thing?

I have never upgraded ram and NOT had a performance increse. Especially if upgrading to a faster ram. Would this not be true for my system?

Thanks for the reply.

I'm running an Acer Aspire 5738zg. It looks to be pretty much identical to the Aspire 5738z. I use tuneup instead of ccleaner to clean out the system, but I'll have a og With ccleaner as well. I've run fulll disk and ram check and it came up With no errors. I've also run full virus/malware-scan. Nothing wrong there either.
I see.. I'll keep an eye on that! It does get quite hot.. :P

Sounds like you have covered all the possibilities. I would upgrade to the maximum / fastest RAM your system supports (without upgrading to the 64 bit OS) and run that for a while before doing anything else.

Another possibility is a BIOS update (although I think it called UEFI or something nowadays). I've updated my laptop BIOS several times since purchase. There may be a BIOS / UEFI update for your system at the Acer support page that may fix the problem. Good luck !

I have the latest BIOS. I dropped by the Acer-site every now and then to check for updates up until last year when they hadn't released anything for a year or two.

My GFX is running at about 85*C-90*C at normal desktop use.. Is this normal?

Whatever you decide don't trust the following site:

http://www.downloadmoreram.com/

:P

(good suggestions so far, the Crucial advisor tool is great)

Sounds high to me but without doing some research on your particular system / GFX I couldn't say for sure. Using Speccy I'm getting the following on a laptop and desktop.

Laptop - CPU = 49*C Hard Drive = 39*C

Desktop - CPU = 44*C Motherboard = 50*C GPU = 49*C Hard Drives 48*C and 47*C

Two or three times a year, with the computers off, I use canned air to blow out the CPU cooling fins, fans and PS on the desktop. I gently blow out the exhaust port and other openings on the laptop taking care not to spin the fans too fast and of course not shaking or turning the can upside down.