I have two sticks of 8GB RAM on my laptop, but CPU-Z reads them as Single channel? How can I make them run on Dual?

Mar 29, 2018
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Hi all,

I recently bought the Crucial 16GB RAM kit for my Laptop, (HP Notebook 15-ba082nr) which only came with 4GB RAM installed. I decided to upgrade because I do lots of work which requires multiple Office apps to be running at the same time for college work. I was going to get the 8 GB RAM kit but I had a bit extra money so I decided to just go with the 16 GB kit.

I made sure my laptop was capable of running on 16 GB RAM and it was, I even bought the RAM kit Crucial reccomended after I entered my laptop's info.

--> The problem is, I installed the two 8GB RAM sticks, my laptop only has two RAM slots so I know the problem can't be how they are installed, but CPU-Z reads the two RAM sticks as running in Single channel. I understand Dual is faster and is what you should have when running on two RAM sticks. My laptop reads the RAM at 16GB so I know it's there, I just do not know why it is running in Single channel, Is there any way I can fix this?

RAM specs: Crucial 16GB Kit (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 SODIMM
CT9765667
DDR3 PC3-14900 • CL=13 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1866 • 1.35V • 1024Meg
x 64 •
upgrade for HP - Compaq HP 15-ba082nr system.

I know a mistake on my part was buying the DDR3-1866 pack, I later found out my laptop can only support up to DDR3-1600, but I read in various sites that does not influence anything, it'll just clock down to 1600.

Any answers or help are/will be gratley appreciated, thank you!

---> see images below

Resource Monitor: https://imageshack.com/a/img922/30/ESXPKq.jpg
Task Manager: https://imageshack.com/a/img923/2871/J97vAv.jpg
CPU-Z: https://imageshack.com/a/img924/5416/evhYyw.jpg



 

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
It's good practice to make sure you're on the latest BIOS revision prior to populating a laptop/system with a ram kit. On that note, bravo, you've done a good job going for a kit since everyone who do mix and match their sticks of ram end up with a near sluggish system or worse, are left to diagnose issues.

You should have your ram kit with the frequencies downclocked to DDR3-1600MHz. Oh right, are you on Windows 10? You may also want to see if the rams are as they should be in BIOS.
 
Mar 29, 2018
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I entered into BIOS and could not find anything XMP. CPU-Z will not let me edit values and does not recognize the two sticks of RAM, It just has Slot 1 and Slot 2 but everything is empty. How can I edit on CPU-Z and set voltage? What voltage would I set?

Thanks

---> see images below (sorry for lack of quality)

Image 1: https://imageshack.com/a/img923/1133/tqgiTd.jpg
Image 2: https://imageshack.com/a/img923/5353/idf1oU.jpg
 
Mar 29, 2018
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Yes, I am running Windows 10 and I saw in BIOS that i have 16GB RAM but I didnt see the two individual 8GB RAM sticks. I do not know what BIOS version I am running nor how to update it, but I can do some reaserch online to see if it is up to date. How can I downclock the speeds to 1600MHz?

Thanks!

---> see images below
Image 1: https://imageshack.com/a/img922/5162/Ji9cWY.png
Image 2: https://imageshack.com/a/img922/9389/984rdg.png
 


You cannot enter values in CPU-z. I said to enter them in bios, exactly as shown in CPU-z, SPD tab, JEDEC#4 of 800mhz. (should be 11-11-12-28). Explore bios to extra settings as i cannot see any memory management setting in the menu. Some laptops have them hidden
 
Mar 29, 2018
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I will try, but my SPD tab on CPU-Z is empty, for both slots (1 & 2). What does JEDEC#4 of 800 MHZ mean? I am sorry I am not that great with this stuff. Is the (11-11-12-28) a preset?

Thanks!

---> see image below
Image 1: https://imageshack.com/a/img922/8971/FstdlW.png
 


Ok, doesn't matter ignore it. 11-11-12-28 are the timings of your ram, as shown in your cpu-z memory of your first post. Each timing has a description i.e tcas etc. Normally in every bios you should be able to find these descriptions and manually edit their values. Change only those that are shown in your cpu-z memory and ignore any other. Still, if you find memory management in your bios, you may see XMP profiles which you should test if they do the trick.
 
D

Deleted member 217926

Guest
It's possible that even though the laptop has 2 memory slots it does not support dual channel mode. It's common for laptops to not support it especially lower end ones.

I don't see it specifically mentioned on the HP support page. Maybe try contacting them.
 
Mar 29, 2018
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I have searched through the BIOS for a while now, I still can not find anything I can edit those values into or change into. I will try updating my BIOS but if all else fails I think I will just visit a technician.

Thank you!

 
Mar 29, 2018
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I do not know how much my laptop was, it was a hs graduation gift from my aunt to help with my college work. I updated the RAM because running Word and PowerPoint plus browsing the web at the same time makes it so slow.. I also like to play minecraft every once in a while but when I do I get lots of lag. I seemed to have misplaced the manual because I can not find it. Anyhow, here is the product page for my laptop.

Thanks!

---> http://scn.by/9t9ab0htw8kehq
 
Mar 29, 2018
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Does this mean my only option is Single Channel? If so is it bad that I bought the 16GB kit? Will this affect the speed of the RAM greatly?

Thanks!
 
It means it's not HP's fault, AMD chose to only wire a single channel to their SoC to make the platform cheaper.

With such low processor performance it can hardly matter--the applications that benefit most from memory bandwidth are compression (Winzip) and games. I think you can agree that is not a suitable gaming system anyway.
 
Mar 29, 2018
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I agree, by far one of the worst things to game on. I only use it for school work however, (rarely play Minecraft on it) I just hope it reduces the sluggishness when I use various apps at once.

I will follow up with HP Support and ask if there is anything I can do about it, but I am now sure that is the answer.

Thank you all!