Inspiron 530 RAM limit

Its not the Bios that is limiting it. Its the Motherboard.:emotion-2:

Hi ConteRules, Go to www.crucial.com and run their scanner, but it will tell you the max ram you can handle in the 530, is 4GB.

There was a problem in earlier versions of the BIOS that did limit it. The chipset should support 8GB and I have read online that people have had success doing so.

Good luck with that :emotion-45:

CAll Dell support and have them look it up for you directly, you will see why i am saying what i am.

You can put as much ram into a computer as you want. The hardware will not utilize it, sometime causeing hardware issues and software issues due to mapping and other hardware not supporting it.

Just be sure you have BIOS 1.0.12 or later and a 64 bit operating system and you'll be fine.

How do you know if the computer is actually using or benefiting from the extra memory.  If it recognizes it; does that mean it's actually using it?  Is there a test or website that can scan the machine so that I can do a before and after performance test?

32 bit OS the limit is 3 gigs.

64 bit OS and CPU the limit is 8 gigs.

There is not a lot of increase in performance from 3 gigs to 8 gigs aka 4 gigs helps but gives diminishing returns with 6 to 8 gigs.

It does not hurt you to have 64 bit Vista or WIN7 with 8 gigs of ram.

I use bios 1.0.18 and 4 sticks of 2 gigs each with Windows 7 ultimate and a Radeon HD4670 PCIE video card.

@ Speedstep

Hi speedstep, may you please confirm that you have an Inspiron 530 (the plain model, not the 530a/b/c/d models) with the G33M02 Motherboard?

I am also interested in upgrading ram to an Inspiron 530 that I have.  And if possible I would like to upgrade it to 8 GB RAM instead of the 4 GB RAM indicated by Dell specifications.

Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience.

Bios 1.0.18 is what Im Using. If you have 4 RAM SLOTS you can do 8 Gigs.

If you have model 530a or 530c (4 Ram Slots) then you can upgrade to 8 GB of memory.  See HERE. <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

If you have model 530b or 530d (2 Ram Slots) then only 4 GB of memory. 

See HERE. <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

The model can be determined by what motherboard you have HERE. <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

If it has a G33M03, Dell part number 0FM586, then yes it will support a quad. 
If it has a G33M02, Dell part number 0RY007, then no it doesn't support quads.

System Board Components

Inspiron 530

Inspiron 530a

Inspiron 530b

Inspiron 530c

Inspiron 530d

@ Speedstep

Thanks for the quick answer.

If I understand correctly for a Dell Inspiron 530 with the G33M02 motherboard, then the limit of the RAM will depend on the BIOS version.  Using the latest BIOS should allow to upgrade and use (given a proper OS) the 8 GB RAM instead of the 4 that originally Dell indicated in their documentation.  Did I understood right?

And Yes,  I already had checked my system and motherboard.  My Inspiron is a 530 plain (No a/b/c/d) with the G33M02 motherboard.  It has an E2160 CPU and 2 GB RAM (DDR2 667, in 2 sticks of 1 GB each) from factory.

Thanks again for your help and sorry to be taking of your time.

Hi SpeedStep,

I am very grateful for your help and answers.  Yet you do not need to start implying an "insult' to me.

I have read over scores of posts related to the Dell Inspiron 530 and the Official Documentation of Dell, including the whole User Manual in PDF.  I have seen the pictures very clear and that is why I could tell that my System is a Dell Inspiron 530 not a 530a not 530b not 530c nor 530d.  Dell documentation says very clear (and verified by crusial website) that a Inspiron 530 is only 4 GB RAM even if it has 4 memory slots.  Yet the 530a/c can be 8 GB RAM (with 4 memory slots).  And yes the 530b/d are also only 4 GB RAM because they have only 2 memory slots.

Reading in the forums I have seen that there are 2 motherboards used by Dell in the 530 (plain, not the a/b/c/d models) and they are the G33M02 and G33M03.  After inspecting my mobo I could clearly see it is a G33M02 Rev. 01A.  And I could read that the G33M02 was a cheaper version of the G33M03.  The G33M03 could accept 8 GB RAM and Duarl core or Core 2 Duo processors.  The G33M02 could only accept 4 GB RAM and only Dual Core processors.

Yet reading on some posts, including this post, I have read that some people say that the motherboard G33M02 with the BIOS after version .12 have a fix that allows the G33M02 to make available to the OS (presuming you are using a 64 bit OS) up to 8 GB RAM.  Yet NO one says "Yes, I have the plain 530 model with a cheap G33M02 Board and I have it with 8 GB RAM running with latest BIOS".  I see that you are one of the people that indicate that you have an Inspiron 530 with 8 GB RAM, yet you do not indicate if it is the cheap G33M02 board.

What I am asking is a simple confirmation that you; or anyone else; have a plain 530 (that means no 530a/c models) Inspiron, using the cheap G33M02 motherboard, with the BIOS version to anything about the mentioned .12 version, and that is running 8 GB RAM and the 64 bit OS seeing and using all the 8 GB of RAM.

About the OS do not worry I have Legal copies of various windows version 32 and 64 bits and other Open Source OS like LInux available for use.

Thanks very much, and hope you can answer my question.

PS.  Yes my CPU is also a 64 bit since as I mentioned before an Intel E2160 is a 64 bit processor.

8 Gigs Ram

REQUIRES

1. Proper Bios.

2. Motherboard with 4 sockets for ram.

3. EMT64 aka 64 bit capable cpu.

4. 64 bit version of windows XP/VISTA/7.

You are skimming and not reading and not looking at the pictures.