Advice on upgrading/updating

[SarahLauritzen]

Hello,

I am here to get some advice to better enable me to help m father in law.

He has a very old laptop, a Probook 6550b, and he says it is very slow. It was 'born' with Windows Vista or Windows 7, he cannot quite remember which, and he says it updated itself and now runs Windows 10. I should point out that my father in law is not tech savvy, he wouldn't know how to update things himself.

He asked me if I could help him fix it up and while I know how to do this, I just need some advice on if the RAM in this particular machine can be upgraded. I will copy and paste the system information for his machine below:

OS-name Microsoft Windows 10 Pro - Version 10.0.17134 Build 17134

Other OS-describtion Not available

OS-producent Microsoft Corporation

Systemname father in law's name

System producer Hewlett-Packard

System model HP ProBook 6550b

System type x64-based PC

System-SKU XA674AW#ABY

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M 520  @ 2.40GHz, 2400 Mhz, 2 Kerns, 4 Logical processors

BIOS-version/date Hewlett-Packard 68CDE Ver. F.00, 21-04-2010

SMBIOS-version 2.6

Version of integrated controller 115.17

BIOS-tilstand Older

BaseBoard-producer Hewlett-Packard

BaseBoard-model Not available

BaseBoard-nama Main Card

Platform role Cell phone

Safe boot startup Not supported

PCR7-konfiguration Binding not possible

Windows-map C:\WINDOWS

System-map C:\WINDOWS\system32

Start unit \Device\HarddiskVolume1

Land Denmark

Abstraktionslag for hardwareVersion = "10.0.17134.1"

Username father in laws name\bruger

Time zone Rome, sommertid

Installed physical memory (RAM) 2,00 GB

Physical memory all in all 1,86 GB

Available physical memory 670 MB

Virtual memory all in all 3,73 GB

Available virtual memory 1,92 GB

Space for (sidefil?) 1,88 GB

Sidefil C:\pagefile.sys

Kerne-DMA-bprotection Not activated

Safety based on virtualisation Not activated

I know 2GB of RAM is incredibly low and from the little research I have been able to do so far, I believe the RAM can be upgraded. What I would like to know is is the clock speed of this machine capable of running, for example, 8GB of RAM, and is the processor capable of it also? The clockspeed in my laptop (which is another brand) is 2.40 so to me that seems like it would be enough to facilitate the potential new RAM to be put into my father in laws laptop. When I was researching online, I found another forum in which someone else talked about a similar problem and some RAM was recommended for purchase, which was purchased and the poster said that it worked so this would be the RAM I would buy for him - https://www.newegg.com/global/dk/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231342

Any advice and information would be grately received.

Thank you for your time.

From Sarah.

[iomare]

 Hi Sarah,

The max RAM for your system is 8GB of DDR3 1600Mhz RAM (2x4GB)

We can see on page 4 of service manual. You need to make sure that the OS on the PC is 64-Bit version to use all the RAM. The RAM in the link you provided is slower (1333Mhz) 

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c03471180

I would buy from a guarenteed dealer which guarantee their ugrades as sometimes these older machines can have compatibility issues.

Example:

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for//probook-6550b

Another upgrade you could perform which would increase everyday performance would be to replace the mechanical drive with an SSD,

Let me know if you need further help,

David

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[SarahLauritzen]

Hello,

The only info I have on that is that the system information says that it has System type x64-based PC, so I presume that is a 64bit machine.

I don't think my father in law would want to go to the expense or trouble just now of changing his hard drive to ssd but that is something to consider for the future.

Would this be the RAM that would definitely work in his machine? - http://eu.crucial.com/eur/en/probook-6550b/CT2294886

I need to know for certain. He is an older gentleman and only lives on a pension, so I need to know what would be guaranteed to work before any money was paid out for things.

Thank you for replying so quickly and being so helpful.

From Sarah.

[iomare]

Your welcome.

Yes, that RAM will work. Anyway Crucial guarantees its upgrades, so if for any reason it should not work they have a money back guarantee.

The RAM will already make a major difference in the performance of the notebook.

Let me know if you need any further help,

David

[SarahLauritzen]

Hello,

Thank you so much for your help. I will pass all this on to my PIL and help him to get going. Your service is excellent as well as being invaluable.

From Sarah 🙂

[iomare · Accepted solution]

Your welcome Sarah.

Let me know if you need further help.

All the best,

David

Please click on accept as solution if answered your question.