Will this memory work? [Now troubleshooting]

[balloonshark]

Hi. I'm working on my nieces older laptop trying to upgrade the memory. The laptop is an HP Pavilion ze5607wm with a Celeron 2.6GHz processor.

I already bought 1 512MB stick of DDR PC2100 266MHz but when I opened the laptop, it has 1 256MB of DDR PC2700 333MHz stick.

1. Will the PC2100 stick work with the processor?

2. If it will work, will it hurt the performance of the machine? In other words, should I send it back and get a PC2700 stick?

Thank you in advance.

Edited to add "Now troubleshooting" to the message title.

 

[MustISO]

If the Celeron is only running at 400Mhz (which it should be), then the PC2100 is fine.

 

[balloonshark]

Thank you for your quick reply MustISO.

Will it hurt performance with the PC2100?

Should I run cpu-z on the laptop to get the processor info?

 

[balloonshark]

I checked CPU-Z and here is what it says.

Core speed 2592.9MHz
Multiplier x26.0
Bus Speed 99.7MHz
Rated FSB 398.7 MHz

Thanks once again. I'm looking forward to getting my niece "up to speed".

 

[balloonshark]

Can anyone confirm that the memory should work. I tried it and it's not working. The BIOS and MY Computer - Properties are not seeing the RAM. CPU-Z is able to see it, but it's saying that it's PC2700 instead of PC2100 which is weird unless it's wrong or being overclocked. I also cannot find any RAM settings in the BIOS unless it has some sort of "secret menu".

I've also tried the new RAM by itself and the computer turns on/ run but nothing happens. Just a black screen with the fans running. Any ideas?

Edit: Here's a link to the computer. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfr...cc=us&dlc=&lang=&cc=us

a link to the RAM I bought: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820134037

 

[Denithor]

Unfortunately this is why I always tell people upgrading laptops & most OEM systems to use the Crucial.com memory finder tool. You pay a bit more for the memory but they guarantee it will work in your system.

I am a little puzzled why it doesn't work, your CPU is running with an fsb of 100 and that memory can handle up to fsb 133 (DDR-266 = 2x133). So it should be fine. But often OEM systems are very "picky" about what specific memory will work (the OEMs like to make you come to them for upgrades).

 

[balloonshark]

Thanks Denithor. If I remember correctly, Crucial did recommend the PC2700 but I went with a less expensive stick because the machine is older and has been abused.

Thanks for explaining about the FSB and DDR relation. I kinda figured that was correct, but the sticky was about DDR2. I understand now .

I also tried booting into Ubuntu to run memtest, but it only saw the factory stick. I wonder if the BIOS has a secret menu somewhere?

Is there anything else I can try? If not, I'll have to contact Kingston and see what they say.

 

[balloonshark]

duplicate post

 

[Denithor]

The OEMs don't have "secret menus" in their BIOS - they don't want people messing around in there causing problems that would require RMA & hurt their profits.

DDR-266 should clock down to 100fsb with no problems. It sounds to me like there's a compatibility problem between your memory and the motherboard, as I mentioned earlier. Can you RMA for refund?

 

[balloonshark]

I'm not sure about RMA or refund. I bought it from NewEgg so I'll have to look into it. I did call Kingston today and the guy basically said it's not compatible and to buy the stick that they guarantee to be compatible (which NewEgg didn't have). I'll call or write NewEgg and see what they say.

Thanks for your help and advice. At least I was able to learn a thing or two along the way.

Regards,
balloonshark