hi. this is jason from hp customer care. thank you for joining us today to listen to our how-to video series that we are doing in conjunction with our hp expert day. in this section we will talk about how to replace the ram in your computer. i brought some friends along. bill. randy. kevin. thanks for joining me, guys. you got it.
if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments field on youtube. if you have access to twitter, you can ask us a question using the hashtag #hpexpertday. if you have questions on a different support topic, join the expert day event that is going on now. go to hp.com/expertday. that will take you to our consumer support forums with lots of hp empoyees and volunteers. let's talk about upgrading the memory, or the ram, in your computer.
my first question is, why would you do this? why would you add ram to your computer? there are questions about how much. how do you know if you need it? start with the basics. the main reason is to improve the speed and performance of your computer. make it open faster, start programs faster. if you are running video games or bigger applications that are bigger, doing videos and things like that, you need more memory so that it does not lag or freeze.
if you are playing games and you are getting lag, you start thinking, "maybe i need more memory." you can process all of that information quicker. lag meaning slowing down. yes. you move your mouse and the arrow trails behind. memory is one of the lower-cost upgrade solutions that will produce some of the best effects that will improve your speed. best return on investment for speeding up your performance.
there are other things you can do that are not hardware related to improve your performance. a lot of software things in the windows operating system that you can use. you have a support document on that as well. yes we do. if they go to hp.com, what should they search for? it depends on the operating system that you are using. if you are using windows 7, then type "windows 7" in the searh field.
also type "increasing system performance." that will give you a support article on the first page of the results. there are all kinds of tips and tricks you can use. like turning down the graphical features. or removing cache files. old files. temp files. there are all kinds of files. that is if you do not want to upgrade the memory. if you cannot upgrade your memory, you can do those things. to the memory topic, it is good because it does that anyway.
makes it even faster. if you have had your computer for a couple of years but are not ready for a new one but you want to run the latest software and games increasing your memory can definitely help. i have heard the anology that ram is like the refrigerator in your house and the hard drive is like the freezer in the garage. it makes you think about food. the idea is that it is easier to access the freezer than to go out to the garage
if you have a bigger refrigerator, you have better access with a bigger ram you have quicker access to the stuff on your computer. i like that one. see. i know what i am talking about. we are just messing around. these are my tech experts. thanks for joining us. our how-to video series on replacing ram. the first thing you need to figure out is what kind of ram does your system take?
what should you buy? how do you figure that out? research. it is like anything. everything that we are talking about you need to look things up first. buy the memory. do not just ask your friend to give it to you. it probably will not work unless your computers are similar. you need to look up your product specifications. go to hp.com and search for your model number. plug in your number and product specifications.
it will come up and you can find your motherboard specifications. it will tell you what kind of memory you can add. what is in there already. the type of memory it is. that is what you need to know before you upgrade. to your point about installing your friend's memory, you can slow your system by installing the wrong memory. if you do not do the right resarch. older memory tends to be that way. your computer will always run at the lower speed.
it looks like you brought some examples of memory. it will give the people a visual of what we are talking about. it is good to understand this. what the visuals are. i brought two different types. this is a desktop ram and a notebook ram. those are the different types. depending on speed and other things on the specs, for your pc, they may or may not match.
you want to make sure not only that you have the right size, you need to have the right speed as well. these are all the speciications. that is why it is a good idea to buy the same brand and the exact same kind of memory that you already have. if you have a 1 gb and you want to up it to 2 gb buy a 11 gb module that is identicle to the one you already have here is a bit of terminology: when you order this. this is called a dim, a dual inline memory module.
this is a sodin, which is a smaller form factor for notebooks and all-in-ones. would you advise looking inside your computer before you purchase ram? yes. you want to be able to open the case and look inside. we have documents on the web that show you how to open the chasse. when you look inside, you see the motherboard. we have the motherboard here to show you where ram sits.
grab that chasse. we said: look up your specs. that will tell you the type of ram you have. but it will not tell you how difficult it is to make the change. you want to open it and look in there. you might find some open bays. or maybe you do not have any open bays. or maybe the ram is where you cannot get at it. if that is the case, it will probably be difficult to upgrade your memory. i will grab the case. this is for demonstration purposes.
there is some caution you should take when handling memory. talk about that. we have electrostatic discharge. we mentioned that previously. notice that this is on an esd plastic bag. that is so i do not destroy the circuits. whenever you work on the inside of a pc, make sure you are on a grounded area usually a hard surface. not on carpet.
