aspire 5733Z Upgrading 4 GB installed RAM to 8 GB by adding a second board

I have an ACER aspire 5733Z laptop with 4 GB of installed RAM. I recently upgraded my Adobe Photoshop (2003 vintage) to Adobe Elements 2022 only to discover that the more modern version requires 8 GB of RAM. So I bought a 4 GB RAM upgrade board and installed it in the second slot. However the Aspire does not see the new RAM, saying (as it did before) that there are 4 GB of installed RAM, of which 3.68 GB are usable. The Aspire has BIOS V1.07 and the website of the firm supplying the second RAM board said that a new version of BIOS might be needed before the Aspire can see the RAM extension. From the ACER website I downloaded BIOS v1.10 which seems to be the most recent version, though it is dated 2013 which is a long time ago in laptop terms. My questions therefore are (i) has anyone else had problems installing RAM upgrades for the Aspire 5733Z, in particular the upper RAM slot not being recognised and (ii) is there a BIOS more recent than V1.10?

{Thread was edited to add model name to the title}

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JackE

(1) First make the Win10 installation USB with the 4GB module.

(2)Then make sure the F12 boot and D2D options are still enabled in the BIOS Main tab.

(3) Then switch to the 8GB module

(4) Insert the Win10 USB installation stick

(5) Then turn the machine on and immediately start tapping the F12 key to boot from the Win10 installation stick.

(6) Then go to the troubleshooting menu on the Win10 installation menu

(7) From there we want to go to the command prompt. A black screen with an X : > _ prompt with blinking cursor

(8) Once the command prompt is up and running, we'll go from there to try to make Windows recognize and boot from the 8GB module

MorgantheBear

Sorry for the delay. Initially I could not get the Media Creation Tool to load the Windows launcher on to an 8 GB flash drive. Eventually, after recreating Windows 10 on the hard drive, it loaded to the flash drive without any error message and I was able to complete steps 1 to 5 on your list. When I tap F12 during Windows startup, I get a number of boot options. I choose Boot Option Menu: 4. USB HDD: General UDisk. The boot starts but then clicks off and restarts, offering the boot option menu again. If I choose option 4, I go round the circle again. Similar to my post of 17 March.

Sometimes I get a screen saying that Windows will restart automatically and that if I contact Microsoft Support about this, I should use the codes KERNAL SECURITY CHECK FAILURE or SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED or PAGE FAULT IN NON-PAGED AREA.

If I tap F2 during the boot startup, BIOS confirms that there are 8192 MB of installed RAM.

JackE

>>> Initially I could not get the Media Creation Tool to load the Windows launcher on to an 8 GB flash drive. Eventually, after recreating Windows 10 on the hard drive, it loaded to the flash drive without any error message>>>

I'm not sure what you did here. An 8GB USB is usually not big enough for the USB installation media creation tool. Last one I made was over 9GB and required a 16GB USB?

MorgantheBear

I am sure that the Microsoft website said that 8 GB would be enough but I'll try it again with a bigger drive (128 GB). If that is not big enough, I give up. I'll get back to you with the result.

JackE

Hold on! We're going from one extreme to the other. 16GB is big enough. Some earlier BIOS chips and firmware like your's won't recognize sticks that big. We're still trying to make 10+ year old technology run programs meant for more advanced UEFI bootstrappers.

MorgantheBear

Another delay, this time because I didn't have a 16 GB flash drive. I got one via Amazon and used the Windows Media Creation tool to make it into a Windows 10 installation USB. But I still hit problems at stage 6. When I tap F12 during Windows startup, I get a number of boot options. I choose Boot Option Menu: 4. USB HDD: General UDisk. The boot starts but then clicks off and restarts, offering the boot option menu again. If I choose option 4, I go round the circle again. Similar to my post of 28 March. I can't find the troubleshooting menu or indeed the Win10 installation menu.

Sometimes I get a screen saying that Windows will restart automatically, citing KERNAL MODE HEAP CORRUPTION as the nature of the error.

JackE

>>>Sometimes I get a screen saying that Windows will restart automatically, citing KERNAL MODE HEAP CORRUPTION as the nature of the error. >>>

Do you know what WindowsUpdate version you have installed now? Press WIN+R. Enter 'winver'.

MorgantheBear

With the 4 GB board installed, typing Win + R then "winver" produces "Microsoft Windows Version 21H2 (OS Build 19044, 1586)".

