Performance issues with ProBook 4540s with 16GB RAM

[rpktpp]

I have bought HP ProBook 4540s recently with 16GB RAM. Currently I'm facing many performance issues with this configuration and I need to know if I reduce my RAM to 12GB, will this issue get fixed. HP stated that 16GB RAM supported by ProBook 4540s.

I tried to update BIOS as well, but it says latest BIOS version is installed. Downloaded version is F.31 and currently installed version is F.32.

If you heard about this issue earlier or know any fix to this, please let me know.

Thank You.

[Cmp_Cmndo]

Core-ix + Intel® HD Graphics 4000 supports no more than 8GB RAM.

See p.8 of Specs:  http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/14306_na/14306_na.pdf

MEMORY
Standard
DDR3 PC3-10600 SDRAM (1333 MHz)
Two SODIMM slots supporting dual-channel memory
2 GB and 4 GB SODIMMs
Upgradeable to 8192 MB with optional 4096 MB SODIMMs in slots 1 and 2
Dual-channel
Maximized dual-channel performance requires SODIMMs of the same size and speed in both memory slots.

[rpktpp]

Then why HP publish this as a supported configuration. Even after my complaint they didn't change their web site.

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/laptops/product-detail.html?oid=5229455

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ca/en/sm/WF06a/321957-321957-64295-3955552-3955552-5229455.html?dnr=1

That is what I can't understand. I have already changed my RAM to 8 GB. But all my time and money wasted.

[Ismirworscht]

I'm having the same with my 4740s (which is basically the same just with a 17" display). The problem about these spec sheets is that they are quite often outdated, so I usually take it as an indicator but not as final base of decision. I found vendors selling 16GB kits for the 4740s so I though it must be a supported configuration.

So I replaced my 1 4GB Module with 2 x 8GB Kingston Value RAM DDR3/1600. Unfortunately it takes several minutes to boot and also later the CPU is always above 50% usage (meaning two of four cores are unusable and the battery is draining a lot faster). I am still researching the issue but I can tell you that at work someone is using a Dell 6320 with a Corei5 that has 16GB installed and no problems.

When I switch back to 1x8GB only, the device runs quite well. I also found out that USB write performance is also a lot slower when that additional memory is installed. When I did my BIOS update, it took over 30minutes to back up the old BIOS onto the stick while flashing itself was a lot faster.

I will test other things later, just wanted to let you know.

Things I still want to test:

* Combine the old 4GB module with the 8GB module (although dual channel won't be fully supported that way)

* Deactivate the integrated intel graphics and use the AMD one only (if available, we can do that with our Dells in our company which was needed because of another bug)

* Find other drivers for the USB controller that might also cause the processes I found to consume more CPU performance and see if that will improve. Until now I only found parts of the drivers.

* Boot a linux live DVD and see if that will work just as slowly. If not I might have success with other drivers.

...

[Ismirworscht]

I just tested turning off the graphics switching but it showed it then only uses the Intel one, not the AMD one, which means this obviously can't help if the Core iX graphics part would be the one guilty for it.

But I now found other people having the same issues:

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Lockups-Freezes-Hangs/Performance-degrades-in-Probook-4540s-aft...

Seems as if we're not the only ones at least.

[rpktpp]

Please be kind enough to let me know once you check other things as well. Especially, does it support with 4GB+8GB RAM. 

Thanks.

[Ismirworscht]

I found out that 8GB + 4GB are no solution as well. It seems that as soon as you exceed the 8GB border the machine is slowing down.

The live linux booted up normally and the CPU does not use as much as under Windows, but I realized that even though I followed a link telling about 64Bit that system was in fact just 32Bit so it did not even utilize 4GB. I am now getting a Linux Mint 64Bit Live DVD trying to check it there.

However I still think HP will most likely have to change something in their BIOS since even if it's about drivers they won't want to tell anyone to take out half of their RAM just to be able to install Windows properly including the right drivers and then get the memory back in. That's ok as a workaround but not as a final solution. But let's see what the other tests say and also what the HP business support case in the other thread will tell us.

[Ismirworscht]

I now tested the linux Mint 64Bit. It showed the full 16GB as available. Unfortunately I did not have a clear sign concerning the CPU usage. It was lower than on Windows but still higher than expected when doing nothing (10-20% just having the performance monitor open and having set the refresh interval to 2,5sec).

Guess I will wait for what the guy in the other thread will tell us since next week I'll lack time until weekend.

I might also try some more things (currently, I am using Windows 8 64Bit, might try Windows 8 32Bit on a separate hard disk, too, just to see the effects). Also in our company we just bought 6 4740s as well. I might have a try there, too. Whenever we give HP a chance instead of Dell there, we face some problems, so I hope this time they will find a solution.

Will call the hotline maybe, too, depending on what the other thread will show.

[audiomax1975]

I have the same problem with a ProBook 4530s (2nd Gen Core i5-2430M SandyBridge) and a ProBook 4740s (3rd Gen Core i5-3210M IvyBridge).

According to the Intel website (http://ark.intel.com), the 2nd Gen Core i5 mobile processors support 16GB of RAM and the 3rd Gen Core i5 mobile processors support 32GB of RAM.

I bought the 4530s with 4GB and the 4740s with 8GB and upgraded both to 16GB with HP branded modules. I also changed the harddiscs to SSDs. I don't know why both systems slow down? Installing Windows 7, 8 or Linux Mint 14 takes about 2 hours.
 After installing the boot-time of each operating systems takes about half an hour - even with ssd.

Starting live Linux from optical disc takes also about half an hour. First I thought the problem comes from the security options in the EFI BIOS. I did a reset of all BIOS settings to factory defaults. The systems are even slow. Also an upgrade to the actual BIOS version did not help.

We tried memory upgrading with notebooks from other vendors with the same hardware - no speed-problems with these models - so I don't think that the problem is the memory size according to the Intel HD graphics.

Anyone an other idea? This is very frustrating. Why we have this problem with two differnt models of ProBook with different generations of Intel Core i5, I think we would sell the machines with the default memory and harddisc if the problem won't fix and change to Lenovo ThinkPad.

[Originalname37]

I'm having exactly this problem with a ProBook 4540s, except worse.  The perfromance was just (terribly) slow for a while (about 3 days) and then it blue screened.  When it came back up, the screen was off and stayed off.  I swapped out the RAM for a different 16GB, and now the performance is now similarely terrible, but the screen is back on.  I wish HP would simply come out and say it if the machine can't run 16GB.  In this case, I can still return the machine and get something else as I can't run the applications I need it to run on 8GB.