Can I upgrade Compaq Ram?

john432

Laptop is: Compaq 15-a003sa, with 4GB Ram.

This pc is slow, its got poor reviews already found out asking google.
Its been a spare pc, but now needs to man up to the job, or its going. Trying to find out if its possible to upgrade the ram. It only has one ram slot which is 4GB 2Rx8 PC3L.
So, can I change this for a 8GB ram, can the motherboard support this? This is where google lets me down.
Any help with this please.

NiftyDigits

The main reason for your laptop being slow, other than the weight of software installed, is the Intel Celeron N2810 CPU.
Forget about increasing the RAM. Upgrade to Windows 10 and then swap the HDD for SSD and clean install Windows 10 to it.

System

Hi

May be if you went to

http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en and downloaded their scanner it would provide some welcome news.

OR http://www.kingstonmemoryshop.co.uk/

d0nkeyk0ng

well I had a quick google:

http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/Compaq-15-Notebook-PC-series/6532042/model/6733566/manuals

max ram is 16GB but google showed that there's versions of this laptop with only one RAM slot instead of two. You may need to physically inspect to see what you can upgrade to.

were

NiftyDigits wrote: »

....swap the HDD for SSD and clean install Windows 10 to it.

Before you put in an SSD check that the bios supports it, or is upgradeable. Think the manufacture has limited the bios features, and Nifty many have jumped the gun, but he is usually correct, or is more up to date then me

Even with no AHCI, using the IDE (PATA) settings the drive should work, but in some case or manuracturer dependent does not, but if it works you may not feel that there is any speed increase.

This post is old, and with a newer bios, things may now work??? http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-System-and-Recovery/Storage-Driver-for-HP-Compaq-15-a003sa/td-p/5087888

System

Hi

I think some/all of this is covered in the above posts, but just in case...

Try
http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/Compaq-15-Notebook-PC-series/6532042/model/6733566/manuals

if you haven't already.

There was a worldwide product recall on the power cord in 2014.
http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/Compaq-15-Notebook-PC-series/6532042/model/6733566/document/c04404446/

Drivers etc
http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/Compaq-15-Notebook-PC-series/6532042/model/6733566

Memory:-- 2 customer-accessible/upgradable memory module slots
Supports dual-channel memory DDR3L-1600-MHz

Supposedly to 16 gig. except on a 32 bit OS though.
Supports up to 16 GB of system RAM in the following
configurations:
●
16384-MB total system memory (8192×2; not supported
on a 32-bit operating system)
●
12288-MB total system memory (8192×1 + 4096×1; not
supported on a 32-bit operating system)
●
8192-MB total system memory (8192×1 or 4096×2)
●
6144-MB total system memory (4096×1 + 2048×1; not
supported on a 32-bit operating system)
●
4096-MB total system memory (4096×1 or 2048×2)
●
2048-MB total system memory (2048×1)

WiFi, Ram and Optical bay.



NB: The HDD is only a 5400 rpm model, so perhaps there is scope for a faster model. Supports the following hard drives:
●
1-TB, 5400-rpm, 9.5-mm
●
750-GB, 5400-rpm, 9.5-mm
●
500-GB, 5400-rpm, 9.5-mm or 7.0-mm
●
320-GB, 5400-rpm, 9.5-mm or 7.0-mm





If in doubt please ask.

emptybox

Bring up Task Manager (right click on task bar and select), and see what your RAM usage is when the laptop is running slow.
Also note which programs are using most RAM. Google Chrome is a notorious hog.

If the RAM usage goes up to 80% or more, then putting in more RAM will definitely help.
But if the RAM usage is 60% or less then you won't notice any difference increasing the RAM, as it's not using up the RAM it already has.

TBH 4GB is perfectly adequate for most Windows tasks. More RAM certainly won't hurt, but won't make a noticible difference for most things.

toshi

NiftyDigits wrote: »

The main reason for your laptop being slow, other than the weight of software installed, is the Intel Celeron N2810 CPU.
Forget about increasing the RAM. Upgrade to Windows 10 and then swap the HDD for SSD and clean install Windows 10 to it.

I am not a big fan of Windows 10 but this is absolutely right.
Celeron N2810CPU is not so powerful, but just manage to run modern application.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Celeron+N2810

Get a SATA 2.5 inch SSD first, and you don't need 1TB hard disk, use this hard disk as an external USB enclosure (your notebook support 1 USB 3 port) for a data backup

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-3-0-2-5-inch-External-Hard-Drive-Enclosure-SATA-HDD-Case-Caddy-For-Windows-/262346061081

I don't think you actually have consumed 4GB memory in full, (check the task manager) It is really hard to use more than 4GB for general users. Because the hard disk is too slow to use more applications.

I have managed to consume 4.4GB memory with SSD (I need to open 55 Firefox tabs)

I am an IT professional and kept saying "Get more memory to run computer faster", which turned out to be wrong since I have started using SSDs. (All of my computers are SSD based now)

2GB memory with SSD is significantly faster than 8GB memory with Hard disk

This is a 2008 MAC notebook performance test in real environment. (As I tested below, Windows gets the same results. This MAC uses 5400 rpm Hard Disk, Cheap and old Windows notebooks tend to use slower 4200 rpm hard disk, so SSD improvement is even more significant)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn6zxoh3oK4

I have tested this with Windows 7 by myself. My 2008 notebook has a 500MB free memory out of 2GB (2000MB) With a SSD, your computer will still run BLAZINGLY FAST until no memory left (i.e. until Windows freezes). If you use a hard disk, you cannot make this happen, Why? Because the hard disk is too slow to use all of your memory. (i.e. you give up running more application because a hard disk is too slow.)

Later I added 2GB more (total 4GB). The performance difference between 2GB and 4GB is very marginal, you don't tell the difference. (same as Mac Test) But 4GB will help to run more application without freezing Windows.


Please also note Powerful CPU, additional Memory will NOT make a sluggish hard disk faster. (Yes, once data is transferred from a hard disk to memory, memory cache will kick in. But actual slowness comes from the initial slow data transfer from a hard disk to CPU/memory.

Happy computing

HP Hardware Reference:
http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04089454