How to update the bios on my HP 15cw running Ubuntu 20.04LTS

[karlkuehn]

I upgraded the RAM in my system to a 32gb Crucial 2x16 kit. Bios isn't seeing the 32gb, it still says 16gb. I'm running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. What should I be looking to do?

[banhien · Accepted solution]

@karlkuehn 

Its specs

            https://support.hp.com/au-en/document/c06401076

It has  8 GB DDR4-2400 SDRAM (1 x 8 GB) and supports up to 32GB as shown on RAM check from Crucial

              https://www.crucial.com/memory/ddr4/ct2k16g4sfra266/ct18853503     (will run at 2400MHz),

Firstly, please reseat the RAM properly. If you wish you can use the following BIOS

             https://support.hp.com/au-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-pavilion-15-cw1000-laptop-pc/26183458

Note: Playing around with BIOS is the shortest way to brick your machine.

Regards.

[karlkuehn]

Hi @Banhien, thanks for the reply.

Turns out I'm an idiot. I didn't install a 32gb kit in this machine. I installed a second 8gb stick (2400) for a total of 16gb, which the machine recognizes just fine and it's running great. Haven't used this laptop in about a year, as it's mainly for work, and I took an extended break after my last contract. I pulled it back out to swap the battery out into my fiance's laptop (hers died and she had a deadline for a grant proposal), and started playing with it a little bit after installing a new battery in it. 

Thinking that I had installed the 32gb kit, I opened the laptop back up to check that the RAM was seated correctly, and saw the 2x8gb. Running dmidecode shows all the correct information for both sticks running at 2400. The factory stick is actually 2667, but configured at 2400.

I forgot that I had put the 32gb kit into my other laptop (Windows 11 machine) because it only had 16gb when I bought it a year ago.

All is well, but thank you for your time, sorry for wasting it!

Karl