Adding memory

[jon dieterlen]

Hi, I have a gateway note book approx 3 yrs old. It currently has 1 gb ram on 2 512 memory sticks. From what I can see, I can only access 1 stick thru the user removable cover. Is there any way to replace both 512's w/1024's. Can the bottom of the notebook be removed, or am I going to get in over my head?

Also What is the difference between DDR and DDR 2. The guy at the electronics store sold me 2 1GB sticks DDR2 PC2-5300. Says its compatible w/pc-3200,pc-4200, and pc-5300. After returning home I checked another memory online store and it says use DDR pc2700. Can I use the ddr2 sticks?

Thanks, Jon

 

[generalj]

Hi, I have a gateway note book approx 3 yrs old. It currently has 1 gb ram on 2 512 memory sticks. From what I can see, I can only access 1 stick thru the user removable cover. Is there any way to replace both 512's w/1024's. Can the bottom of the notebook be removed, or am I going to get in over my head?

Also What is the difference between DDR and DDR 2. The guy at the electronics store sold me 2 1GB sticks DDR2 PC2-5300. Says its compatible w/pc-3200,pc-4200, and pc-5300. After returning home I checked another memory online store and it says use DDR pc2700. Can I use the ddr2 sticks?

Thanks, Jon

Most computers will take the higher rated memory but will not use it at its full speed, it will slow it down to the speed the motherboard supports. One thing to watch out though is sometimes, a lot in laptops especially older ones is they can only handle so much memory. You need to get the model number of your laptop and get the specs for it. You can google it and it will tell you the max amount of ram supported.

For example it might support a max of 1 gig of ram so if you put two sticks of 1gig ram into it it might no boot, if it does boot it will only use 1 gig of it. Just stay as close to the specs, if it says ddr pc2700 1 gig then stick to that. You will just pay more money for the higher memory etc.

The main difference between ddr and ddr2 is ddr2 is newer. ddr2 has better data rates and frequencies.


Also DDR2 runs at a lower voltage then ddr, ddr2 is 1.8 voltage and ddr is i believe 2.5 voltage
and DDR2 memory is notched different so it wont fit into a DDR slot. So if your laptop is DDR do not try and get DDR2 to go in it, it wont fit.

 

[14049752]

There's a ram slot under the keyboard. Use a flat screw driver to pry up the plastic above the keyboard (but check to see if there are screws on the under side holding it on, sometimes there are). The ram slot might be under a silver piece aluminum shielding tape or something, but probably not on a gateway.