Pavilion dv7-4180us RAM Upgrade

[digivictim]

8 Gigs at last!

Had to shame Micro Center some to get this done but finally got responses and courteous help (they were actually always courteous but too corporate customer sevice large and inefficient at responding promptly). Did give me a break for the difficulties caused by their not knowing the right RAM needed. Obscure problem or not, they really should have been able to get the right info after the first mistake, if not after the second blunder. Three long trips to do this right!

Micro Center SKU for the right part for those using them, which they do carry and even had already in stock at the store:

SKU 476267  (Centon, not Crucial)

Thank you!

[Huffer]

I would like to say you are welcome but you gave yourself the Solution so your thanks are all to yourself.  

[digivictim]

It did take far too much work to get to this point but I could not have gotten this done without the critical bits of information you supplied so IMO yu deserve the thanks!

Interesting: I have only used the laptop just once so far last night after getting this done and mostly to check its main intended function: hi-resolutioin audiophile grade music handling:

modified external dock / modified 12V UPS powered  >

eSATA connected to laptop - the unobtanium necessity that saved this laptop from a sledgehammer  >

laptop in (great) question / externally powered with my (custom made by me)  LINEAR 5A power supply /NOT switching >

custom made USB cable with 5V (USB power interrupting) injection (my design and make, also LINEAR)  >

modified (my work) custom DAC outputting the analog signal to my audio system (all my work, LINEAR powered).

Not a simple system but all this log-jammed by this absurd RAM problem!

I made no changes to the program settings handling this (3) yet I already could discern a slight improvement in the sound over what I had been getting from it from just the change in RAM, "cold" and fresh. In finicky audiophile usage everything matters and burn-in of every part of the chain makes a difference yet the system is already slightly improved, though I was not really expecting this from RAM, even given that the music is always played from RAM buffering, not the internal HDD which sounds quite obviously worse.

That's at home - in portable use there's no choice about the HDD and that brings up one remaining question about compatibilities. It is well known in audiophile tech that an SSD sounds far better, never mind the speed issue bonus. Will I run into similar problems once I can afford a good sized SSD  (need 1T for this to be practical) ?

Will the Crucial (or other) drives I've been offered by Micro C cause me the same compatibility headaches with this finicky critter? Any recommendations for this? Do, don't do, what specs are critical? I"m not spending the long bucks without being sure about it after this experience! If this constitutes a new question for help to others you will have to do whatever to flag it as such - I don't know your system . TIA.

[Huffer]

Pardon me if I bow out. Good luck.