Ram upgrade

[OAK111107]

Hi I have an older laptop that works great but is really slow.  I want to have my 9 yr old son use it for his school.  What can I do to make it faster and better in general.  Will replacing the ram make much of a difference in speed?  My specs are listed below:

Processor- AMD A4-9125 Radeon r3, 4 commute cores 2c+2g. 2.30GHz

Installed ram 4Gb

Windows 10 64bit

I think I could manage installing ram, but I'm not sure which would be best.  Online I've read this model only supports 2 by 4gb ram but then others have reported using 2 by 8gb ram for a total of 16gb. 

Would upgrading the OS makes things faster? I'm sure replacing the processor is hard and not advisable, but anything else that may help?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I believe only the notebooks with the Intel processors support 2 x 8 GB of memory.

You can verify how much memory your PC can support by doing this...

1. In the search box, search for cmd and click Run as administrator. This will open the command prompt.

2. Once command prompt is opened, type wmic memphysical get maxcapacityEx and hit enter. 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.

The best thing you can do to increase performance other than adding another 4 GB of memory would be to replace the 2.5" mechanical hard drive with a better performing 2.5" solid state drive (SSD).

[OAK111107]

Hi thanks for your reply. I followed your advice and command prompt said the max capacity is 33554432, after converting to gb it's 32.... Is this right?  So I could install two16gb Ram cards? What other specs should I look for in the ram cards? And what kind of SSD would you recommend?

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You're very welcome.

I would definitely not recommend you try installing 2 x 16 GB of memory in that notebook.

I highly doubt it would work despite what the report indicates, and if you look at the price of a pair of 16 GB DDR3 memory chip, you could put that money toward a new notebook instead.

Crucial 32GB (2 x 16GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3L 1600 (PC3L 12800) Laptop Memory Model CT2KIT20486...

The Crucial memory report for your notebook indicates that only 2 x 4 GB of memory are supported.

Memory RAM & SSD Upgrades | hp - compaq | pavilion g6 | Pavilion g6-2235us | Crucial.com

You could gamble on 2 x 8 GB of memory working and even that is pretty expensive...over $95 for two of them.

Crucial 8GB DDR3L-1600 SODIMM | CT102464BF160B | Crucial.com

Or you can go with a safe bet and just add the compatible 4 GB Crucial memory chip shown in the report.

I don't know how much storage space you need, but this would be the SSD I recommend...I posted the link to the 500 GB model.

WD Blue 500GB SATA 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive WDBNCE5000PNC-WRSN - Best Buy

[OAK111107]

Ok thanks I'll go with the 4gb ram and see how that affects performance.  Another quick question, is installing a new SSD and ram card as simple as opening the laptop and plugging the new parts in?  Is the OS stored on the current hard drive? How will I transfer it all over?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

On that model installing memory and a hard drive is relatively easy.

Here is the link to the service manual where you can find the removal and replacement procedures in chapter 4.

c03593126.pdf (hp.com)

The operating system is installed on the drive.

You can clone the existing configuration to the new drive using a free utility such as Macrium reflect.

Macrium Software | Reflect Free Edition

You would need to also purchase a SATA to USB cable such as this one.

https://www.amazon.com/BENFEI-Drive-Adapter-Cable-Compatible/dp/B07F7WDZGT/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=1S1C...

Plug the cable into the SSD and the other end into your PC's USB 3 port.

Then clone the drive's contents to the SSD.

I noticed that the model you have came with a 750 GB hard drive, so if a lot of that space is being used, you may want to get the 1 TB model of the SSD or the clone may not fit on a 500 GB drive.

After the cloning is completed, remove the mechanical hard drive and replace it with the SSD and it should boot right up.

[OAK111107]

Thank you so much for your help! The links provided and detailed descriptions are very helpful for someone that isn't very tech savy!  I only have 50gb used up, so I'll upgrade to a SSD that's maybe 250gb.  I don't expect this to get heavy use. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.