What happens when more RAM is installed than the motherboard supports?
I have a free RAM slot and some spare memory that will fit my computer. However the problem is my motherboard only supports 2GB and I have 2GB installed. What would happen if I plugged the spare memory in the RAM slot?
The following things spring to mind:
- Nothing will happen
- It will work, computer becomes faster
- Computer becomes slower
- Explosion
- Undetermined (Any of the above)
Does anyone have any experience of this?
Update: Egged on by you zealous lot, I went ahead and stuck the extra memory in. It booted up! Unfortunately, the hunch of some has been proved correct. The memory is reported at the capped limit, rather then the actual available. A shame then! But thank you all for your suggestions, speculations and stories.
For your reference, I am using a Dell Insprion 6000 with 2gb installed, latest drivers. I attempted to add 512mb, with no success.
Solution 1:
Simple answer: It either will only see the max supported memory or it will not work at all.
My gut feeling says two things:
If it does work, you just will not see the extra memory, only the max the motherboard/chipset supports. If it doesn't work, it usually will just beep at you with a memory error and you will get no video responce. All depends on the motherboard depending on how it handles memory errors.
Someone on Yahoo answers says an interesting bit about getting a blue screen due to this:
In my experience, putting in more than the max amount of RAM as specified by the manufacturer will cause the computer to not boot up.
others claim:
Some won't POST, some will and simply BSOD (kernel panic, etc) with PFN_LIST_CORRUPT.
That said, the "max" memory isn't always the actual max. Case in point, Intel states the GL960 chipset (such as in my laptop) supports a max of 2GB of memory. 4GB is a no-go, but 3GB works.
Solution 2:
your first stop is the mainboard manufacturer's website. update the BIOS to the latest version. then fit the additional memory and turn on the computer, if the memory is detected, run MemTest86+. no, it won't explode! :)
Solution 3:
Depends on the board and BIOS. I have a Sony VAIO VGN-Fe770G that uses the GM945 chipset -- Intel, Sony, AND Crucial say that the maximum amount of RAM is 2GBs of DDR2 (1 GB per SODIMM slot), but I'm running Windows 7 x86 with 3GBs and both the BIOS and Windows report (and presumably map) all 3072MBs. I'm going to try with a second 2GB DDR2 SODIMM and see if the BIOS and a 64-bit LiveCD OS sees 4096MBs.
Solution 4:
This really depends on your MotherBoard. I have seen some cases where the system functions as normal but will only recognize the 2gb, and I have seen some that will not start up and throw an error.
I have yet to see any of the hardware fail because of an "over-installation".
Solution 5:
I tried to installed 4GB on a HP 6720s that only supports up to 3GB, and what happened was that the BIOS saw the memory, but with any type of memory check an error was reported.
And trying to install an OS (not even x64) was impossible, I got a memory related BSOD every time.
I found out later on that some 6720s moderboards supported 4GB, but not mine... :(