[SOLVED] 2011 Lenovo B560 RAM Upgrade - motherboard rejection?

[gtweak7]

Hello,

I decided to refresh my 2011 Lenovo B560 by first upgrading its RAM. (The laptop itself is in a very good condition, it has served mostly as a display and shows very little mechanical wear, stable working conditions FWIW.)

It has 2x2GB:
Micron Technology 8JSF25664HZ-1G4D1 2GB, 1333MHz (the default one)
Kingston 99U5428-010.A01LF 2 GB DDR3-1066 DDR3 SDRAM (7-7-7-20 @ 533 MHz) (6-6-6-18 @ 457 MHz) (5-5-5-15 @ 380 MHz) (added sometime later)

I attempted to put in 2 Kingston modules: 2x KCP313SS8/4 4GB DDR3 1333MT/s Non ECC SODIMM and the laptop barely boots.

I was able to enter BIOS and see that the motherboard recognized those 8192MB of RAM, but the laptop would reboot quickly after.

Mixing either new module with the 2GB ones resulted either in a freeze quickly somewhere around the Mint bootloader, a spectacular colorful screen followed by a reboot, or even a freeze in BIOS.

Running Linux Mint from a pendrive also did not suceed past the boot mode selection screen, I was not even able to run memtest, because it would reboot the laptop after a second or two.

I can not understand how the laptop could have worked with the @1333MHz default module yet it could not handle two identical brand new Kingston ones.

I did not try the new 4GB modules alone because this would not meet my goal in the first place.

The motherboard is Lenovo MoutCook and the chipset is Intel HM55 (IbexPeak-M DH). BIOS number 39CN16WW . As far as I searched for a BIOS update, there is none.

What may I be missing here?

I am still searching for some relevant modules, and an wondering if a kit consisting of 2x Corsair CMSA4GX3M1A1066C7 would be appropriate.

Thank you in advance for your time.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I did not try the new 4GB modules alone because this would not meet my goal in the first place.

Then your goal was flawed from the start because there are NEVER any guarantees when you start mixing memory. While much of what is below pertains to desktop systems, the observations and behaviors are common to any devices that use DRAM based memory modules. Try JUST the new modules and see how it does. Also, keep in mind, HAD it worked, it would have run at the slower speed of your existing Kingston modules, not the speed they should have been running at. Your best path is to return them and buy ONE kit with the capacity you wish to run, then maybe sell your old memory or gift it to another system.

The odd man out, (Or, mixed memory)


While memory modules that did not come together in a matched set that was tested by the manufacturer to be compatible, certainly CAN still work together, often it does not. Right up front I'll tell you that if you are trying to get sticks to work in the same machine together that were purchased separately, even if they are otherwise identical according to the kit or model number or if they would seem to have identical timings and voltage requirements, there is a very good chance that you simply will not be able to do that. There is also a pretty fair chance that you might be able to if you are willing to take your time, listen to and understand what you are being told and follow the steps necessary to determining if they will "play nice" or not.

The exception in most cases will be that if the memory from both sets are the same speed and timings and both kits are within the JEDEC specifications for the default speed on that platform, so for example, 2666mhz on the latest Intel Z390 platform, 2133mhz on Ryzen first and second Gen platforms, then they stand a much better chance of working together but if they are higher speed kits the chances begin to diminish from what they might be at the low speed and loose timings end of the scale.

A word of advice. If you just purchased this memory, and for whatever reason you bought two separate sticks of the same memory instead of buying them together in a matched set, see if you can return them for a refund or credit towards buying a similar or same set of matched sticks that come together in a kit. It is ALWAYS better to have matched modules because from brand to brand, or even within the same brand, in fact, even when the part numbers are IDENTICAL, there can be anything from simply slightly different memory chips that were sourced from different bins at the end or beginning of a production run to entirely different configurations altogether even though the model numbers seem to be the same. Some manufacturers even reuse model numbers when they discontinue a product. Point being, memory is only the same for sure when all sticks came out of the same blister pack or packaging and were sold as a tested kit.

In order to determine if differences in the memory, or a need for increased voltage when using more than one stick (Especially if you are running three or more sticks) are responsible for the problems you are having you will always want to begin your troubleshooting process by attempting to boot the machine with only a single stick of memory installed. Also, for practically every consumer motherboard that's been sold since at least as far back as about 2014, the A2 memory slot which is the second slot over from the CPU socket, is THE slot that is most commonly designated for the installation of a single memory module. Slots A2 and B2 are almost always the slots specified in the motherboard memory population rules for use with two modules. If you need to install a third module I have no opinion on which of the remaining slots to use for that, but typically since the A1 slot is right next to the CPU socket and often interferes with the CPU cooler or fan, I'd say the B1 slot was probably just as good.

And if this is a laptop, with very few exceptions, all bets are off because in almost all cases there is rarely any way to manually configure the frequency, voltage or timings in any laptop BIOS. It is ALWAYS recommended, in all cases, when dealing with laptop memory upgrades, that you stick to using ONLY memory that came from a single kit together. You can, again, certainly try mixing sticks to save money but as with desktops the chances it won't work or play nice are fairly high on modern memory platforms and whereas with desktops you can do some fiddling to try and overcome differences between modules, on laptops that is usually not possible.

Honestly, I don't ever recommend that you HAVE three modules installed anyhow. Using memory in pairs is almost always a better option, except on boards that support triple channel memory population, so that normal dual channel operation will occur. And that's another thing. When it comes to memory there are no "single channel" or "dual channel" memory modules. There are ONLY memory modules and the motherboard and CPU architecture will determine whether or not dual, triple or quad channel operation is possible based on the architecture and how many modules are in use. Occasionally though there are situations where it might make sense to run three modules and some boards CAN use three modules in a FLEX type mode where two of the modules will operate in dual channel while the third oddball module will run in single channel. I'd avoid oddball configurations though if possible because many motherboards will simply run ALL modules in single channel mode when an odd number of modules are installed.



If you think you will ever need 16GB of memory, then buy 16GB of memory from the start so you can get it all in a matched set that has been tested,
and eliminate a lot of problems right from the start.
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