4 posts shown.
So, I’ve been reading through all these different opinions—everyone seems to have their own take—but honestly, it happens all the time where even those sites claiming 100% compatibility for specific RAM on certain laptops end up being totally wrong...
I think I saw somewhere that Toshiba recommends Kingston (even though they actually use Samsung, lol), but people have had great luck using Hynix in their Toshibas too.
Anyway, I tried updating the BIOS, but lo and behold—absolutely nothing changed...
But here’s the weird part—I was testing this random thing I read about RAM combinations, and it turns out the only way this setup actually works is if I put the old stick in the bottom slot and the new one in the top slot; then, miraculously, it boots right up. No clue why that's the case, though. If I try that same old stick by itself in the exact same slot where it was working just two minutes ago, the system won't even start...
I guess I'll have to mess around with it a bit more and reach out to the seller—maybe we can work something out 🙄
I get the whole RAM conflict thing—but since I've only got two slots anyway, I figured it’s either two old sticks or two new ones...
Honestly, I just mashed them together because I was desperate to see if I could get anything out of this machine at all...
I also know you really should test them before buying, but the issue was that none of the local shops had any memory in stock that actually fit my build, and everything else was at least $33 overpriced. Man, once I finally tracked down some identical RAM and realized I could save over $67, I just thought, "well, why wouldn't it work?"...
I even called a buddy of mine who runs a repair shop—he's basically a genius when it comes to computers—and even he was stumped when I told him about these glitches; he didn't even know what to suggest...
P.S.
I was already planning on wiping my hard drive and doing a clean install of Windows in a few days anyway, since my PC is absolutely crawling with viruses. Any chance that might actually fix things?
Hey everyone
I've got this issue that's honestly driving me a little crazy, and I'm really hoping someone might have some insight to share.
So, my current 4GB of RAM (2x2GB) just isn't cutting it anymore, so I figured I'd go ahead and bump it up to 8GB (2x4GB) while I have the chance.
I ordered some new RAM through eBay—they're a matched pair from Hynix.
Link:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/8GB-2X4GB-DD...item33676c5da2
It's for my Toshiba laptop, a Satellite A665-145.
Specs:
Intel i7-740QM 1.73 GHz
4096 MB DDR3 RAM
500 GB SATA
Windows ® 7 home 64-bit
Nvidia gt 330 m / 1GB
The memory is upgradable to 8GB, at least—I'm not totally clueless about that part...
Regarding the RAM itself, I made sure everything matched up—both the old and new sticks are SO-DIMM DDR3, 1066MHz, PC3-8500, dual channel, and 1.5V.
As for what's actually happening—I pull the battery, unplug the power, swap out the old sticks (trying my best to watch out for static electricity), pop in the new ones, plug everything back in, and hit power. The Toshiba logo pops up, I can get into the BIOS, and everything seems fine for maybe two seconds before the logo disappears. Then it hits the boot process where a white cursor flashes twice—it always does that—and then it just freezes. With my old sticks, that cursor flashes maybe three times and then Windows boots up perfectly fine.
When I check the BIOS, it actually sees the full 8GB of RAM without any issues.
I've tried pretty much everything I could think of—swapping the stick positions, making sure they're seated properly, testing each one individually in different slots (which works, the BIOS detects them), trying one old and one new, even resetting the BIOS to defaults... but it's the same headache every single time.
The only thing I haven't tried is pulling the CMOS battery, but it's buried deep inside the laptop, and I'd have to take the whole thing apart. Plus, I'd be worried about messing with anything fixed, and honestly, I don't really know how to handle a BIOS update right now.🙄
Maybe there's something else I could try, but I'm stuck with this stripped-down version of a BIOS that doesn't let me do anything useful...
Please help me out if you can, because if these brand-new, identical sticks won't work, I'm kind of lost on what will—and I really don't want to just throw them $167 in the trash.