avoid anything that causes static electricity. it is a good idea to touch a metal case. the case grounds you as you build into it. touch something metal before you touch any of this. we are going to go inside the chasse. we are talking about adding memory to your computer. in the form of ram. leave your questions at the bottom of the youtube stream. if we do not get to your question please join our consumer support forum expert day
by going to hp.com/expertday. we have removed the cover. instructions are on hp.com. where do we go from here? when you look inside the pc it will be obvious where the ram is. you will see these sticks that are sticking up. as you can see, there is aready two sticks of ram in this pc. there is no spot to add anything extra. a lot of pcs will have the processor here in the middle.
there will be two sticks of ram on this side. and two more sticks of ram on the opposite side of the processor. over here. this one does not. it is more difficult. especailly because we have component on this side. we have some liquid cooled systems that have fans that com out of the fan and into the processor and block those two slots there. that is how you get into it. this is a very open system.
so it is easy to see the inside of the pc. some are more difficult. they have more cables. it is harder to get to the ram. sometimes you have to remove power cables to get in there. for something like this, because both slots are filled the only option is to remove those and replace them with larger sized ram. if you bought two sets of gim or whatever, and you put them in, you would be in for a surprise.
there are cables in here that you want to be clear of. you do not want to pinch cables, you do not want cables blocking you. i have a question based on something you said earlier. when there are two slots, do you recommend that memory sticks be of the same size? if so, why? you do want to do that. let's move this out of the way and bring the motherboard back. they are different colors, bill. they are. why is that?
on the motherboard that we have here, we will use this one as an example. there are four slots for ram: 2 black and 2 blue. this is dual channel. one of the speciications for ram. there are other channels but we will not get into that now. when you are using dual channel ram you want to match the colors. not the color of the ram stick, but the color of the slot. what does dual channel mean?
it means it will access both sticks of ram at the same time. it gives you better performance. it treats them like they are one instead of individual sticks of ram. correct. when you add these, put them in the same colored slot. if you add them the same size and same configuration, they will work better together. notice that there is a notch in there. make sure you line up the knotch with the groove that is in there.
obviously, this one would not fit in here. this is the notch he is talking about. because the memory will not seat and it will rock back and forth and you might break it by trying to force it. usually the ram is just turned around. that little notch. very important. it is interesting that you talk about matching the size. here is something confusing users like myself. i had a computer that said it would take 16 gb of ram.
i opened it and found one 4 gb of ram in it. then i went on a hunt for a 12 gb stick of ram. i could not find it. so i felt like ti was misleading because an upgrade was this impossible thing. so i asked one of you and you told me to get two 8s to get to 16. i would caution that it tends to work in pairs. that is why you match. research is important. so go to hp.com type your model number and product specifications.
you will get really good product upgrade information on the product specifications. with the dual channel, you would not get the speed beneit if you had an 8 and a 4. you want to have two 8s so they have the same speed. you want to match the manufacturer the size, the speed. you want everything to be the same. when you do that, you have a dual channel or tri channel depending on your configuration it is quite a big speed improvement. that reduces your chance of having issues after installation.
if you have the same maufactuer, the same speed, they are from the same time, you are less likely to have an issue, which we will talk about later. make sure you have the same one. if you did find that 12 and put it in there, if everything booted up right, you would have had a lot more memory but it would have been slower. because it would still be going at the speed of your 4. the last piece of putting those in, once you have the slots lined up, press it in and you will hear clicks.
it is important to say to press at the top edges. if you push in the middle, you can snap them. you do not want to do that. that is why i pointed out that notch. i have seen people to try and force it but it is just turned the other direction. the notches are not lined up and suddenly they just broke it. it is a 200 module. ram is easly. a lot of people are intimidated by it. as long as you are holding it from the edges and pressing straight down
like bill did, it is a simple upgrade. these little notches will close automatically. when we push it in, you will see that it snaps in. you have to be careful. push it straight. watch out for the other components around the motherboard. you do not want to snap off a capacitor. then the whole pc will not work. that would be a downgrade. you will have to contact support to replace your motherboard.
does the operating system come into play? we are now selling computers running android, windows 7, windows 8. does any of that come into play when you pick your memory? absolutely. that is part of your research. when you are doing the research, find out what operating system you are using and, depending on what version of the operating system you are using, there are some things to keep in mind. there is 32 bit versus 64 bit,
and there is windows home premium, windows ultimate, and different levels that they will support as well. do that research. the biggest issue with windows is 32 bit versus 64 bit. because you can only go up to near 4 gb with a 32 bit system. even if your motherboard and components say 16 gb if your operating system is just 32 bit you will not be able to use all that memory. we might be losing a few people here.
