Upgraded 8gb 1600mhz ram is running only at 1333

[ap999]

 Hi there,

I have recently upgraded the ram of HP 255 g4 w/ AMD e1-6015 from 4gb to 8gb. The problem is, the sticks are 1600mhz, but they are running only at 1333mhz. According to the service manual, the laptop should be compatible with 1600 ram.

Any fixes? 

[banhien]

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@ap999 wrote:

 ,,. According to the service manual, the laptop should be compatible with 1600 ram.

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@ap999

Yes but it clearly says

Two non-customer-accessible/upgradable memory module slots
DDR3L-1600 downgrade to DDR3L-1333

We can buy a raciing car but when running on normall road you have to follow the rules.

Regards.

[PortlandiaIT]

The 1333 ram is probably out of production which makes it more spendy than the 1600 ram

In general the cheapest ram is what everyone is buying at the moment.   Every year the memory gets faster and faster and the support chips get faster and faster and the older ram is bought less and less and the newer ram is bought more and more thus people with old gear want to buy the newer ram.   So the newer ram is made to clock down to many lower speeds to be compatible with the older controllers.

[ap999]

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@PortlandiaIT wrote:

The 1333 ram is probably out of production which makes it more spendy than the 1600 ram

In general the cheapest ram is what everyone is buying at the moment.   Every year the memory gets faster and faster and the support chips get faster and faster and the older ram is bought less and less and the newer ram is bought more and more thus people with old gear want to buy the newer ram.   So the newer ram is made to clock down to many lower speeds to be compatible with the older controllers.

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you're right, but this isn't exactly what I thought... This time it should be compatible with this machine according to the manual. It run 1600mhz well on 4gb ram, but not anymore on 8gb. Is 1600 available only when 1 stick is used instead of 2? 

[ap999]

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@banhien wrote:

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@ap999 wrote:

 ,,. According to the service manual, the laptop should be compatible with 1600 ram.

---

@ap999

Yes but it clearly says

Two non-customer-accessible/upgradable memory module slots
DDR3L-1600 downgrade to DDR3L-1333

We can buy a raciing car but when running on normall road you have to follow the rules.

Regards.

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Good day to you sir,

This didn't help me solve the problem at all. Unfortunately, I'm not giving you any kudos for answers like this.

ps. below that downgrade-thingy it clearly says DDR3L-1600 Single Channel Support (Transfer rates up to 1600 MT/s)

Best regards.

[PortlandiaIT]

How are you checking at what speed it's running?

Try going to https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html and installing cpu-z then run it and go into the memory tab and see what the actual dram speed is.

[ap999]

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@PortlandiaIT wrote:

How are you checking at what speed it's running?

Try going to https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html and installing cpu-z then run it and go into the memory tab and see what the actual dram speed is.

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Did that earlier today. Unfortunately, it says that they are running at 667mhz, which equals to 1333 because the given number needs to be doubled (double data rate/DDR). According to cpu-z, the sticks are capable of running at 800mhz (1600). And also the windows task manager says that the memory frequency under the ram tab is (667mhz=1333)

[PortlandiaIT]

are the memory sticks the same product/model number in cpu-z are the same timing tables present in each chip?  Look in the SPD tab and compare the 2 different chips.

Never heard of a memory controller that would clock down if 2 chips were inserted but I can see that perhaps RAS/CAS were different between the sticks the controller might do that.

I've had no problem buying chips of the same speed but I always try to get same make and model of chip because of this.  Also it's known that AMD CPUs use JEDEC data while Intel chips search for XMP data on the sticks first, that is why some ram is marked "intel compatible" since it carries both XMP and JEDEC data. 

[ap999]

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@PortlandiaIT wrote:

are the memory sticks the same product/model number in cpu-z are the same timing tables present in each chip?  Look in the SPD tab and compare the 2 different chips.

Never heard of a memory controller that would clock down if 2 chips were inserted but I can see that perhaps RAS/CAS were different between the sticks the controller might do that.

I've had no problem buying chips of the same speed but I always try to get same make and model of chip because of this.  Also it's known that AMD CPUs use JEDEC data while Intel chips search for XMP data on the sticks first, that is why some ram is marked "intel compatible" since it carries both XMP and JEDEC data. 

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i believe both 2 sticks are identical, thus i got them in a "kit" (2x4gb). This is indeed really strange, i have upgraded different kinds of ram quite often. This has never happened to me until now. I admit, the sticks arent the "original", but i have made 100% sure that they are identical in terms of specs (the timings, clocks, latency, frequency and everything are 100% identical with the original single 4gb stick that came with the laptop) I have a 2nd acer laptop too that now has the original stick from hp, and it runs perfectly fine at 1600mhz even tho it has mixed manufacturers (samsung<- acer stock ram / micron<- hp stock ram that is now moved to acer) And yes, even those two "different" sticks are exactly identical (surprisingly)... so this is really strange...

[PortlandiaIT]

Well you could try a 1X8 in there and see if it worked.

If you bought them in  kit then maybe the memory manufacturer tech support can make a suggestion.

Typical hardware baloney.  I would not be surprised at all if you swapped the pairs between the machines and both ran at 1600