HP 400-434 Memory Compatibility

[knightfan17]

A friend of mine brought over her HP 400-434 slimline PC.  It's old and I was going to add additional memory and an SSD drive.

The standard memory that it came with is 1 8GB stick (PC3-12800).  There is a second slot on the board (closest to the processor), which I assume would  be for another stick.

I tried both 8GB and 4GB sticks of matching speed as the original stick (trying to get to 12GB or 16GB).  The power supply will engage and some of the drives will make noise, but I don't get any video output.  Then, I tried the additional sticks on their own.  When removing the stick that came with the PC and replacing it with one of the new sticks of RAM (in the same slot), I get the same issue in which there is no video output.

I then took the original 8GB stick, and moved it to the other slot (closest to the processor).  Again, the power supply will engage and the drives will make noise, but no video output.  

I thought this might be an issue with the second slot.

Digging on the internet yields varying thoughts on compatibility.  Some websites that sell RAM say the max is 8GB, and others say the max is 16GB.  I was about to accept the fact that the second slot may just be disabled (or incompatible), when I came across and ebay listing for the same PC, and this one has 12GB of RAM installed.... (I wanted to attach a photo, but don't see an option to do so, so I've linked to the ebay listing).

eBay listing 

Everything on the BIOS screen between the PC I'm working on and this listing are identical with the exception of the serial number and "born on date".

Is there an additional setting in BIOS that I may be missing, which is causing the issue with the additional sticks of RAM?   Could the HP be extremely picky with RAM?  Could there be a setting in the BIOS that was disabling the second slot?  I've troubleshot 100s of PCs, and have never encountered anything like this...

Thanks 🙂

[Prométhée · Accepted solution]

hi

@knightfan17 

HP Pavilion 400-434 Desktop PC Product Specifications

•  Motherboard Specifications (Nutmeg-P)

• Amount: 8 GB
• Speed: PC3-12800 MB/s (runs at PC3-10600 in this system)
• Type: DDR3-1600

• Dual channel memory architecture
• Two 204-pin DDR3L SODIMM sockets
• Supports DDR3L SODIMMs:
  • PC3L-12800 (1600 MHz)
  • PC3L-10600 (1333 MHz)
• Supports up to 4 GB on 32-bit* systems
• Supports up to 8 GB on 64-bit systems

this might answer the question hp indicated 8GB max

this could also be the max supported by the processor here
but the module should be able to work in each slots but probably not with this one

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, @knightfan17 

The PC only supports 2 x 4 GB of memory.  That is all the Pentium J2900 processor can handle.

Intel Pentium Processor J2900 2M Cache up to 2.67 GHz Product Specifications

Also, the PC uses DDR3L-1600 memory.  (PC3L-12800) 1.35V.

DDR3 memory is 1.5V and is not supported.

I recommend your friend buy a second 4 GB memory chip from Crucial and then it should work.

Memory RAM & SSD Upgrades | hp - compaq | pavilion 400 series | Pavilion 400-434 | Crucial.com

[Prométhée]

personally I would be wary of an advertisement of a computer, sold without hard disk on ebay

if you look at the other models of the series still available, only option with another motherboard of other models

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-pavilion-slimline-400-400-desktop-pc-series/7161738/product-...

HP Pavilion Slimline 400-436d Desktop PC Product Specifications

Memphis-S motherboard specifications.

• Dual channel memory architecture
• Two 240-pin DDR3 DIMM sockets
• Supports the following:
  • PC3 10600 (DDR3-1333)
  • PC3 12800 (DDR3-1600)
• Supports 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB and 8 GB DIMMs
• Supports up to 4 GB on 32-bit systems

  note:

  32-bit systems cannot address a full 4.0 GB of memory.

• Supports up to 16 GB (unbuffered) on 64-bit computers

Motherboard Specifications (Nutmeg-P)

• Intel Pentium J2900 (Bay Trail-D) Quad Core processor soldered down on the motherboard
• TDP: 10 W
• Socket type: Not applicable

Supports up to 8 GB on 64-bit systems

SO yes max 8 gb with this one

[edit]

so there is nothing you can do with this model
it's material @knightfan17 

[BeemerBiker]

[edit] Got beat out on this post by several!!!

On dual channel systems, using only 1 stick of ram normally it has to go in the "first" slot whatever that is .  Typically the socket is colored black.

I suspect you are limited to max of 8gb of  memory as that J2900 Bay Trail processor has a limit of 8gb

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/78868/intel-pentium-processor-j2900-2m-cache-up...

for comparison, HP the 400-214 model has an AMD processor "E1-2500" and supports 16gb as stated in the specs.

Sorry

[knightfan17]

Thanks everyone for your responses.  It looks like we're already maxed out at 8GB.  I'm very curious about the ebay seller showing that specific model and processor running 12GB

I would love to take the 8GB stick out and run it with 2 4GB sticks (as I have a laptop that will take the 8GB stick), but every 4GB stick I've thrown at this machine doesn't want to work.  Maybe it's very picky when it comes to RAM, though I've never encountered RAM issues with HPs; only with Dells.

[Prométhée]

you have two options
if it doesn't work with two 4gb modules
they are either incompatible, test only with slot 1 to see

either there is a problem with the memory slot

use two 100% identical modules
take a 4gb module, in slot 1
does not work try the other 4 gb module
none works: most certainly incompatible
one works and the other does not, problem with one module
Both work in slot 1, but whichever one in slot #2 doesn't work anymore, memory slot may be a problem