Add more memory than spec?

Since then I've tried adding 2x 16GB, it doesn't work. 1x8 and 1x16 also doesn't work, the 8Gb is seen and used, but the 16G is not recognized. Now I'd like to know why? Why arent't the 16GB modules recognized? Is it the BIOS, the memory itself, the motherboard? The processor i7-3632QM supports 32G, but it seems only in 4x8GB. As I have two slots, 16G is the max. But why? What is blocking things?

I would agree, but I am trying to find out what is limiting things. I also have a X61, which happily runs memory upto twice the stated max from the manufacturer. So if I cannot really trust their statements, what do I look for? I read on some forum that 16GB modules will only be accepted by 5th gen Intels and above. Seeing mine is only 3rd gen, that would make sense, but where is the fact sheet that tells me this. Somewhere, some spec has to be the one limiting things. AFAIK Intel's I series includes a memory controller, so I was assuming the motherboard would not be much of a factor. Is that wrong? I can't see anything on ARK that would hint at this ' we don't do 16GB modules' either. Both the working 8GB module and the not working 16GB are DDR3L and spec'ed similarly. So I ruled out the memory standard being a source of problems. I remember from some time ago some board not doing double density, but must admit, lately I have stopped tracking all the details in hardware. So, I would like to understand why, I see it doesn't work, now why. If it is the mobo, what part of the mobo is limiting things. I was starting to suspect the BIOS. Lenovo does have the BIOS on the E531 set to reject a lot of hardware, could it be rejecting the 16GB module as well?

The thing that worries me is that no one seems to know. And to be frank, it is not in their interest. See, I run some virtualised systems, so for me RAM is something I would not quickly have enough of. Right now, 16GB is limiting me. 32GB would help, 64GB would be better. However, the CPU is not being worked hard, hard disk space is plentiful. Based on the info, simply bumping the memory would be best way to not have to invest in a new machine. But Lenovo would prefer to sell me another laptop. It is not in their interest to allow their old stuff to profit from newer RAM (16GB modules didn't exist at the time)l. Anyway, I'm now eyeing a new laptop, but one that will go to 64GB. And even though it is a much newer machine, the laptop's cpu is not that much faster. So go figure.....

Hmmm, feeling a little stupid for not updating the BIOS before doing this. Lately I'm on this 'if it ain't broke, don't fix'. So turns out that my version 1.17, things have moved to 1.32 and one of the changes is 'enabled 2x DRAM refresh'. So this seems like something I need to try. Sourcing them this time is going to be a little harder, but I'll give it a go.

Thanks for the suggestion

Ok, I've updated the BIOS, which was easy, except CD-RW's don't do so hot, it has been years since I burnt a regular CD, but it worked. Updates seem all a little minor, except that Linux now boots and the FnLk stays on, previously it would switch off and you had to always lock it manually.

In the release notes there's a cryptic ' Enabled 2x refresh rate onto DRAM' somewhere in the middle from what the revision was and what it is now (I went from 1.17 to 1.31 and this for 1.21). I am not sure what this means and if it could possibly related to supporting 16GB modules? The optimistic thought would be that 1.17 worked fine with 8GB modules, but didn't recognize 16GB. If the refresh went x2, perhaps it would now. But is this wishful thinking?

I'm hoping to give the 16GB modules another go in a couple of days, perhaps next week..... Will keep updating......

Everyone, I've found the answer, it was this thread: https://communities.intel.com/thread/77083 that pointed the way. It's the number of bits per chip. More than 4G is not supported. So if the 16GB module carries 16 chips, it will work, but if only 8 it won't. This limitation is in Intel's datasheet. Now I know....

It is actually an Intel bug, see wiki's entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR3_SDRAM where it says: "The DDR3 standard permits DRAM chip capacities of up to 8 gibibits, and up to 4 ranks of 64 bits each for a total maximum of 16 GiB per DDR3 DIMM. Because of a hardware limitation not fixed until Ivy Bridge-E in 2013, most older Intel CPUs only support up to 4 gibibit chips for 8 GiB DIMMs (Intel's Core 2 DDR3 chipsets only support up to 2 gibibits). All AMD CPUs correctly support the full specification for 16 GiB DDR3 DIMMs.[1]" It's processor problem, not the bios, not the motherboard. But at least I know.