[SOLVED] Lenovo E550 Won't Detect Memory Upgrade

[ClickRight]

Hi All,

I have a brand new Lenovo E550 in. It has 4GB DDR3 stock and I want to upgrade to 8GB, which should be extremely simple.

The RAM pre-installed is 4GB Ramaxel rmt3170me68f9f-1600 (PC3-12800S DDR3 1600MHz, CL11)

The RAM I'm using to upgrade is 4GB Corsair Valueselect CMSO4GX3M1B1600C11 (PC3-12800S DDR3 1600MHz, CL11)

The system will not recognize the new memory or boot with the new memory in either slot. The slot clearly says "1.5V DDR3 STD"

I have tested this memory in another machine and it is detected, boots, and passes memtest.

Any idea on what I could be doing wrong? Note I haven't had my coffee yet this morning!

Update all: It's fixed! 1.35v memory is required for this laptop. This is not mentioned in the Maintenance Manual or on the memory slots, which say 1.5v

 

[NYJimbo]

The system will not recognize the new memory or boot with the new memory in either slot. The slot clearly says "1.5V DDR3 STD"

Sounds to me that machine doesn't like that ram chip. Could be some timing issue. Check the exact specs on the chip compared to the original one there.

Poking around a bit it seems the rmt3170me68f9f-1600 may be a 1.35v stick . The slot is marked 1.5v but that might be some limit, not what you need. I know some boards will not like 1.5v when they need 1.35.v.

 

[gadgetfixup]

Crucial says that laptop takes 1.35V stuff. Get the LP stuff and it will probably work just fine. We're seeing more and more LP RAM being required.

 

[ClickRight]

Thanks All. I've got some 1.35v memory on the way, unfortunately it's going to be a week and a half wait as apparently it's been really popular as of late.

Interestingly enough we called Lenovo support who told us they thought the memory slot was defective because it was not recognizing the memory. Sigh.