Can I use Compaq RAM in a ThinkPad?

[Questing]

I haven't had a notebook in 8 years. Back then, all the memory was proprietary. Nobody's memory worked in any other brand's laptop. Now I have a new IBM ThinkPad R51 with 256MB RAM. A friend has offered me a second stick of 256MB RAM at a very good price. Would the Compaq memory work in my IBM? Would using it void my warranty?

 

[DaveSimmons]

It will almost always work if it is the right type and speed, for example if both are DDR PC2100. It will also almost always work if the other RAM is the same type but faster, like PC2700. If yours is faster than his, then it is not a good idea.

You can go to crucial.com and use their memory selector on both machines, to see if they match up. If not, Crucial is an excellent place to buy memory.

Installing memory will not void your warranty unless you do something really dumb like jam the memory in upside down and break off the ram slot (very hard to do).

 

[Questing]

Thanks Dave. Sound advice.

 

[Questing]

Excuse this total newbie question. I asked Crucial's wizard about SODIMM for the two laptops. The specs were identical except for crucial's part numbers. Does that mean I can use it--or not?

IBM ThinkPad: CT368218 256MB DDR PC2700 CL=2.5 Unbuffered Non-parity DDR333 2.5V 32Meg x 64
HP Pavillion: CT405149 256MB DDR PC2700 CL=2.5 Unbuffered Non-parity DDR333 2.5V 32Meg x 64

 

[HansSvetty]

Yes!

They are identical. Same specs.

It would be pretty wierd if they had the same part numbers, being from two different companies and all.

Hope this helps,

hans

 

[DaveSimmons]

99% chance -- there's a tiny chance that one of the 2 has a custom sized DIMM, but much more likely is that they just use different part numbers for the exact same memory for different machines.

 

[Questing]

These were Crucial Technology's part numbers for the SODIMMs, not HP's or IBM's.

 

[Questing]

Thanks for bearing with this newbie. I'll try out the stick in my ThinkPad.

 

[Paulson]

Hey, I have an IBM R51 Thinkpad myself... very very nice laptops

 

[Questing]

So far it's working great! And what a difference in system performance! Thanks for the advice.