- Jun 9, 2017
- 2
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- 510
I have an Alienware 17 Laptop that is a few years old, It has 2x4 GB ram sticks that came shipped with the unit, I have been meaning to upgrade for quite some time and finally got around to it, I wanted to get something decent so I used Crucial.com and used their tools to find guaranteed compatible parts. I knew that If i bought faster ram sticks they would be slowed down but I ended up purchasing these:
http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/alienware-17/CT4415157
When i recived the sticks and put them in the 2 expansion slots in my machine I had some weird issues. At first the sticks were not being recognized in the Bios at all, but in my OS (Win10x64) it would show 16GB of ram installed (7.88 GB available) I messaged their support team attempting a few support steps, after reseating ram it showed up in the Bios, but when i logged into the OS it would say 8GB installed (7.88 GB available). During all these test's CPU-Z would correctly show all 4, 4GB ram sticks including full information about each stick. After multiple other support chats, the tech told me because I purchased the Ballistix gaming ram sometimes it doesn't dance well with other parts ram sticks so there was nothing they could do. I have returned those ram sticks so unfortunately i can no longer do any testing with them. I went straight to dell the manufacturer and asked their sales support team which sticks I could purchase that would be guaranteed compatible with my current sticks. They looked into my system configuration and recommended these parts:
http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-4gb-certified-memory-module-ddr3-sodimm-1600mhz-lv/apd/a6951103/memory
I ordered them and attempted to insert them into my system but I am having EXACTLY the same issues with these sticks. Upon original boot the BIOS did not detect the ram sticks at all, but in the OS I could see 16GB installed (7.88 GB available). I reseated the sticks, swapping their positions and booted back up and gladly saw that the BIOS recongnized the sticks now, but to my dismay after logging into the OS once again I see 8GB installed (7.88 GB available) CPU-Z see's all 4 sticks once again. These sticks from the manufacturer have EXACTLY the same clock speeds and voltages as the original ones. I am getting very frustrated I'm not sure why its not working. One thing I will mention is that this gaming machine has the 2 expansion slots VERY easily accessible to make upgrading a breeze but accessing the original 2 slots requires me to completely dismantle the machine and if I can at all avoid that I would much rather do so. This should not be this difficult I'm only trying to increase my RAM and I'm pretty tech savvy most of the time.
I can run any tests or troubleshooting steps with minor guidance. Please help me make this work.
http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/alienware-17/CT4415157
When i recived the sticks and put them in the 2 expansion slots in my machine I had some weird issues. At first the sticks were not being recognized in the Bios at all, but in my OS (Win10x64) it would show 16GB of ram installed (7.88 GB available) I messaged their support team attempting a few support steps, after reseating ram it showed up in the Bios, but when i logged into the OS it would say 8GB installed (7.88 GB available). During all these test's CPU-Z would correctly show all 4, 4GB ram sticks including full information about each stick. After multiple other support chats, the tech told me because I purchased the Ballistix gaming ram sometimes it doesn't dance well with other parts ram sticks so there was nothing they could do. I have returned those ram sticks so unfortunately i can no longer do any testing with them. I went straight to dell the manufacturer and asked their sales support team which sticks I could purchase that would be guaranteed compatible with my current sticks. They looked into my system configuration and recommended these parts:
http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-4gb-certified-memory-module-ddr3-sodimm-1600mhz-lv/apd/a6951103/memory
I ordered them and attempted to insert them into my system but I am having EXACTLY the same issues with these sticks. Upon original boot the BIOS did not detect the ram sticks at all, but in the OS I could see 16GB installed (7.88 GB available). I reseated the sticks, swapping their positions and booted back up and gladly saw that the BIOS recongnized the sticks now, but to my dismay after logging into the OS once again I see 8GB installed (7.88 GB available) CPU-Z see's all 4 sticks once again. These sticks from the manufacturer have EXACTLY the same clock speeds and voltages as the original ones. I am getting very frustrated I'm not sure why its not working. One thing I will mention is that this gaming machine has the 2 expansion slots VERY easily accessible to make upgrading a breeze but accessing the original 2 slots requires me to completely dismantle the machine and if I can at all avoid that I would much rather do so. This should not be this difficult I'm only trying to increase my RAM and I'm pretty tech savvy most of the time.
I can run any tests or troubleshooting steps with minor guidance. Please help me make this work.
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