HP Laptop 15-dy0700tg Tried to upgrade one stick 8gig ram to 16. Lap wouldn't boot.

[gunny25]

Have laptop with one stick 8 gig ram.  Bought 16 gig ram stick (the correct one according to HP support), installed, computer would not boot afterwards. Screen stayed dark with no action other than it slight lit up.  Any advice?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

According to Chapter 1, page 2 of the service manual, notebooks with the Pentium processors only support 1 x 8 GB of memory.

c08289069.pdf (hp.com)

Intel also indicates the max memory for the processor is 8 GB:

Intel Pentium Silver N5030 Processor 4M Cache up to 3.10 GHz Product Specifications

What is the brand, part number, and specs of the 16 GB memory chip you installed?

[gunny25]

I appreciate you replying to my query.  I'm getting conflicting information, in particular, from HP itself.  On it's search/query page I ask basically the same question and it's telling me I most definitely CAN upgrade...  I can upgrade only up to 16GB. It has my system specks, make, model, serial and product number of the Lap I'm working on.  Even gives me the parts page to order the thing.  Okay,  I go to Best Buy and buy their compatible stick (PNY  MN16GSD433200-TB    16GB DDR43200-PCA-25600  SODIIM).   I put it in the Lap, turn it on, get a black screen (LED light on, nothing else).  Ran every diagnostic available...nothing.  Ran from BIOS, BIOS RECOGNIZES the 16gb ram.  Lap still won't boot.  Change BIOS settings, nothing.  Go back to default in BIOS, still nothing...BIOS still recognizes the 16gb, but that's all.  I take the 16gb stick out, put the 8gb back in and everything works again...it's the same Lap I'm writing this from.  I know that a lot of ram sticks fail (defective or otherwise) so I'll be returning it later today.  I searched every guru page, chatted with a number of them and each told me that whomever said that my Lap couldn't be upgraded to the 16gb was incorrect...in fact, one individual has an exact model as mine and he went so far as to pop it's back and showed me that it was upgraded with a 16gb ram stick.  So, what gives?  I would really appreciate the bottom line on this...and, yes, I've read what the manual says but everyone with any kind of hardware knowledge is telling me that is wrong and I'm seeing that with my own eyes.  What's really disturbing to me is HP saying it can be upgraded on one hand, the saying otherwise on the other.  Look forward to your next.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You're very welcome.

Couple of things...PNY memory has a hit or miss chance of working in a lot of HP notebooks from what I have read on the BBY reviews.

If you want to experiment with 16 GB of memory, then I recommend this chip. 

It costs more but it usually works, assuming the notebook does support 16 GB of memory,

Crucial 16GB DDR4-2400 SODIMM | CT16G4SFD824A | Crucial.com

Before you buy another 16 GB memory chip run this command:

1. In the search box, search for cmd and click Run as administrator.

This will open the command prompt.

2. After the command prompt is opened, type wmic memphysical get maxcapacityEx and press the enter key.

There, it will show the maximum RAM capacity your PC's motherboard can support.

The capacity is shown as Kilobytes, so you have to convert it to Gigabytes by dividing the number provided in the report by 1,048,576.

If the report indicates 33,xxx,xxx, then theoretically 16 GB of memory should work.

If the report indicates 16,xxx,xxx, then only 8 GB of memory is supported.

The report will detect the circuitry for a second memory slot which is why it would report the 32 GB amount, or the 16 GB amount.