Memory inserted reboots hp dv8t-1200?

[tical2k]

I'm running into a problem with my laptop. I recently purchased 16 GB of corsair (CMSO16GX3M2A1333C9). The specs of the machine are PM55 chipset with i5-450m processor. I checked the specs of the machine (after purchasing ) and determined that the max ram supported was 8GB. However, that did not deter me from installing these modules anyway. I have a few scenarios occurring when booting with these modules. (In the three OSes I have installed)

1. When booting windows 7 home premium (64bit), I start to see the windows logo, then the machine reboots. Same thing with safe mode.

2.When booting with chameleon into OS X 10.8 (64bit), the same thing occurs. However, if I use the -x flag (apple safe mode basically) The machine boots fine. However 1GB of ram is available and 15GB are shown as "wired"

3. When booting into Ubunbtu 12.04 (32 bit), no problems occur. I can cat /proc/meminfo etc and see I have 16GB installed.

4. Running memtest86 reboots the machine almost instantly.


The obvious answer is: "The computer does not support the 16GB of RAM". BUT Why, then does linux (32bit for that matter, which seems counter-intuitive) boot and run fine with it? I have a suspicion it might have to do with the ram spd? The ram is rated at 9-9-9-24, but memtest86 shows the timings set to 7-7-7-20. Is my bios ignoring the ram spd and essentially overclocking the RAM causing reboots because it cannot handle the speeds?

Side note, I've tried mixing and matching SODIMMs. 1 8GB stick has the same issue as both in. 1 2 or 4GB stick and 1 8GB stick causes a "hang" at the windows or apple boot logo. I've also managed to utilize an unlocked bios to give more options, but none have the DRAM timings setting.

All RAMs are DDR3 1333

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

 

[dcoetzee]

I ordered this memory for my dv8t-1100, which is also rated for a max 8 GB RAM:

G.SKILL 16GB (2 x 8G) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-16GBSQ
DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600)
Cas Latency 9
1.5V
Dual Channel Kit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231531

It worked just fine right out of the box. Memtest ran for 20 min no problem, memtest showed timings that matched the advertising, and all 16 GB was visible from 64-bit Windows 7 Professional and 64-bit Ubuntu Linux 12.04. There were no problems booting, and I was able to run applications that actually use more than 8 GB of RAM at one time (a very large image conversion task).

I'm not sure why it didn't work for you - either your model is slightly different (although I would expect a *later* model to also accept 16 GB) or your RAM was bad. The fact that it failed with even one stick suggests to me that your RAM was bad and you should really try a different one like the one I linked above.

 

[tical2k]

What processor do you have? I've heard of people doing it with a i7-720qm (clarksfield) but my i5-450m (arrandale) doesnt seem to like it.... This may be the problem. I gave up after I tried another 16gb kit that had the same specs as you posted. Didn't work. Gave up and got some kingston hpyer-x 8gb. Maybe if I can find an i7 cheap enough I'll give that a go.

 

[dcoetzee]

I do indeed have an i7-720QM. This sounds like it may be the differentiating factor.

 

[jrbuckley]

I'm using Win7 64-Bit, Intel i7 820QM (Clarksfield) and just took it from 8GB to 16GB without issue and it's working fine.