Can I upgrade to 8gb ram on a Compaq Presario CQ60-430SA?

[Orgone]

This is an older machine running Win10 64 bit but it is struggling to load Skype (5 mins) as it is swapping memory to disk constantly.  Is there a bios update so I can replace the 2 x 2GB DDR2 400Mhz ram modules with 2 x 4GB DDR2 400Mhz modules?

Any/all help for this newbie very much appreciated

Andy

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Unfortunately you can't, according to chapter 1, page 3 of the manual.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02985882

Even if you could, have you checked the price of a 4 GB DDR2 memory module lately?

A pair of them would set you back around $200 USD, far exeeding the current value of your notebook.

[Orgone]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your reply - I was hoping there was a BIOS upgrade but it seems the whole Presario family only go to 4GB.

I have managed to source 2 x 4GB used DDR2 400MHz modules for less than £20 her in the UK but they won't help me :0(

I have read Win 10 x64 should be happy in 4GB for casual home use so I need to have a good look at what is causing the swapping.   A system wipe might be necessary but I believe I can disable a lot of the Windows services selectively at startup?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

20 quid is a great deal.

I had a similar model (dv6810us) with the turion proceesor and the nvidia chipset, and I did experiment with 2 x 4 GB of DDR2 memory and it didn't work.

Fortunately, I had a HP 6910p business notebook that could use the memory, so it didn't go to waste.

I had bought the memory years ago new when it was relatively affordable.  I think the pair cost me $60 bucks back then.

Yes, you can disable most of the startup services (I wouldn't disable the Windows Defender service), by going to the search box, type msconfig>click on the startup tab>Open Task Manager and disable whatever else you want.

[Orgone]

It's my brother-in-law's machine so there's probably loads of dodgyware on there too!

The machine was originally Vista Home Premium - am I right in thinking the Turion X2 Dual-Core Mobile RM-72 is a 64bit processor? Is there any advantage to running the 32bit version of Win10 despite the permanent loss of approx 750MB to the OS?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I think there would be a slight advantage to running W10 32.

Not only does it use less space, but the 32 bit OS requires less memory to run than a 64 bit OS dows.

Not half as much, but less than it is using now.

[Orgone]

The CPU isn't the fastest rocket in the bottle so will 32 bit transactions trash the performance even further d'ya reckon?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

IMHO, it will actually speed up most processes.

If you run 32 bit applications on a 64 bit OS, they actually take longer to process.

64 bit works best with purely 64 bit software.

We're getting to that poin,t but we aren't completely there yet.

Unless you know that most programs that you intend to install on there are 64 bit, then I would go for the 32 bit OS.

Just bear in mind that reinstalling the W10 OS on a platform meant for Vista...you will have a hard time getting drivers to work.

For example you are better off manually installing the W7 graphics driver for the graphics, than using the latest graphics driver from nVidia.

[Orgone]

I will check but I think he uses Windows Mail and IE mostly so they will be 32 bit.  I will ensure I replace all other installs with 32 bit versions if available.

Thanks also for the heads-up with the drivers - I have often resorted back to Win 7 drivers during my encounters with 8,  8.botchup and 10 :0)

I also found some drivers on the restore partition I think last time...

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

If you need any help with the drivers, please let me know, and I should be able to help you get everything to work on W10.