Upgrading RAM on an Acer Aspire 5610 (5612AWLMi)

[Tom.B]

Hello guys,

I have recently begun to consider a RAM upgrade to my laptop. It's an Acer Aspire 5610 (5612AWLMi) which currently has 2 x 512MB sticks installed running at PC2-5300 (667 Mhz). I have been confused by ideas whether the laptop supports 2GB or 4GB maximum. Acer's own eSettings say that it maxes out to 2GB but then I have seen conflicting information which says it can go up to 4GB. It seems the Intel chipset used in this particular Aspire model is an i945GM which goes up to 4GB. Is there anyone out there who has this model of Acer and can tell me whether this system definitely does or doesn't work with 4GB. I have updated to the latest BIOS version of 3.60.

Also the Intel datasheet states for 945GM - Maximum Memory supported: up to 4 GB at 400, 533 and 667 MHz. If I used DDR2 800Mhz RAM on this chipset would it just fall back on 667 speeds (which I believe it should) or not actually work?

Cheers

[RicheemxX]

Going directly to the source uses nets the best most accurate info

Acer Support - Aspire 5610 Series Specifications

"RAM / Max RAM 1GB (2*512) / 4GB of DDR2 533/667 MHz soDIMMs."

and yes faster ram with generally default to the fastest speed your PC supports or if you have slower RAM installed it will default to that speed. RAM in general is almost always backwards compatible to run at slower speeds.

[Tom.B]

Ah thanks for that

It's interesting since eSettings tells me 2GB only but this official source says 4GB. Also it's said that higher speed DDR2 will work in systems designed for slower DDR2 by running at the slower spec. Least that's what I understand about the backwards compatibility of DDR2. Not sure if Acer is trying to tell me that 800Mhz RAM wouldn't actually work in a 667Mhz system because that shouldn't matter based on what I have read on the nets about DDR2

[Tom.B]

Today I upgraded to 3GB of 800Mhz DDR2 RAM at the local computer store. They installed the RAM personally and even dusted out the internals which have solved the long standing heating issues in the process . Only issue was a setting in msconfig which was actually limiting the usable RAM for Windows. Disabled that and the new RAM works a treat, has even upped the Memory & Processor ratings to 4.5 & 4.2 respectively in the Windows Experience Index. I is happy now