Laptop Memory

[davecrom01]

Well, I did it! I finally managed to find an email address that I could register with. I couldn't even use my own domain name - is that because I bought and registered it via Google? I had to use a friends, is there any way I can use my @XYZ personal domain name now I'm registered?

Anyway, just wanted to say I have followed this site for a long time, it's a really excellent resource and a big thank you to Rob and the forum members for their quality contributions.

I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop, a P100-152 running on Vista. I have checked my BIOS, and it appears I have 2 memory slots, filled with 2 x 512MB sticks of whatever Tosh ship with. I have decided to go with 2 x 2048MB of something good.

Using the Crucial memory scanner it appears I have DDR2 PC-5300. Crucial suggests I buy 4gb of CT540583 2GB, 200-pin SODIMM.

I wondered if that is good memory, or if it's a generic type that I could do better than - and even if I need anything better.

Cheers,
Dave

[The Wise Monkey]

Of course Crucial would suggest buying Crucial RAM, but it will still be high quality. :)

This G.Skill RAM is good value and has good timings for the price:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231154

[davecrom01]

Thanks for the recommendation.

newegg.ca gets the business ;-)

It's on it's way - thanks again!

Cheers
Dave

[The Wise Monkey]

No problem - let us know how the installation goes and if it makes a difference to performance.

[davecrom01]

OK, I will do.

I was just wondering if Vista will just boot up after the install, ready to "see and use" the new memory?

Or, do I need to re-install Vista to get it to use the memory fully?

It may be a dumb question, but I always wonder if the OpSys sets certain things like page file size or anything else when it is installed based on a one-off "view" of what it sees in the way of hardware.

Cheers,
dave

[RickyTick]

Just install the ram and boot up. Windows should do the rest.

[davecrom01]

Well, job done then!

Two cross head screws off the back, a little bit of force to pop out the two existing cards, which were layered on top of each other, then an insert into the slots.

Boot up BIOS said "4096".

Vista booted up, and it says it sees 4.00GB.

Oh, did I mention it's blindingly quick :-)

Looking at task manager, I see now on boot up that so many of the services that have to start and adjust themselves were spilling over the 896 i had available onto the Swap File.

Now, on boot up, I see task manager saying that I'm using RAM way over 1MB initially - which is why I guess it's a lot quicker response time.

Thanks for the help,
Cheers
Dave