laptop RAM question... too dumb?

[vrbaba]

So I have 512mb of RAM in the laptop. It has two slots.

One is readily available in the bottom of the machine, and is empty. DIMM B Slot
DIMM A Slot is supposedly underneath the keyboard and all.

The module in there is currently 533Mhz DDR2.

When I go in the bios, it says Dual Channel is enabled? From my limited understanding, doesnt it need two sticks to actually run in dual channel mode?

I want to upgrade to 1GB dual channel...so im not sure what to buy, two matched pairs, or can I just get one 512mb pair and stick it in Dimm B.

This is just weird...how RAM is not available to modify in just one place. I dont feel like opening up the thing. and wtf is going on with dual channel??

 

[DaveSimmons]

check www.crucial.com for RAM. mismatched pairs will probably be OK.

Read The Friendly Manual to see how RAM is installed, it varies by machine. On some machines lifting out the keyboard is really easy, and is nothing to stress over. Others it's tricky enough that you probably want to pay someone.

 

[vrbaba]

Figured out that its actually running in single channel mode. I dont know why the BIOS was so ambiguous. I checked it through CPUz.

Its one stick of 512mb installed in dimm1 underneath the keyboard. I guess the only question remains is the mismatched ram running in dual channel. I guess i just have to experiment with that.

 

[eplebnista]

Mixed pair should work ok. I installed a 512mb(2x256mb) kingston dual channel ddr kit alongside dell's oem promos 256mb(2x128mb) dual channel ddr kit(total 768mb dual channel ram) in an older dell desktop about a month ago without a problem. It still ran dual channel fine at its rated fsb(533mhz). Ran memtest for 24hr.'s with no errors.