Q: I have an dell inspiron 9300, and the max amount of ram is 2gb. i recently bought a 2gb ram to replace the two 256mb rams is had installed. Now, my computer only has 2gb ram installed, but it still has a slot open. can I place my old 256 ram inside to make the computer faster even though the max ram of my computer is supposed to be 2gb? thanks btw, this is my computer with its specs- http://review.zdnet.com/laptops/dell-inspiron-9300/4507-3121_16-31351063.html?tag=ut
A: While your computer could hold the memory physically, it may cause more problems than benefits. If the 256MB chips are of a different speed it may cause the system to either slow the faster chips down to the speed of the slower chips, or cause system instability. in either case, it's not recommended. Also if the MAX is 2GB the it probably won't even recognise it as being there.