15 R3, Ram upgrade problems!

Question

Hi

Can anyone help!

Im trying to upgrade the ram in my 15 r3 from 16gb to 32gb. I searched the forums and followed the link to crucial in this post

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware/15-R3-upgrading-RAM-from-8GB-to-16GB/m-p/6241169#M18985

I purchased Crucial 32GB Kit (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 SODIMM model CT2K16G4SFD832A it says its this part is 100% compatible with Alienware 15 R3. However I can not get it to work. When I install the ram the bios detects its been changed and the rams shows the correct amount and speed, but upon restart it does 1 of 3 things. It either hangs on the Alienware logo. Hangs on the Alienware logo saying attempting to repair, or starts to load and windows reports that its corrupt and needs to be repaired. When I reboot any 1 of these 3 happen. When I reinstall the old 16gb ram the system loads no problem. Can anyone help? Am I doing something wrong? please don't say Ive wasted money on ram that's not compatible?

Thanks

JOcean · Accepted Answer

Actually going by the edited additions to my post by the moderator, the validate RAM modules are these. 2666 should work but at this point no sense taking a chance and having RAM that may not work. Validated RAM has actually been tested and certified compatible by Dell.

JOcean · Answer

Crucial will refund if the RAM does not work in your system. Also the post you referred to lists 2400 and 2666 as validated speeds but not 3200. It is possible that the 3200 is not compatible even though Crucial lists it as such. Possibly you can contact Crucial and see if they can swap down to a lower speed.

HeathAnator · Answer

thanks for your reply.

I didn't order it from crucial but the seller has agreed for me to return and refund it.

Just to be clear id I order this one https://www.crucial.com/memory/ddr4/ct2k16g4sfd8266/ct9462412 it should be fine? Am I right in thinking it should be just plug and play? Swap out the ram and windows just loads normally. No other action required?

HeathAnator · Answer

Thanks again for your help. Ill play it safe and get that one as it is certified to work by dell. I doubt the difference between 2400 and 2666 will be that noticeable. Thanks

findramon · Answer

Hi There!

I did a good number of disk upgrades for my AW 15 R3 so now I'm rocking a total of 9TB of disk space across 4 drives. As for ram, I can confirm that 2400 speed is the only option Crucial confirms compatibility with in a 32gb configuration. If a different speed is selected on their site and a compatibility check is re-run for 32gb, it will not work. Here is the direct link:

Crucial 32GB Kit (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 SODIMM | CT2K16G4SFD824A | Crucial.com

I am unaware if this Ram actually performs better than the stock Ram that shipped with my laptop. I'm using CPU-user benchmark to cross check everything. Currently, my Ram seems to be one of the major performance bottlenecks.

Cheers!

Alienware

15 R3, Ram upgrade problems!

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