G60-554CA wont boot with 8GB RAM installed. It will boot with 6GB RAM, or 4GB RAM.

[captnkirk]

I am trying to upgrade an older G60-554CA laptop for a relative, that originally had 4GB RAM, running Windowss 7 Home Premium.   It runs very slow   😞

Original RAM is made by Mushkin :   2 x 2GB PC2-6400 (DDR2-800) 200pin SODIMM 1.8v

New RAM is from BlackDiamond Memory :  2 x 4GB  PC2-6400 (DDR2-800)  200 pin  SODIMM  1.8v

When I insert the 2 x 4GB RAM, the laptop starts to power up (ie. CDROM noise) then goes silent and the screen stays black

When I tested both of the 4GB RAM modules, individually,  in either SODIMM sockets, the laptop  booted up and Windows reported 4GB RAM available

When I tested 1 x 2GB RAM in combination with 1 x 4GB RAM in the SODIMM sockets, the laptop  booted up and Windows reported 6GB RAM available

BUT, the laptop will NOT boot up with 2 x 4GB RAM installed.     WHY ???

I have tried various suggestions I saw on the Internet :  

 -    Hard Reset the computer (ie remove the battery and hold down the Power button for 15 secs);  

 -    Charge the BIOS battery (ie run the computer on AC with the battery removed for over an hour)

 -    Checked the BIOS Setup Utility to see if it had any RAM related settings (it doesn't) or settings for Video memory (nope)

I would appreciate any other sugestions on How to get this laptop to work with 8GB RAM

[Le_Prono]

Weird coincidence!  I just started upgrading the same exact laptop.  I have the same exact issue just the brand of the memory differs.

I updated Bios to the latest.

I had 2 X 2GB originally

Bought 2 X 4GB of RAM

Both 4GB will boot on their own and both will boot with an old 2 GB  stick added, but it will not boot with 2 new 4GB.

By the way, cloning your hard drive to an SSD will likely be the best upgrade you can do to this machine.  And if you ever decide to change your computer in a few years that money is not completly lost as it would be with a ram or cpu upgrade.  It is relatively easy to do if you are a little bit tech savy.  You can even keep your old hdd for additional storage in a drive cady instead of your optic reader. The difference is amazing, I just got a samsung 860 evo 500gb for 115 canadian pesos!

*Edit:  I found this dead thread...I think nobody cares about our 10 years old laptops     😞

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebooks-Archive-Read-Only/hp-g60-657ca-with-8gb-ram/td-p/1135641

[Le_Prono]

BuMP?

Anyone?

[cucoman]

I have the same problem.  4GB is too slow.  Any updates anyone?   Have you experienced running on 6GB?  Does that increasse the speed any?

[captnkirk]

The computer will run better with 6GB of RAM vs 4GB, but you will see the best overall improvement by replacing the Hard Drive with an SSD drive.  

Windows uses the SWAP space on the system drive to increase the size of virtual RAM needed to support all of the running processes.  The speed of using SWAP on SSD is many times faster than on HDD, but it is still slower than using RAM.

Upgrading RAM to 6GB and switching to an SSD drive will give the best total improvement.  

However, the older style 4GB RAM module that is compatible with this laptop is almost  as expensive as  new 250GB SSD module.  

The choice is yours.

[Le_Prono]

I have just upgraded the cpu in my laptop, about an hour ago, I am writing this post on it now.

It will accept a Core 2 duo T9500.

Thermal paste had completely hardened.  Also the cooling fins of the fan where completely clogged.  Obviously my temps are much cooler and the fan is very quiet.

Upgrade in performance is small but noticeable.  Boot time is even faster(than just the ssd) and I can now watch youtube full screen in 1080p (unwatchable before). 

Is the cpu solely  responsible for this? Not sure, maybe not, but I am happy I did it.  I learned a ton while researching this upgrade and I had to open the whole thing to clean the fan and repaste it anyways.

I now have the satisfaction that my laptop is at its peak of performance...well except it should accept 8gb of Ram and it stillwon't... 😉       (tried it after the cpu upgrade)

So I think this is the end of my adventure with upgrades, this has been the house computer since it was bought and I have the feeling it will still be in use in a few years.  The biggest bottleneck is the integrated graphics card which has been struggling and completely obsolete for a while now.

Hope this helps someone out, just wanted to share!

[captnkirk]

Sounds like you had a good experience upgrading the CPU.   Well done !

It is unfortunate that the BIOS was crippled to not recognize 8GB of RAM, when it is present.  

That was a really stupid mistake of the BIOS programmer, or the product manager.  

The fact that you can use a 4GB Ram module in either RAM slot shows that the motherboard should have been able to recognize 8GB of total RAM. 

Oh well, it is a really old laptop now, with a very limited graphics card.  Time to move on.