Somebody help, my owners manual say I can't have more than a 1 GB of ram.?

Question

I'm running now on a 1GB slot and want to add a other 1G later to the open slot. Lets say the motherboard can't support 1 plus G. Would I permanently damage my computer in going over, or would it just die at the time and then I can remove it with no harm done. It is a desktop Dell 4500s that I purchased three years ago

Answer 1

You can just give it a try, it won't do any harm. If the manual says that the motherboard takes a max of 1gb of ram, then installing 2gb of ram won't do any good. It's always a good idea to maximize your computer though. Have fun.

Answer 2

According to the Dell, the Dimension 4500S supports a max memory of 1GB non-ECC DDR RAM in each slot & 2GB total memory. SO you can install two 1GB non-ECC Chips & get 2GB Memory on your system.

What will happen if you put chips above the motherboard's capacity? Cant say for sure. The system may simply not start, or it may start but not recognise the extra memory..

You can find more information about your Dimension 4500S on the Dell website:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4500s/specs.htm#1101572

Answer 3

If the computer can only run on 1 gig of RAM and you put in 2 it will still run, it just won't be able to utilize the full RAM on the board. of course if you leave it in there then you could start to get some error messages during startup, particularly when it runs the memory check and finds it has a hard time counting that high.( in a manner of speaking, it will definately count it all it just won't know what to do with it.) best bet, go with what the owners manual tells you, since it is usually printed by the hardware designer.

Answer 4

Are you going by the 4500's memory specs on Dell's website?
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4500/specs.htm#1103227

It claims that it supports modules of RAM with capacities of 128, 256, and 512MB. If you're currently running it without problems using a single 1G modules, you've already proven the specs wrong.

Perhaps the specs were published before single 1G modules were commonly available?

In any case, this shouldn't damage your computer. Worst case is the BIOS will refuse to recognize the full 2G. If this happens, try downloading the latest BIOS update from dell.com first and see if that fixes it.

Answer 5

Dell is bad about that.. it makes you have to buy a new computer when you want to upgrade. Makes them money. My laptop is the same way. All that will happen if you put 100 gig in it is it would only report 1 gig of ram. It will complety ingore the extra like it was not even there. No harm done but the loss of money buying RAM that you can't use.

Sorry but you are stuck with no way out.

Answer 6

Adding too much won't harm anything - no need to worry there.

However, one thing you need to keep in mind is "dual-channel" DDR. If you have a Pentium processor on the 533MHz bus or higher, then you need to make sure "dual-channel" isn't a feature being used on your motherboard. If it is, you need to preserve it. Read the owner's manual (available for download at the manufacturer's website if you don't have it anymore). The manual will tell you what configurations in which slots will work.

If you have an Athlon 64 or better, then this definitely applies to you too. Only a small handful of early Athlon 64 mobos didn't support dual-channel.

Answer 7

My PC had a limit on RAM also and I was unable to increase it. I accepted that the manufacturer knew more than I did and updated to a new computer.

What are you trying to do that 1G RAM is insufficient? Maybe there are other things you can do to free up the memory you have, like:
- set wallpaper and screensaver to blank
- check startup menu and load only that which you intend to use daily
- Scandisk, Disk Cleanup, and defrag regularly.
- clear history and set days to store pages to 0
- delete files (offline)

Answer 8

you computer couldn't possibly get damaged. what will probably happen is that it will detect the extra gig of ram or not. the only way you can damage the computer is if you force the RAM in the wrong way. check if your computer's motherboard has any firmware updates. then it might be able to support 2gb of ram.

Answer 9

If you put 1G more on your PC, it will be waste of money. Your PC will recognise only 1G. So why to waste money. Better change your motherboard which support 2G RAM. It's very cheap now a days.

Answer 10

If you went over, the computer would only use the ram up to the limit, and 1 GB sounds like plenty enough for you.