Has anyone here ever upgraded the memory on your laptop?

[libnnc]

I have a Dell (ugh, I know...) Inspiron 1501 (1 GB)

I want to upgrade my memory so I bought another one GB stick.

I've been reading up on how to install a memory upgrade and it looks like I should have bought two 1 GB memory sticks...Do they come in pairs? I don't want to go fishing around in my laptop until I have what I need.

Help?

[Shiver]

1. I have

Twice, in fact.

I have a Mac, though, and while I could help with the Dell, I'd need to be there to do so...

[libnnc]

2. I just need to know if I have to order another module

that's all

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. I've updated the memory on my laptop; so far as I know, no one on DU has, though.

As to your second question, check online (or go to a reputable computer store) and see what your specific laptop actually needs - they're all different.

You probably went to some dipshit store like Best Buy or CompUSA where the staff can barely tie their shoes and consider a succesful day one that they kept themselves from shitting in their pants, and they just said, "Oh, memory - here's one."

[Nickster]

4. You have two slots, each one can hold one gb of ram. So if your laptop came with a one gb stick

in it already, then you just slap the new stick into the empty slot. If it came with two 512mb sticks, then you would either remove one stick and replace it with the 1gb and have 1.5gb ram, or buy another stick of 1gb and upgrade to two gb ram.

[libnnc]

5. I just looked and I have 2 slots

since I'm not running Vista this 1 GB might be all I need....hmmm.

decisions, decisions...

Thanks for your help :hi:

[Nickster]

8. You have two slots, so just put the 1gb in one of the slots and leave the other memory in the second

slot. So you'll have either 1.5gb or 2gb depending on what's in you system right now. Do you see a chip in both slots? If so, then you have two 512mb chips. Remove one of them and replace with the new memory stick, then you'll have 1.5gb of RAM. You don't have to replace what you have completely with the new stick.

If you only see one memory stick in one of those two slots and the other one is empty, then you'll just pop the new stick into the empty slot and have 2gb of RAM.

It' really easy to do, just make sure that you hear a slight snap when you fit it into place, you should be able to tell how to replace it fairly easily by looking at it. There's a notch in the chip that only allows it to fit into the memory slot in the correct way. Look for a notch in the memory slot that lines up with the notch in the chip. Then the little arms on either side of the slot fit into notches on either side of the chip, that holds it into place. Hope that helps.

Here's a video I found.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwqnlAUz-QI&feature=related

This one is a bit simpler and to the point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IrTmtEa_kk&feature=related

[libnnc]

9. I replaced one and it works fine...

while cleaning up some files I accidentally deleted all of my music...x( x( x( x( x(

Got plenty of space now......:banghead:

[hobbit709]

6. Just put it in the other slot.

If you have 1Gb in the one slot and put the other in the other slot, it should see both of them. Just make sure it's securely snapped in place. You'll hear a little click when it does.

[mwooldri]

7. Most laptops don't have to worry about paired memory.

Desktops on the other hand are a whole different story, but paired memory comes and goes.

I remember Pentiums where you had to install two matched memory sticks in to increase the memory - SIMMS. Then they came out with DIMMS... and you only needed the one stick.

AMD did something funky at one time with its memory and required pairing again for a bit.

Nowadays it can be even funkier. One mainboard I was looking at had 4 slots. You could have 1 memory stick in any of the four slots, 2 sticks in either the yellow or the black slots but not both, or 4 sticks in all 4 slots. Couldn't have 3...

Mark.