Laptop 4GB Ram – Upgrade or Buy New?
Laptops are notoriously hard to upgrade, built for mobility and under tiny size constraints up-gradability seems to be the ultimate price. But all is not lost, you can still inject some added power into your laptop when you add ram. Don’t worry it’s easy to buy and upgrade ram, this short guide will explain how I upgraded a laptop with 2Gb of ram to a laptop with 4Gb of ram.
Step 1 – Working out how much ram you have.
Checking out what you have installed is a very quick process. Under windows XP, Vista or 7 just right click on your My Computer icon and select properties from the popup menu.
Laptop 2Gb Ram
We an also find out which type of ram is installed by screwing off the ram cover on the underside of your laptop. If you check the stickers on the back of the case it should display the make and model number of your ram, jot this down to use later.
Laptop Ram
Step 2. Sourcing new RAM.
Using the details from step 1 you should be able to buy new ram but you will need to work out how much you can buy. Remember if all the ram slots in your laptop are full you will need to remove the old ram to be able to install the new.
Step 3. Installing the laptop with 4gb of RAM
Be careful when you are opening the packing of your new ram, you should try and replace the ram in a room that has low static. If you have a grounding strap make sure to attach it to something metal in your house, a tap is perfect just make sure you don’t take your 4gb laptop computer for a bath! When handling the ram do not touch the metal pins with your hands. Slot the new ram in the back of your laptop and you are good to go.
Step 4. The restart.
Once you have screwed your laptop back together again you simply need to power on your laptop again. You might get a warning beep or two telling you that the system ram has been changed (for anti-theft reasons). After the laptop has rebooted check how much ram is installed like we did in Step 1.
Troubleshooting.
- Laptop Will Not Power On – Your ram may be loose! Unplug your laptop + battery and reseat the ram again.
- Laptop Show No New Memory – Again this could be loose ram.
- Laptop Powers on but freezes later – Probably dodgy ram, try and reseat the ram again or switch it to a different slot if possible.
Note: Many laptops have built in memory testing software that can be accessed when booting. Hold down the correct button when your laptop is rebooting to access this menu (usually F2 or F10)
Step5. Optimize your page file for a laptop 4gb ram.
Right click on your My Computer icon & select properties again like you did in step 1. Find the advanced tab and look for performance options. You want to select approx 1.5 times the amount of ram you have in your laptop as your new pagefile start size + 2.0 times for your maximum size.
- Laptop 4Gb Ram – Pagefile = 4096 to 6192
- Laptop 2Gb Ram – Pagefile = 3076 to 4096
- Laptop 1Gb Ram – Pagefile = 1536 to 2048
Make sure you set this after you enter the value, if you have selected correctly you will be asked to reboot your computer.