Can a dell optiplex 3010 be upgraded to 16gb of ram

Tango_

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Nov 2, 2015
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Ive read the manual for the machine online and it says that it can take 8gbt ive read online some people upgraded to 16 anyway but some said it doesn't work
So if anybody could help thanks
 
Solution
If the manual says max 8GB, then that means it is locked in the motherboard BIOS to only recognize that much. It's possible that those some people you are referring to may have found a hacked/modified BIOS from another Dell PC model's motherboard which took a max of 16GB.

Otherwise there's no other way around it other than to replace the motherboard with an aftermarket one from the likes of ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, ASRock, etc. FYI I would not recommend experimenting with modified BIOS's...they can brick your motherboard forcing you to buy another one.

If the manual says max 8GB, then that means it is locked in the motherboard BIOS to only recognize that much. It's possible that those some people you are referring to may have found a hacked/modified BIOS from another Dell PC model's motherboard which took a max of 16GB.

Otherwise there's no other way around it other than to replace the motherboard with an aftermarket one from the likes of ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, ASRock, etc. FYI I would not recommend experimenting with modified BIOS's...they can brick your motherboard forcing you to buy another one.

 
Solution
The manual is often wrong. Go to Crucial.com and use their memory finder. It's very common for a later BIOS version to support more memory.They are often wrong about speed though. Dell only lists configurations that they sold and tetsted when the system was new. That doesn't mean that's all that will work. My computer was listed by Dell as 4GB and DDR2 667 because that's what they sold. It actually supports 8GB DDR2 800. There may be some planned obsolecense at work here also.