This post is more than 5 years old
2 Posts
0
598115
Inspiron 1525, Ram Upgrade Problems
I'm trying to upgrade my Inspiron to 8GB of RAM, but when I try to run it with 8GB, the BIOS refuses to finish loading. Replacing one 4GB stick with the old 2GB stick, running it at 6GB of total RAM, it works fine, but not with both 4GB sticks in with a total of 8GB. I'm running the latest (I think.) A17 BIOS revision for my laptop. Does anyone know how I can get the whole 8GB working?
Smecjo
1 Message
0
June 16th, 2013 14:00
You can check the following:
Does your i1525 have
1. a 64-bit cpu
2. an 64-bit operating system (OS)
3. all the 64-bit drivers?
If so, then it's strange it does
run the BIOS and OS with 6GB but not
with 8GB.
It can't be the OS if you 're running
an 64-bit one for instance Win Vista Home Premium 64-bit.
Do you have a Dual Boot (2 OS) or not?
If not, the problem must be in a hardware component.
I want to test 8GB RAM on my i1525 but before I buy
2 x 4GB RAM I want to know if the i1525 can handle that amount.
A17 is indeed the latest version. What does the BIOS display
when you run with 6GB under the tab 'Memory'?
What kind of error (code) does the BIOS
display with 8GB? I understand it stops and freezes? So it doesn't
give an error code at all? Have you tried
all combinations: module 1 of 4 GB in socket 1, module 2 of 4GB in socket 2.
module 2 in socket 1 and module 1 in socket 2 and so on
with 1 module of 2GB in socket 1 and 1 module of 4GB in socket 2.
Windows Vista (64 bit)
ejn63
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
87.5K Posts
0
January 6th, 2014 17:00
A BIOS update won't help. The 4G limit is at the silicon level - the chipset supports only 4G of RAM
http://ark.intel.com/products/29821/Intel-82GM965-Graphics-and-Memory-Controller
ejn63
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
87.5K Posts
0
June 9th, 2012 14:00
Max RAM for this system is 4G -- though 6 might have worked, 8 probably won't.
edlo1234
2 Posts
0
June 9th, 2012 16:00
Aww alright, was hoping there'd be a hack or a get around to use more RAM. Thanks though!
Tonylmy
1 Message
0
January 6th, 2014 16:00
Can Dell make a Bios update to support up to 8gb for the Inspiron 1525?
stefafron
2 Posts
0
May 31st, 2015 19:00
Hi,
... so you mean it DOES work with a total of 6GB ? I would like to upgrade and I would be ok with 6. Thank you for sharing your experience.
S.
Zain ul Hassan
2 Posts
0
August 10th, 2016 02:00
Successfully updated my Inspiron 1525 to 6 GB Ram with Windows 10 . Still have to try with 8GB Ram.
slowhands95128
2 Posts
0
August 20th, 2016 21:00
Very interesting. We may have found an unsupported feature of the Intel Chipset. Their spec definitely says 4GB is the max. Dell says the same. But 6GB works apparently.
What more can you tell us? It sounded like 8GB crashed, but 6 GB ran through BIOS, at least. What specific Brand of memory was used, and what were the specs. Was it Hynix, Samsung, Micron, Elpida or ? What was the specific part number of the module, and of the RAM chips? Was the 4gb RAM in the bottom or top slot? Did it run reliably under the OS?
I'd be interested in trying this if I knew what to buy. Most of the 4GB RAM is $50+ per module, so I need to be fairly sure this has a chance. Let us know more.
whswift2200
1 Message
0
August 22nd, 2016 10:00
I have a similar situation as you, and similar timeframe. currently have 3mb RAM... I assume this is in one slot, the other is open (I'll need to check). I also assume getting 4mb RAM is going to be less $ than 3mb because more supply. my question is: will the machine access only 6mb of the 7mb of RAM, or will it see 7mb and say "does not compute"? I suspect the latter and I'll need to go with 3mb. BTW, running Win7SP1.
thx
slowhands95128
2 Posts
0
August 22nd, 2016 16:00
You have a 2GB and a 1GB kit of memory modules. There is no 3GB. module. 3GB is the most common total amount of memory originally installed with these. For everyday work, you don't need more than 3GB. It's fine for most purposes, but some big graphics programs like Photoshop need all the memory they can get. So we look to add more. The spec says you can't. But Two users did, they say above. I have not personally verified this, but it's on the TODO list. .
You can check how much memory you are actually using in the Task Manager Performance Monitor. You'll see a graph of memory use. If you do things that use all the memory, the machine will slow down because it's memory limited. I just did some testing on my desktop machine, using a performance tester called Passmark. I measured the baseline with 4GB. Then I upped memory to 8GB and I only got a 3% higher rating on that benchmark. My conclusion is adding memory does not change the overall benchmark rating much, and probably does not speed up ordinary tasks much. But when I run Photoshop, it's noticeably faster on large images, because more is in memory for editing. So the benefit depends on your application.
If we add memory, how much does it speed things up? To see, you measure your baseline performance with 3GB, then increase to 6GB by adding the 4GB module, and measure again. What happens to performance? My gut feel, not much. But we have to measure before and after. Of course if your application is a memory hog like Photoshop, it's going to help more than the benchmark test would predict.
There are two other easy mods to try on this laptop. Swap the hard drive for SSD, and swap the CPU for a faster one. I replaced the 160GB hard drive with a cheap 160GB SSD. The SSD makes a huge improvement in boot time and modest improvement overall. It really puts some zip in this laptop. I just don't know how much improvement we would get from a faster CPU. If you have a slow CPU as I do, it's tempting to swap in a faster one. They are cheap now, mostly recycled, from China. I figured, it can't hurt. So I ordered one for about $8, but it will take weeks to arrive. Then I'll run tests. More to come.