Memory capacity reported feature under physical memory array

[Adrian E]

I have an HP dv6-6052ea laptop with an i7-2630QM CPU and am looking to increase the amount of memory I have, hence my reason for downloading your software.

HP state the maximum memory is 8GB but it's not clear if that's because of a hardware limitation or just old information because nothing bigger than a 4GB stick was available when the machine was built!

Crucial's memory checker doesn't seem to use anything other than the HP reported specs for the machine and not sure if there are others which actually look for hardware limitations?

When I run hwinfo it reports a memory capacity of 16,777,216 which I reading as suggesting I can fit 2x8GB memory modules? Just wondering where hwinfo is pulling that info from and if it's reliable enough to decide I can get away with 8GB sticks.

With memory so cheap now I'm tempted to get 1x8GB now rather than adding a 4GB to what I already have.

Any pointers gratefully received

Adrian

 

[Martin]

HWiNFO pulls data from several sources, so I'm not sure where it did report the limit of 16,777,216. If this was under the SMBIOS DMI section, then I don't advise to rely on this. The SMBIOS DMI information is defined by BIOS and often is unreliable, because the BIOS/system vendors often don't set this information correctly.
According to your processor specification, the maximum memory size supported is 16 GB with 2 SO-DIMMs using 4Gb device technology.

 

[Adrian E]

Thanks for the reply - I'm guessing in that case that if there were 4 memory slots it would recognise 16GB, but as I only have 2 and there's a 4GB limit on each slot then 8GB is the practical limit.

It runs perfectly well on 4GB but I'm running Vista in a VM so it does noticably slow down with 2GB allocated to the VM

Only £15 to double the memory

Adrian

 

[Martin]

The "4Gb device technology" I mentioned is not meant as 4GB limit per channel, but the DIMM technology instead. So please don't get confused.

 

[Markov]

Hi,
sorry if I write in this thread, but I have a similar problem
I have a computer HP p6622it-m, with motherboard MSI 2A9C and with these features: http://www.findlaptopdriver.com/msi-2a9c-specs/
The motherboard supports up to MAX 8 GB of RAM, but if I run HWiNFO64 (SMBIOS DMI section - Physical Memory Array), it reports a memory capacity of 16,777,216. What is the maximum size of RAM that can actually support the motherboard?
I ask for this information because I want to perform an upgrade of RAM, but I do not understand if the single RAM slot supports 2 Gb or 4 Gb (this is according to the maximum RAM supported).

Thank you for help and support!!!

 

[Martin]

The information under SMBIOS DMI is often unreliable - it's defined by BIOS/System engineers and they sometimes forget to update this accordingly.
If you want to be sure how much memory your board supports, you should consult the board/machine specifications or manual.
As for particular memory module capacity supported, you seem to have a Core i CPU (Lynnfiled/Clarkdale), which should support 1-Gb and 2-Gb DDR3 DRAM technologies (note that this "Gb" value is the DRAM chip technology - not the DIMM/module capacity!).

 

[Markov]

Thank you for the answer that you give me.
For the motherboard, unfortunately I have not found a true manual ... even on the official website of MSI I find no information. However, if I understand, the single slot of this motherboard should support up to 2 GB for a total of 8 GB (there are 4 slots on the motherboard).
So if I take a module 4 Gb RAM should not be able to see it and therefore should give me a error. Is it correct?
what do you mean by this phrase: """"note that this "Gb" value is the DRAM chip technology - not the DIMM/module capacity""""


Thank you!!!