so far, we have covered the physical application of memory. does it fit? is it the right size? you bring up a good point. it is important that people get this before they go out and buy memory. i have seen a lot of cases where they pay the money for larger sticks put it in a 32 bit system and only see 3.6 gb. so even though you have the higher size, the operating system will only see the smaller amount.
i am sure that cretes confusion. what is wrong? why is it showing this? go to hp.com. i know a short cut. it is called bph03386. we will put a link right here. or just type "upgrading memory". and enter your model number. i just happen to know the document number because it is a good document. bph03386.
it is upgrading memory. it has that information. there are two things that affect your maximum amount of memory. the actual hardware itself. like if this board can only go up to 60 gb you do not want more than 60 gb. but you may have an ultimate version that can go up to 256 gb. or if it is 32, it may be limited to 4. this is a related question.
and i know the answer is, "it depends." let's try to do better than that. how much memory should i add? when you say you can add 8 to 16 to 256. . . it depends on what you want to do. give us some common scenarios. it depends on what you want. if you push start on your computer and it takes a minute to two minutes increasing the memory will make it so it takes only 30 seconds.
it is a matter of what is fast to you. another thing would be opening a program. if you are editing videos. it takes a while for that to load. if you want to do a lot of video editing, add more memory because those files are cached and quick to access. so it really depends on what you are using. if you are just searching the web, most new systems have ample memory for that. but if you are gaming, video editing, anything like that, you probably want more memory. it is really about what you are doing with your computer.
is it possible to add too much memory? more than you will ever use. you would not be able to access all of that extra memory. when talking about hp pcs, and the motherboards that we have, the max that we are going to have for consumer is 32 gb. that will be your max. in today's terms. that is a lot of memory.
great. we have some questions coming in. from headquarters. what kind of applications benefit from large amounts of ram? we talked about video editing. if you are working with some very large image files. video seems to come up very routinely. i have done a lot of work with music. i am dealing with 1 gb files. trying to save them in a different format.
you have to sit there and watch the wheel turn unless you have a lot of memory. you are doing massive processing. changing file types. like the scenario video to audio, you are moving from a wmv and converting it to something else. in those applications there are lots of layers. in your audio, you have your drum beat. the guitar. each of those have to be remembered in your system to be active. they blend so it needs more memory to hold all that. the gamers out there want as much memory as possible.
so they can attack their friends quicker. there you go. we also have a followup question. you mentioned going to hp.com and entering your product model and speciications. does it typically tell you the maximum amount of memory you can install? what sort of memory information is included? the maximum amount. gin types, how much it came installed with. even with the product specs, which are very good, it gives you the maximum amount and your upgradability.
you still want to pop open the case if it is a tower pc, a lot of notebooks have an access cover that you can remove, physically look to see if you have an open gin slot. some notebooks, you cannot open. you cannot upgrade the memory there to use some of those increasing system resources that we talked about. you have to check the product specs. it might say, "not upgradeable." one last question.
will using a usb drive and ready boost help my system if i cannot upgrade my ram? what is ready boost? caching stuff. with ready boost, you use a thumb drive you can plug it into your pc. you can use that as additional ram. i like your analogy with the refiigerator and the freezer. the analogy i like using
is the tabletop you use with your desktop. you have a bookcase behind you. that is your hard drive. you can open up just so many books on your desktop. all of those books are in front of you. adding the ready boost is like pulling out a tray. now you have another book there. it increases the things you can open at once. it is just sticking in a memory thing but you have to format it. it is a windows function. windows ready boost.
that usb stick becomes dedicated to that purpose? it has now become physical memory for your system it is a way to add additional memory similar to ram. especially if you have a non-upgradeable notebook. if you cannot add physical memory within the system you can use that to speed up some of the actions. taking advantage of another storage device where the transfer speeds are a little faster. you can use it in tandem with the hard drive
to speed up your system. it makes it a little faster than your virtual memory. virtual memory is hard drive. it uses hard drive, which is not as vast as flash memory. so accessing flash is a little bit clearer. it is a little bit clear. i have done my research. i have figured out which ram i need. i have looked inside my case and figured out what can fit, i have installed my memory. it has snapped into place.
i have closed my computer and powered on. what happens? it depends. in the perfect world, it opens to your desktop really fast. just like you always hoped. there are some issues. what are the most common problems? your pc will start emitting beep codes. that means something went wrong. you might get beep codes even when your are not upgrading.
