Installing RAM upgrades to a Dell Inspiron notebook?

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Protocol

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How difficult is it to install RAM upgrades to a Dell Inspiron 6000 notebook?

I have no experience of this sort of work at all.

There are 2 memory slots in the notebook. There is currently 1 slot in use, with 256 MB.

I intend to replace the 256MB memory with 2*1GB RAM upgrade.

How hard is it to actually replace the RAM?
 
Not very; see (or Google for other tutorials).

It might be worth scanning your system [broken link removed] first, to make sure it'll recognise the full 2GB.
 
Thanks for the advice.

From checking the web, it seems the Dell Inspirion 6000 can take 2 * 1GB RAM.

I bought the RAM.

I took out the old 256MB and put in the two new 1 GB.

I have a problem: the computer now says that I have just 0.99GB of RAM, not the expected 2GB?
 
I rang a friend of mine, who is an IT technician / software developer.

He ran me through a few tests.

I used each DIMM on their own in slot A, and the notebook booted up.

So it seems the DIMMs are ok.

But when I used a single DIMM in slot B, it would not boot up.

So either slot B is disabled, or else not working?

I do realise that you always have to fill slot 1 first, then slot 2, etc.
 
Hi there Protocol

Probably you have this already, but just in case here is a [broken link removed] for this Dell notebook.

You could download this, if you have not already got it.

It gives details of the spec, and how to install additional SODIMM modules.

In fairness, all the info seems to point to both modules being usable, up to 2GB. (1GB per module)

Hope this helps
 
When the notebook booted up with the single dimm's in Slot A, did you check that it had 1GB of memory ? Perhaps you got 2 x 512 Dimms.

One other option is to try the original 256MB dimm in Slot B too, with one of the 1GB dimms.
 
Protocol said:
I have a problem: the computer now says that I have just 0.99GB of RAM, not the expected 2GB?
Click to expand...
Where are you seeing this information?

Are there any bios settings that might help?
 
rgfuller said:
When the notebook booted up with the single dimm's in Slot A, did you check that it had 1GB of memory ? Perhaps you got 2 x 512 Dimms.

One other option is to try the original 256MB dimm in Slot B too, with one of the 1GB dimms.
Click to expand...

You mean that even though the stickers on the two DIMMs say 1GB, they might actually be only 512 MB each?
 
yoganmahew said:
Where are you seeing this information?

Are there any bios settings that might help?
Click to expand...

I see it in My computer - Properties


Yes, my IT friend told me to look in the BIOS. I checked the memory settings and I didn't see any reference to two slots.

Also, I used a software application called Everest, and it is reporting just one DIMM, 1024 MB.
 
Protocol said:
You mean that even though the stickers on the two DIMMs say 1GB, they might actually be only 512 MB each?
Click to expand...

Yes, but reading your other posts it seems that Dimm Slot 2 is not functioning at all, before contacting dell for repair I'd just try the original memory dimm (256mb) in Slot 2 (along with the 1gb dimm in Slot1) and see what comes up in windows and using the Everest tool.
 
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