newly added RAM

[Tom Scruffy]

 

[Tom Scruffy]

Oops! I hit the enter button too quick. I've got a question on newly installed RAM. I have a HP Pavilion a720n desktop computer and I just installed an extra ram stick as it was slowing down.

I didn't realize that it only supported PC2700 ram (333) and bought a stick of PC3200 ram and installed it. Any way to get that computer to use the faster ram (by updating the bios or something?)

Just curious

 

[Tom Scruffy]

The chipset is a Via KM400A which supports the 400 MHz.

 

[Lemon law]

You should have no problems there---its simply a matter that the faster ram will just downclock to PC2700 ram speeds---and you wasted a few bucks on possibly more expensive ram when PC2700 ram might have been cheaper. But thats assuming that you don't have a ram type incomparability--like trying to run ecc ram in a system that can't use it--or something similar.

But the other question you have to ask---is will your system support running PC3200 ram at full PC3200 speeds---in which case your existing stick of PC2700 ram will slow the PC3200 ram to PC2700 speeds. And if that is the case--you have to ask will your system speed up if you also replace the the PC2700 ram with another stick of PC3200 ram---and you get all ram running at PC3200 speeds.

But sounds like you have already done the dirty deed and added the the stick of PC3200---and I also assume its working or you would be bitching about it---but as a double test---download the free utility cpuz and run it---and download and run the free utility memtest86 to make sure your ram is error free. And if your boot times are dramatically down
after installing the new ram---pat yourself on the back and say I done good.

 

[Captante]

Your motherboard will support running at 400mhz, but the odds are that your older PC2700 DDR won't .. you can try to crank all the memory up to that speed but if it doesn't work out you run the risk of corrupting your hard-drive, also to get the system functioning again you'll almost certainly need to clear your CMOS via a jumper.

My advice is just to run all the RAM at 333mhz because Athlon XP's get very little performance boost jumping to 400mhz.

 

[Tom Scruffy]

I checked out that CPU-Z utility. It had everything right although it listed both sticks of ram as PC3200 (200MHz) and one is the stock PC2700 and the other is the PC3200? The computer runs fine although it's hard to say if it's changed at all (sped up) after doubling the ram from 512 MB to 1024MB.

 

[Lemon law]

To Tom Scruffy---who wrote---and I just installed an extra ram stick as it was slowing down.

Lots of things can cause computer slow down---if the doubling of ram did not help---you probably missed your guess--and now need to find out what is really slowing down your computer. But adding ram is always a diminishing return thing--you can run win xp with as little as 64 MB ram---doubling that to 128 MB will bring a huge performance boost--and doubling that to 256 MB will bring another lesser performance boost--with 512 MB probably being the sweet spot for light users who don't do memory intensive things.

But when you post that your computer is slowing down without changing hardware---its time to check for obvious culprits---it could be disk fragmentation---a build up of malware---recently installed bloatware programs--or any number of other causes.