Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Ashley L: I’m getting ready to buy a new laptop and the model I’m wanting comes with 4GB of DDR4 RAM but I can add 4GB more (for 8GB total) for an extra $75.
I have two questions for you concerning the RAM options:
1 – Do you think doubling the RAM to 8GB is worth it for Windows 10?
2 – Is $75 a reasonable price to pay for an extra 4GB?
Thanks in advance for your advice. It’ll be a big help!
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
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Question from Seth: I need help with a RAM upgrade issue, Rick.
My computer came with 4GB of RAM already installed (two 2GB sticks). It has two empty RAM slots open.
I bought two 8GB RAM sticks and installed them in the empty slots.
When I try to start up the PC with the new RAM sticks installed, I hear a beeping sound and an error message comes up on the screen.
If I remove the new RAM sticks and leave the old sticks installed the computer boots up OK.
What can be causing the computer not to boot up with the new RAM sticks installed? Thanks.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Although computer memory is a lot more reliable today than in times past, memory sticks do go bad from time to time. They don’t go bad very often, but it does happen.
And if one goes bad in your PC you can expect to experience problems ranging from minor software glitches to a system that simply refuses to boot up.
If you suspect that your PC might have a defective memory stick you can test it with a great free RAM diagnostic utility called Memtest86+. [Read more…]
Question from Eric H.: I have an older ASUS Essentio CM1630 desktop computer that came with 2GB of RAM.
I scanned the system with Speccy and found out it currently has a single 2GB/DDR3 RAM stick in it.
I want to upgrade the RAM so I bought an 8GB/DDR3 RAM stick and installed it so I can have 10GB total, but I ran into a problem.
The computer won’t boot with both RAM sticks installed. It also won’t boot with just the 8GB stick installed. However, it boots just fine with just the original 2GB stick installed.
What could be the problem? I know this computer is supposed to support up to 16GB of RAM total.
I’m thinking I might have bought a bad RAM stick but I wanted to check with you first in case there’s a BIOS setting or a jumper that needs to be changed.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Nathan P.: I just finished building my first computer from a bare-bones kit.
Everything worked fine from the moment I first powered it up, but the BIOS says the RAM is running at 1333 MHz even though the RAM sticks are rated at 1600 MHz.
My CPU is an Intel Core i5 and the RAM sticks are Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 / 1600 MHz. Is it safe to bump up the clock speed in the BIOS to match the RAM’s rating of 1600 MHz?
This is my first build, and I seriously don’t want to fry anything by overclocking the RAM if there’s some reason the motherboard is running it at a slower speed..
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]