The dv6700z And dv9700z WILL Support Over 4gb of RAM [ Edited ]

[flybeech]

I've asked on these and other forums if my dv6700z and dv9700z laptops would support over 4gb of RAM and I was told absolutely not. The hard limit on these motherboards is set at 4gb. Period. Even the memory manufacturers told me the 4gb limit was cast in stone. I could forget about squeezing a few more years from my laptops with life-giving RAM upgrades.

Well, I pleased to announce that these laptops absolutely WILL support over 4gb when running under a 64-bit operating system. I have just installed a Patriot 4gb PC2-6400 memory module carrying p/n PSD24G8002S from NewEgg, along with one existing 2gb module. The machines all booted and addressed 6gb quite nicely, thank you. Now, I barely even notice hard drive activity since the upgrade. 64-bit Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.10 Linux all work flawlessly with over 4gb.

Now that my little experiment has worked, I am going back to NewEgg to slug a full 8gb (4gb x 2) of PC2-6400 memory in all my dv6000 and dv9000 laptops. I can highly recommend this life-extending feature to anyone running 64-bit operating systems.

By the way, NewEgg pictures these modules with 4 chips per side, but they have 8 chips per side. $70 each and free shipping. 200 pin DDR2 RAM is expensive, but probably not getting any cheaper.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220382

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I just bought the same module for my HP Elitebook 6930p. I only bought one to make sure it would work (I have always bought Crucial memory in the past) but when I saw the price of a Crucial module compared to the Patriot module, I couldn't resist. I bought the Patriot module based on the many excellent reviews.

My module came yesterday and works great! So, I ordered another one last night and can't wait to max out the memory in this notebook to 8 gigs!.

Even at 6 GB, this thing flies!  My WEI dropped .2 of a point from 5.9 to 5.7 but I am sure this is due to not having matched pairs as this notebook supports DDR mode.

I will run the WEI tool again after installing the matching 4 GB module and expect the index to go up again to at least where it was.

Paul

[flybeech]

Since there are so many of these units out there as broken, discarded junk, why not build them better and faster? Whole laptops can be bought cheap, resurected and made much better than HP delivered them in the first place. All of mine were throw-aways. Now, I'm runnin' with the big dogs.

What's really cool about having all this RAM is the HDD light hardly flickers, anymore.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I agree with you. Now, I'm wondering if the Elitebook 6910p can handle 8 GB of memory (like the dv6700 HP specs state max is 4 GB). It has the same chipset as yours.

I may pop that new stick in my 6910p just to see before I put in in the 6930p. I have to take the keyboard off to install my second chip in the 6930p because I put the one I just bought in the memory compartment on bottom. I figured if for some reason it didn't work, it would be easier to remove.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I couldn't wait to try the 4 GB chip in the 6910p, so since i had to install a chip under the keyboard in my 6930p, I decided to go ahead and switch the one I had from the bottom compartment to the slot under the keyboard.

Before I made the swap, I diverted the  4 GB chip to a short trip to the slot in the 6910p.

It works!  Booted right up and Vista reported 6 GB of memory.

So an HP Elitebook 6910p which the specs state only supports 4 GB of RAM, can take a 4 GB chip in each slot.

My BIOS version on the 6910p is F.17

Paul

[ezcharlie]

what chipsets were your systems using and what speeds were you able to get your ram to run at.

I have a DV9700 and installed 1 x 1gb 800mhz and 1 x 2gb 800mhz ram but they just ran at 667mhz.

My cpu was a T7250 and it ran at 800mhz. My chipset was a pm965 chip.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

My Elitebook 6910p has 2 x 4 GB of PC2-6400 Patriot memory.  Processor  = T7300.

Chipset = Mobile Intel 965.

8 GB of memory showing in Windows Vista x64.

[camd]

I can confirm that my dv6700z now has 5GB (4GB+1GB) running Fedora 64-bit Linux.

Now if I can only find a way to flash updated BIOS from Linux. Not that I need one though.