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Laptop RAM question

Rincewind

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Hi guys,

Recently there as a major Windows 10 upgrade on my laptop- plus a new version of Edge. Also a Winzip addition that helpful guys here helped me to disable!

Here's what my laptop says about itself:

Lenovo V310-141SK
Intel Core i3-6100U CPU
2.30 GHz
6.00 GB RAM (5.73 GB usable)

Prior to the W10 upgrade I had been having occasional 'freezes', where the machine stops, and I have to reboot. Typically, for instance, when I have several large excel spreadsheets open at the same time.

However, since the upgrade this is happening several times a day, so I'm assuming (a WAG, of course) that Billy Gates' stuff is taking up so much of the RAM that there's not really enough for me to play with.

My question is - is it likely to be feasible to replace the 6 GB Ram with 8, for instance, or maybe add another 6?

Thanking you in anticipation...
 
In general, yes, absolutely.

This page suggests that you can go up to a max of 12GB.

Sometimes this is an easy task, sometimes less so. Never done a Lenovo so I'm not sure what their hardware setup is like.
 
I would have thought 6GB should be plenty, but as hardware gets older, it can start to creak. It may be worth checking if you need driver updates as that can often make a difference.
 
I have four 2007 Lenovo computers, a desktop on which I'm writing right now and three Laptops. The Desktop has 6 GB of RAM, the Laptops have 4 and two-times 3 (all at maximum). The Desktop now uses 3.2 GB of RAM with a ton of browser tabs open and after more than six days uptime. The Laptops all run fine without problems. On Linux, of course.
 
Rincewind said:
Thanks for that.

Is it likely that my wild-ass guess is correct? :)
Click to expand...

Wouldn't have thought so, generally being sluggish yes but not crashing. How is your hard disk configured? Is it all one partition and is there sufficient room for your swap file? I would suggest running a check on your HD before doing anything else.
 
Rincewind said:
Hi guys,

Recently there as a major Windows 10 upgrade on my laptop- plus a new version of Edge. Also a Winzip addition that helpful guys here helped me to disable!

Here's what my laptop says about itself:

Lenovo V310-141SK
Intel Core i3-6100U CPU
2.30 GHz
6.00 GB RAM (5.73 GB usable)

Prior to the W10 upgrade I had been having occasional 'freezes', where the machine stops, and I have to reboot. Typically, for instance, when I have several large excel spreadsheets open at the same time.

However, since the upgrade this is happening several times a day, so I'm assuming (a WAG, of course) that Billy Gates' stuff is taking up so much of the RAM that there's not really enough for me to play with.

My question is - is it likely to be feasible to replace the 6 GB Ram with 8, for instance, or maybe add another 6?

Thanking you in anticipation...
Click to expand...

https://www.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/lenovo/lenovo-v310-14isk#memory

Looks like you could replace it with a 16 GB stick and take it to 20. Sadly, it's not an easy upgrade, as the RAM does require opening it completely up, but, hey, gives you a chance to clean it out.

There is only one replaceable slot, with 4GB built into it.

I'm not totally sold on memory being your problem. I could be wrong, but full memory will cause disk thrashing as it moves everything to the pagefile. So, while it may hang, it will eventually resolve.
 
You can open Task Manager (R-Click on the task bar and select it from there), select the Performance tab and then Memory on the left hand column.
Keeping this open will give you a rough overview of how much Memory you are using so if you've seen notable stuttering in certain applications it should reflect in the usage there. If it doesn't you probably have enough RAM.
 
If you decide you want more memory, then before you get too far into the project – like before you turn it over to look at the bottom – search for YouTube videos for replacing memory ON THAT MODEL of computer.

Then review your decision.

My new Lenovo Idea Pad laptop turns replacing the battery into major surgery. I the Acer that went defunct, and that the Lenovo replaced, it was not much worse than replacing the bulb in your living room lamp.
 
I've been having intermittent update-related issues with my laptop and Win 10. It seems every update crams a bunch of junk into the thing, which then waits endlessly for things that aren't running to connect, and for me to update the settings on programs I don't even know I have.

I'd start by going to the Task Manager and disabling any startup items you obviously don't want. Check the services too (being careful not to disable needful stuff) and see if there's junk there. I never opened Skype in my life, but had nine instances of Skype service running at once.

Some things, like Skype, can just be uninstalled. Others, including some Xbox junk, are baked in, and require more effort.

There's more info on the web for disabling other stuff that can't be uninstalled normally, but every bit helps. Microsoft keeps putting Edge back in and defaulting all sorts of stuff to that.

I needed at some point to set up a separate administrator account, and found that a bunch of junk was set up there, and Edge was waiting for me to do stuff. Windows would take minutes to finish loading correctly, and programs would report "not responding," because Edge was waiting for me to enter stuff. So if you have more than one account, make sure you look at them all.

Every time I think I have it licked, it works great for a few days and then starts acting up again, and I find some new stupidity from Chairman Bill hiding somewhere gobbling up resources.

I may seriously have to look into how Linux can run some of the Windows specific programs I have, and if it does, maybe it's time.

e.t.a. in my case I don't think it's a RAM issue so much. Ram might help, but some of it is just Windows waiting for inputs that never happen. Eventually it gives up, and starts working again.
 
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Mongrel said:
You can open Task Manager (R-Click on the task bar and select it from there), select the Performance tab and then Memory on the left hand column.
Keeping this open will give you a rough overview of how much Memory you are using so if you've seen notable stuttering in certain applications it should reflect in the usage there. If it doesn't you probably have enough RAM.
Click to expand...

+1. Verify the problem before fixing it.

I'd suggest opening event viewer to look for problems but there as so many "just the usual errors" it can be a PITA.
 
Trebuchet said:
I wish they had said how much it cost when new! The story also mentioned GEM, about which I had almost forgotten. One of my companies bought a computer that had it installed, I quite liked it. You couldn't actually DO anything with it, but it seemed nice!
Click to expand...

One of my very early part time jobs was selling the Amstrad range of clone PCs, quality control was to shake the box, if it didn't rattle it was fine.
 
Darat said:
One of my very early part time jobs was selling the Amstrad range of clone PCs, quality control was to shake the box, if it didn't rattle it was fine.
Click to expand...

Reminds me of the Atari STFM. One quick fix was to lift it about 6 inches and drop it to reseat components that were loose. I had the 520 and did a RAM upgrade on that. It also used GEM but I mainly used it for playing Eye of the Beholder etc.
 
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6GB should be plenty for a laptop with Win10. Intermittent crashing suggests possibly a RAM fault, if it is indeed RAM at all, or something weird about the system disk...

RAM may have intermittent faults that show up only when the blocks get used. So the system will start and run for a bit, but sooner or later memory usage expands and something hits the pothole and boom. Win10 uses more RAM, so it could hit the pothole sooner. There are usually extensive RAM tests in the BIOS and motherboard system management which are available at boot time. Try them.

My usual disk check go-to is to defrag. If the disk is good then this will take about 5 mins for a spinning HDD or a couple of seconds for an SSD. It helps keep the disk in reasonable trim, and is also a bit of a shakedown on the disk because this very occasionally uncovers faulty blocks. If it does find some, take whatever corrective measures you think necessary.
 
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