Adding 1GB memory to laptop?

Question

Do I have to take out the old 512mb memory stick, or can I add the new 1gb to the existing for even faster speed?

Answer 1

Crucial.com has a scanner program that can check your memory and vacant slots, and make several suggestions for you to upgrade the memory. You can be sure you get the right kind of memory chips. Normally a laptop has two memory slots. If you have a 512 MB chip in one slot, all you need to buy is another 512 MB to make up to 1GB.

Answer 2

if there is a free memory slot - u can add another identical piece if not - u have no choice but to put in a single 1Gb RAM.

Anyway unless u r doing some stuffs like video editing, or super high qualitu graphic editing, etc - 512 is considered good enough to run smoothly for any pc. if your system is not running smoothly as it should be - u may want to look at other possible reasons.

unnecessary / excessive background processes running - Start>Run>Msconfig>Startup - see how many items u have running on startup - if u have more that a handful - that's too many already. u basically need only the antivirus, firewall and, adsl modem - the rest can be disabled.

clear all your start up folder.

have plenty of hard drive space - if u have few hundred Mb of space - it is not good enough - several Gb space would be good.

16bit color is good enough instead of 32bit.

download "Adaware" from www.download.com and scan your computer on a regular basis to keep it free from popups, adwares, etc...

u can try going to pcworld website to read up on how to keep your pc lean and mean - so that it will run smooth and fast. many more ways to tweak the system such as tweaking the registry, removing unwanted services, etc

Answer 3

If you try this underwater, maybe. Otherwise, no. You don't even need to remove the battery. Just unscrew the cover on the memory, take out the old RAM and put in the new RAM, unless you have an open memory slot so you can use both RAM chips. The real danger is giving an electric shock not getting one. If you transfer a static electricity shock to the memory, you could damage it. Make sure you wear a grounding strap or (if your power cable is plugged in) touch a bare piece of metal on the system chassis before touching the memory chip.

Answer 4

If your computer has two slots then you can just put the new 1 GiB module in the empty slot.

Don't listen to the idiots who think they need to have identical values, that only applies if you want Dual Channel mode which you don't really need, if you put RAM modules that aren't of the same size it'll work just fine in single channel mode (the performance difference is not worth worrying about).

Some laptops might have only one slot but most do have two (if you see an empty slot then you can just put the extra RAM in without having to remove anything).

Reading the manual of your laptop would help.

Answer 5

Most computer users have been trained that if you want more speed for your computer, then add more memory. Well, this is true, in certain circumstances. But for most of the times, it really is just bad files in your registry files. Corrupted or missing registry files can make your computer too slow.
The registry is a main part of your computer's Operating System. With time, as you use Windows and install and uninstall programs, your registry will get congested and full of errors. So your computer could slow down. So, if you can clean it up this problem can be solved.Sometimes you can speed computer up by 300%. To clean up registry,You can download a software called regsitry cleaner---Clean registry,remnant,corrupt files and temp files,history,cookies,etc.. This site:
http://www.computer-speed.info/index.php?t=makepcf
lists top 5 registry cleaner,you can download and scan for free.
Good luck!

Answer 6

You can add the 1GB if that 512MB is in one slot. If its in two slots of 256 each. Youl need to remove one of the 256MB.

So yes you can add 1GB more to your computer if you have open memory slots.

Answer 7

If you have an extra slot open you might want to keep the existing 512 mb of ram because if you have 2 memory sticks it doubles the memory bandwidth.

Answer 8

Depends on the laptop. If you have a free memory slot you can simply add more memory, otherwise you need to free up a slot.

I like to go to www.crucial.com for memory questions. Look up the make and model and it will tell you how many slots you have and how much memory they can handle, as well as what memory to get.

Answer 9

1 GB is bigger, so there is a big possibility that 1 GB is faster. However, if u want ur computer faster, buy 2 GB or more, depending on what u want.

Answer 10

Before adding more ram
Check out http://www.pc-optimizer-pro.com
With pc optimizer pro you can safely clean, repair and optimize your computer.
It will help improve your system performance without expensive hardware upgrades.
Good luck!