it generally indicates a problem. you just installed new memory and start up your computer, and it beeps at you. what do you do after that? i will unseat the ram. just like this. sometimes these things can be tricky. i swap them. put them back. just swap them because you have all these little contacts.
inside here there are little pieces of metal that pinch in. if you do not have a good contact or there is a piece of dust, use some canned air to blow in here. remove any contaminents. you need a good seat in between these. if that does not work do one at a time. you need to disconnect the power each time.
make sure there is no power going. be aware of this area. static discharge. do the same thing every time. if swapping them does not work, try doing them one at a time. take one out, start with one stick in there and see if you can get there. if it still beeps, try the other stick. if that goes through, then you know that one of the sticks is the problem. process of elimination. it could be a slot too. it might work if you just switch it to another slot.
so, you are saying going from the blue to the black? yes. you want to keep the sticks in tandem. black black or blue blue. maybe even try black and blue. to see if that changes anything. it is contrary to what we stated in the past but in some cases that resolves the issue. we have another question from our viewers. if you have a question, leave it in the comments field
in youtube. if you have twitter, ask a question using the hashtag #hptexpertday. if we do not touch on everything you want to know about please join the conversation in the hp support forums. at hp.com/expertday. can i use windows key plus break to find out how much memory is installed? windows key plus break. that brings up your system properties. and yes, you can.
we have talked about the different way to see how much memory you have. how much memory is installed. how much memory you can take. are there any other tips or tricks on your system? it depends on the product you have. there are different way sto access different information. there are many ways to look at system properties. that is what we are looking at. in windows 7, you can right click on my computer select properties and it will give you information about that.
you can run msinfo32 it will give you your entire system properties. click start, type msinfo32. if is not beeping but it is not accessing or working you can go into the bios to see if the memory is checked. that is usually what i do. click start, go into the biios and look to see if each m slot is populated or not. you can see the size.
going into bios. the good thing about that is you are not looking at anything in the os the operating system is not changing anything. it is showing you specifically what is in the system. if you look at system properties and you have a 32 bit system it will only show you 4 gb of ram. but in bios, it will show you each rim. it will show you all 32 if you have 32 installed. sometimes the different ways you access do not show you the max it tells you what is there now.
it does not tell you what you can do. it tells you what is there. i think that is what the viewer was getting at. thanks guys. one other question: it is the use of old memory. you have an older computer, you have some old memory. a lot of customers think this way. what is the word of caution there? if you have old ram from an old motherboard
you need to make sure it can be used in a new motherboard. like save type. older ones use rims. you would not be able to use that rim with a dim. dim type fits pc2 or pc3. those have to at least match. a lot of people have seen this guy. this form factor. it has been around a long time. the temptation is to say, "i have one of these in my old guy.
can i stick it in my new guy?" that is why you want to look at this label. this shows the type. here it says pc3. that tells you that this has a sodim that is pc3 and you need a pc3. there is also a speed factor. but you will not be able to install it because the slot is different. it sounds like, generally speaking, it is a long shot. that older memory might work in a new computer.
it might. you might have 2 dims that fit in the slots together. but at different speeds. so it will run at the slower speed. you will be slowing your computer. you will have more memory. but slower. i have done it. these make great bookmarks. people are creative, use old technology to create new fashion. any other tips or tricks of common issues with ram we sould highlight?
for the most part, a ram upgrade is easy. it is not difficult to physically put it in. the research is not very difficult. and it is not difficult to troubleshoot it. the beep codes, the mismatch, the no boot. things like that are the most common issues. there is a lot of documentation that covers many aspects. for the most part, it is the best bang for the buck. you can go out for your individual product,
use the pavilian number from hp.com. push on upgrading memory. we have documents that are specific to that product. it tells you exactly which screw to remove to get in. how to access it. what you need to move. video, call-outs, step by step for all of that. that greatly improves your ability to do any of this. it might seem complicated, but that is because we are covering a lot of issues. if you look this up find the exact memory module that you have,
you will be okay. research is key. bph0386, that is the document number, that is for all of the tower pcs. that all have the same thing. you remove a side panel and those steps. but with all-in-ones, getting to the memory can be different. when you do your search from hp.com for those in your memory document, type the model number
plus memory upgrade. same with the notebooks. notebooks as well, yes. thanks for the session today. if you have enjoyed this video series, we will post it later on our support channel. be sure to visit youtube.com/hpsupport. if we did not get to your question, visit hp support forum also tweet comments using #hpexpertday.
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