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RAM in a Refurb

I’m trying to increase the RAM in an old HP Compaq Elite 8000 Small Form Factor that cam with a Hynix 2GB 1Rx8 PC3-10600U-9-10-A0 stick. It runs 64bit windows 10 with just that stick. I want to get 8GB of RAM in it before I sell it. I found out that it cannot handle 8GB sticks. That’s fine.

I found a Samsung 4GB 1Rx8 PC3-12800U-11-12-A1 that does not work solo or with others. I figure the mobo can’t handle the different speed or timing or something.

I found a Hynix 4GB 2Rx8 PC3-10600U-9-10-B0 that does not work even by itself. No beep codes, just fans spinning.

I found 4 Hynix 2Rx8 PC3-10600U-9-10-B0 sticks. Those don’t seem to work in any arrangement (I probably didn’t try every possible arrangement, I didn’t make a chart).

I found 5 Samsung 1Rx8 PC3-10600U-9-10-A0 sticks that also seem not to work in any configuration.

Here comes the fun part: When the original 2GB is installed alone, it works about as well as you can expect windows 10 to work on 2GB of RAM. When ANY other stick is installed along side, it fails to boot or even produce a beep code. I have gotten it to beep at me with a couple configs though, indicating that one or more of my 2GB 2Rx8 sticks is bad.

Do I have a compatibility issue I don’t know about or should I assume that I have 11 useless sticks of RAM? These things are so close to identical to the original that I should be able to find another stick that works, right?

Topic

Not a good idea.

In reply to RAM in a Refurb

I’m checking https://www.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/hp—compaq/hp-compaq-8000-elite-small-form-factor and the cost for the 8GB kit is more than what I expect this old desktop to sell for.

Before you break something, get it working, pack it up and move it out.

So forget about getting more than 2GB?

In reply to Not a good idea.

I mean, I know compatibility can be a booger, but is there really that little out there that’s compatible with this thing? I was REALLY hoping the Samsung set would work, given that it has exactly the same everything except the manufacturer sticker.

Can I cheat with a USB stick?

In reply to So forget about getting more than 2GB?

Win 10 still does that, right?

Cheap enough to try.

In reply to Can I cheat with a USB stick?

But my experience is that it doesn’t help.

If you wanted to improve this old PC, you swap the HDD for SSD. Sometimes you can get the 20 dollar SSD at 120GB which is barely enough but hey, it’s a lot faster.

My advice is to stop working on this old PC. Button it up, move it out.

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