up vote 4 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I have a Dell 2350 that states max RAM should be 1gb (2 x 512mb). What happens if I put 1gb in each slot = 2GB of RAM?

link|improve this question
feedback

4 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

It will blow up?

No really, it's undefined behaviour, so it could either blow up or your OS will work fine or it could delete everything on your harddrive. No one actually knows. Don't try it cause most likely your system won't be stable with more RAM than the mobo can handle, and the OS probably won't be able to make use of it anyway

link|improve this answer
Most of the mobo's I've had so far defined this situation pretty well actually. The previous one I had supported 4 GB max (2x2). It also stated that 1x 4 was allowed and that all modules installed in bank 2 were ignored in that case. – Roald van Doorn Mar 16 '10 at 15:21
feedback
up vote 2 down vote

Either one of two possibilities:

  1. Your machine stops working as it can't handle the excess memory and so it doesn't register any memory at all.
  2. Your machine ignores the excess amount of RAM and continues working with only 1 GB, ignoring bank 2.

Option no. 1 is the most likely IMO.

link|improve this answer
3  
It's less likely but there's also an option 3: It might actually recognize the second GB. I have an old Fujitsu tablet that did that. According to the spec sheet the biggest sodimm it supports is a 256mb module to supplement the 245mb soldered on the board, but it works fine with a 512mb sodimm in the expansion socket and 768mb of ram usable by the system. I assume the spec sheet was written the way it was to avoid confusion because at the time there weren't any 512mb sodimms available. – Dan Neely Mar 16 '10 at 15:33
1  
+1, I had thought of that but found it really unlikely so didn't include that option. – Roald van Doorn Mar 16 '10 at 15:38
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

Yes, it was not tested with anything more than could be bought when it was under development, for an example, a friend did testing for the Power Mac 9500, which was listed as supporting 768MB ram (that is 12 64MB dimms), but they were unwilling to buy enough 128MB dimms to test it at 1.5GB, though it should work (and it was tested with 128MB dimms, but not with 12 of them).

So, you can see what Crucial says, or look up the chipset, if Intel says 1GB max, that's it.

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

1.5 gb will work 100 % in a 2350, 2gb the screen wont display

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard