Beginner's question on upgrading memory.

[gm380]

Hello, I have a question about upgrading ram.

My friend has an old Sony Vaio laptop, and I have a newer but slightly outdated Acer Aspire laptop which stopped working recently.
I want to upgrade the ram in the Vaio with the ram from my Acer.

As far as I understand, to do this successfully the ram must be compatible with the computer (obviously), so here are the specifications, can you tell me if this will work?

Sony Vaio: Type: DDR2
Installed: 512MB (PC2-4200)
Maximum: 2GB

Acer Aspire: Dual-Channel DDR2 SDRAM support
Up to 2 GB of DDR2 667 MHz memory, upgradeable to 4 GB using two soDIMM modules

Also, if this won't work, or would be too complicated, could anyone tell me what ram I should purchase for the Vaio?

Thanks!

[JPMiller]

DDR2 is DDR2... it will run at whatever speed its capable of...
You should be able to unscrew the cover over the memory and pop out the old memory and then insert the 2 one gig sticks from your Aspire
It will usually complain that the memory size has changed on bootup and require you to hit F1 to skip, or F2 to enter the bios...
Just skip through to loading windows...
You may want to run memtest after installation to make sure there are any issues

[gm380]

Okay, cool, thank you!

I was thinking of running memtest86+ I think it was called, I found a big tutorial on it.

Oh, another question.
I actually have two sticks of 2 GB, and was only going to put one in the Vaio, that's not any sort of problem is it?

I'm obviously a beginner at this and just like to double check everything before I make any sort of move.

[JLK03F150]

What operating system is on the Vaio? Win XP or Win 7 will run fine with 2GB, but in my experience computers with Vista do better with 3GB or more.

[gm380]

Windows XP luckily.

I think the 2GB will be a huge improvement, I'm just wondering if it would be any problem using a 2GB stick as opposed to two 1GB sticks.
Which I don't think will be a problem, just like to double check.

Thanks for the reply.

[JLK03F150]

Running in single channel mode (1x2GB) vs dual channel mode (2x1GB) will result in an approximate 3% loss of performance. You won't be able to detect the loss with specialized RAM benchmarking software.

In other words you're right, it won't be a problem.

[gm380]

Alright, cool! Thanks a lot!

[yuue]

and if u wants a very fast operating system install windows xp because it only takes 1.5 gb to make the windows xp works well but windows vista takes 3 gb to work well
and windows takes 4 gb to work well windows xp is good for games and programs

[stroyal]

Slots, have a max also
If your Sony, only takes 2gig max, it may only use, 1 gig sticks.
It might not work.
I'll see if I can find the spec.
I need the model# though
Edit
Oh, and welcome to TechIMO!