Acer Aspire 1830T RAM upgrade

Greetings,

I am running into an issue upgrading the RAM on my Aspire 1830T-3425. It currently has 2x2G of PC3-8500 ram in it, but I have found information that says it will take up to 2x4G of PC3-10600 ram. (http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Aspire%201830T%20TimelineX&Cat=RAM is my source)

I have tried two different sets (from two different manufacturers, Corsair and Patriot) and they both run into the same issue. Once installed, I can restart the system and look in the bios to confirm that the system sees the ram, which it does. However when the system continues booting into Windows 7, the splash screen will show for only a few seconds before the system reboots. Running MemTest+, I can see that the system scans only the first 4G of ram before the system reboots.

I have two questions at this point.

1) Is there something that I'm missing with regards to the type of ram that this notebook will support? I can not seem to find any hard specs on what the memory requirements should be for this notebook.

2) Is there something hardwired or set in the bios that prevents the system from accepting more than 4G of ram?

Thanks in advance for any answers.

Kzorith

Accepted answers

finlux

Hello again!

As I have said before, I have never known Crucial to be wrong, but I have a feeling they may well be this time!

Everything points to 4GB being the maximum:

Your PC only recognising 4GB

Acer's own specsheet

The discussion of other 1830T users confirming it on Amazon

If your motherboard's maximum is 4GB, then it is not possible to upgrade it further...

All comments

finlux

Hi Kzorith

The spec here, says your laptop is maxed out at 4GB of RAM. However, I've never known Crucial to be wrong!

A discussion on Amazon's site also suggests 4GB is the maximum too. Try removing the one stick & all should be well, and ask Crucial for a refund!

EDIT: This is the Acer spec sheet & it states maximum of 4GB, but in 2 x 2GB sticks!

Alan-London

Crucial have two entries:

Aspire 1830T = 2GBx2 http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx?model=Aspire%201830T

Aspire 1830T TimeLineX = 4GBx2 http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx?model=Aspire%201830%20TimelineX

I would suggest you run the Crucial Scanner, http://www.crucial.com/uk/systemscanner , and see what it detects.

Kzorith

Greetings,

The Crucial Scanner detects that I have a max ram of 8G. (I`m not sure if this link will work http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/viewscanbyid.aspx?id=1ECE0CD831D926C3 )

Is there something special about the type of ram that must be used to achieve an upgrade of my device? I don't want to order from Crucial, only to find out that it's not going to work either.

Thanks again in advance,

Kzorith

finlux

Hello again!

As I have said before, I have never known Crucial to be wrong, but I have a feeling they may well be this time!

Everything points to 4GB being the maximum:

Your PC only recognising 4GB

Acer's own specsheet

The discussion of other 1830T users confirming it on Amazon

If your motherboard's maximum is 4GB, then it is not possible to upgrade it further...

Xander_25

Good Day all,

I know that this thread is a bit old, BUT, your CPU (Intel) actually determines the maximum amount of system memory your machine can handle. This particular model of Acer actually does support up to 8GB of system memory as per the CPU model found here http://ark.intel.com/products/47554/Intel-Core-i5-520UM-Processor-3M-Cache-1_06-GHz , under the memory specifications section. So, rest assured, if you purchase an 8GB Kit, you should be able to successfully install it. Maybe try a BIOS upgrade and see..

Hope this helps.

Kzorith

Greetings Xander_25,

I have my system updated with the latest bios available to me from Acer. Installing a 8GB kit would cause the system not to start. It would always fail the memory check when it went to read the memory above 4GB and restart the system.

While the CPU model might support the memory, obviously there has been something limited on the system itself (likely in the bios) that causes it to reject anything over 4GB of memory.