15 R4, 64GB ram, no boot

I just purchased a new old stock Alienware 15 r4 because I prefer a laptop with left and right mouse buttons. I have read several places the my computer can support 64gb of ram. I have been unable to get 64gb to boot. I can see the 64gb in the bios but it will not boot. I have tried 3 different speeds of matching ram sets and only one 32gb stick will boot from all 3 sets and I have tried both ram slots and both work . I have tried updating the bios to the latest version. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Thank you.

According to the specs here for the 15 R4, 32 GB (DDR4 2666) is the maximum compatible RAM. It may work but I would not count on it seeing as how you have tried various combinations. Crucial is the most compatible RAM by the way and even Crucial specifies 32 GB as the maximum.

Thank you for your reply, I understand that Dell states a maximum of 32gb and that appears to be the case. However I have had multiple Dell laptops of the years that listed a maximum and I have been successful in doubling he amount of ram that Dell listed as the max. I believe Dell has set a maximum limit of 32 in the bios to force users to buy new laptops. I have found various post on other sites where people state they have successfully installed 64gb of ram on my model. However I have been unable to contact them. I think my major mistake was upgrading to the latest bios instead of going from oldest to newest. There are some post that I have found that says that 64gb work on bios from 2019 but that was limited back to 32gb on the later versions. Dell also stopped reverting back to an older version of the bios which is another Dell failure in my opinion. I don't like doing bios upgrades due to the slight chance of bricking the laptop if a flash fails. So I went to the most recent bios to limit the risk but now have now way of testing the older bios version to see if they once did support 64gb as other people have stated.

Thank you for responding!

Happy to help out! I agree that with many systems the stated maximum RAM may not be the true maximum. But usually if I also see that spec at another site such as Crucial, which tests the configurations that they show as compatible, then I accept it as fact. And the BIOS update is a procedure that I also do not advise. The forum is full of posts from users that had a failure during the update.

Hi @Sandpilot welcome to this free user to user Alienware laptop discussion forum. This is not Dell Support. 

Dell Support do not update their documentation. However, the Crucial System Advisor database is usually up to date, but it says Alienware 15 R4 maximum memory (RAM) is 32GB. 

As you say, other users report that they managed to get 64GB of RAM to work using a specific OEM. Hopefully their recommended OEM RAM will also work on your system. 

Having an online chat with Crucial Technical Support should resolve your dilemma. If Crucial 64GB recommendation does not work, they accept return of Crucial RAM with full refund. 

Thank you for your response. I will check to see what Crucial has to say.

Thank you.

Hi @Sandpilot thank you for sharing your response. 

My internet search found "You can upgrade your Dell Alienware 15 R4 Laptop to up to a maximum memory capacity of 64GB Memory. Alienware 15 R4 Memory Upgrade - Dell 15 R4 Alienware Laptop Memory (memorystock.com)" but I have never used them. 

The Windows 10 & 11 operating system can provide virtual RAM, if your physical RAM is at maximum. Virtual RAM is slower than physical RAM, but may offer a good option if allocated to an ultrafast NVMe card. The ideal would be to assign virtual RAM allocation to a different drive, so that it has access to a different PCIe Gen3.0 x4 bus (data highway) and does not reduce the OS(C:) drive read/write speed. The usually ignored M.2 2242 slot could be used to provide the dedicated virtual RAM. 

I successfully used 64GB of RAM on my Alienware 15R4.
Refer to this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiytGGy-k8U