JackE

OK. Re-install the other 4GB. Then make sure the BIOS still sees 8GB. Then boot Windows. Check again that it still only sees 4GB. Then if we haven't done so already, press WIN+R. Enter 'mdsched' to run memory diagnostics to see if it can force Windows to see it.

MorgantheBear

I replaced the 4 GB board with the 8 GB one and pressing F2 confirmed that BIOS can see 8192 MB of installed RAM. If I press F12 and change the boot device to the flash drive which I create using the Windows Media Creation tool, I still go into the cycle of start boot -> switch off -> restart -> press F2 or F12 -> start boot etc. The result of this is that I cannot boot Windows and so cannot press WIN + R.

As I said above, sometimes I get a screen saying that Windows will restart automatically, citing a clue as to the nature of the error. In addition to KERNAL MODE HEAP CORRUPTION I have had KERNAL SECURITY CHECK FAILURE, SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED and PAGE FAULT IN NON-PAGED AREA.

JackE

>>>When I tap F12 during Windows startup, I get a number of boot options. >>>

Please post a phone photo of the other options if possible

MorgantheBear

I'll send a photo if you want but the options I get (reproduced here exactly as they appear on my screen) are:

Boot Option Menu

1. IDE 0: WDC WD5000BPVT–22HXZT3
2. IDE 1: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GT51N
3. Network Boot: LEGACY PCI DEVICE
4. USB HDD: USB Disk 2.0

The first of these is given as the default. I assume that the fourth is the flash drive, which is the one required in this case.

JackE

Yeah, OK, that's only the BIOS boot order menu.

So I don't have to search back thru the thread, if 4GB is installed USB option #4 loads the Win10 installation OK? And if 8GB is installed, #4 bombs and throws errors?

MorgantheBear

I installed the 4 GB board and tried to launch Windows using option 4 but, after entering some details about language choice etc, I got this message:

"The upgrade option isn’t available if you start your computer using Windows installation media.

If a copy of Windows is already installed on this computer and you want to upgrade, remove the installation media and restart your computer. After Windows has started normally, insert the installation media and run Windows Setup."

So I removed the flash drive and the computer successfully loaded Windows. But I don't understand what "run Windows Setup" means. I don't have anything with that name on my Start menu.

JackE

>>>The upgrade option isn’t available if you start your computer using Windows installation media>>>>

Are you sure absolutely you that you made the Win10 USB installation media, NOT the Win11 USB media?

MorgantheBear

Yes, it was Windows 10. I used the link you gave me in your post of March 22. The version it took me to was "Windows 10 November 2021 Update" which I assumed to be the most recent version of Windows 10. I have never tried to download Windows 11 either on the hard drive or the USB drive as I know that my PC can't run Windows 11. Is there a less recent version of Windows 10 which I should have used? I couldn't see any mention of it on the Microsoft Software download web page.

JackE

>>> Is there a less recent version of Windows 10 which I should have used?>>>

Yes. Double-check what version you have on there now. I think you indicated earlier 21H2? Not sure though?

Then google search keywords "windows 10" "21h2" "archive.org" "home premium" "iso"

Download the 21H2 iso file. Then download and install Rufus freeware to convert the cdrom iso to a bootable Win10 USB installation stick. Should be MBR partition scheme, FAT32 formatted for a Legacy BIOS.

MorgantheBear

Yes, the version I am currently running is 21H2 (OS Build 19044, 1586). I searched the keywords you suggested but it just took me back to the Microsoft website with the Windows 10 November update option. I updated but of course there was no result as it was already running that version. Should I create a Windows 10 iso file on my hard drive and then use Rufus software to create a Win 10 USB installation stick from that?

JackE

>>> Should I create a Windows 10 iso file on my hard drive and then use Rufus software to create a Win 10 USB installation stick from that? >>>

Yes if you got the 21h2 cdrom iso?

MorgantheBear

Yes, I have the Windows 10 21H2 iso file stored on my hard drive. Rufus offered me (i) MBR partition scheme and NTFS file system or (ii) GPT partition scheme and a choice of FAT32 or NTFS file system. But I can't have MBR and FAT32. I went for MBR and NTFS. Rufus completed without any complaints but when I tried to boot from the USB, I got the same message as above, namely

"The upgrade option isn’t available if you start your computer using Windows installation media.

If a copy of Windows is already installed on this computer and you want to upgrade, remove the installation media and restart your computer. After Windows has started normally, insert the installation media and run Windows Setup."

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