I have two sticks of 8GB RAM on my laptop, but CPU-Z reads them as Single channel? How can I make them run on Dual?

[jloeza75]

Hi all,

I recently bought the Crucial 16GB RAM kit for my Laptop, (HP Notebook 15-ba082nr) which only came with 4GB RAM installed. I decided to upgrade because I do lots of work which requires multiple Office apps to be running at the same time for college work. I was going to get the 8 GB RAM kit but I had a bit extra money so I decided to just go with the 16 GB kit.

I made sure my laptop was capable of running on 16 GB RAM and it was, I even bought the RAM kit Crucial reccomended after I entered my laptop's info.

--> The problem is, I installed the two 8GB RAM sticks, my laptop only has two RAM slots so I know the problem can't be how they are installed, but CPU-Z reads the two RAM sticks as running in Single channel. I understand Dual is faster and is what you should have when running on two RAM sticks. My laptop reads the RAM at 16GB so I know it's there, I just do not know why it is running in Single channel, Is there any way I can fix this?

RAM specs: Crucial 16GB Kit (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 SODIMM
CT9765667
DDR3 PC3-14900 • CL=13 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1866 • 1.35V • 1024Meg
x 64 •
upgrade for HP - Compaq HP 15-ba082nr system.

I know a mistake on my part was buying the DDR3-1866 pack, I later found out my laptop can only support up to DDR3-1600, but I read in various sites that does not influence anything, it'll just clock down to 1600.

Any answers or help are/will be gratley appreciated, thank you!

---> see images below

Resource Monitor: https://imageshack.com/a/img922/30/ESXPKq.jpg
Task Manager: https://imageshack.com/a/img923/2871/J97vAv.jpg
CPU-Z: https://imageshack.com/a/img924/5416/evhYyw.jpg

 

[Tolis_GR]

Enter BIOS and see if it gives an XMP profile option to enable. You may want to try this first. If there is no XMP, try to manually enter the timings as illustrated in CPU-Z tab jedec, also manually set the voltage at 1.35 or 1.40

 

[Lutfij]

It's good practice to make sure you're on the latest BIOS revision prior to populating a laptop/system with a ram kit. On that note, bravo, you've done a good job going for a kit since everyone who do mix and match their sticks of ram end up with a near sluggish system or worse, are left to diagnose issues.

You should have your ram kit with the frequencies downclocked to DDR3-1600MHz. Oh right, are you on Windows 10? You may also want to see if the rams are as they should be in BIOS.

 

[jloeza75]

Enter BIOS and see if it gives an XMP profile option to enable. You may want to try this first. If there is no XMP, try to manually enter the timings as illustrated in CPU-Z tab jedec, also manually set the voltage at 1.35 or 1.40

I entered into BIOS and could not find anything XMP. CPU-Z will not let me edit values and does not recognize the two sticks of RAM, It just has Slot 1 and Slot 2 but everything is empty. How can I edit on CPU-Z and set voltage? What voltage would I set?

Thanks

---> see images below (sorry for lack of quality)

Image 1: https://imageshack.com/a/img923/1133/tqgiTd.jpg
Image 2: https://imageshack.com/a/img923/5353/idf1oU.jpg

 

[jloeza75]

It's good practice to make sure you're on the latest BIOS revision prior to populating a laptop/system with a ram kit. On that note, bravo, you've done a good job going for a kit since everyone who do mix and match their sticks of ram end up with a near sluggish system or worse, are left to diagnose issues.

You should have your ram kit with the frequencies downclocked to DDR3-1600MHz. Oh right, are you on Windows 10? You may also want to see if the rams are as they should be in BIOS.

Yes, I am running Windows 10 and I saw in BIOS that i have 16GB RAM but I didnt see the two individual 8GB RAM sticks. I do not know what BIOS version I am running nor how to update it, but I can do some reaserch online to see if it is up to date. How can I downclock the speeds to 1600MHz?

Thanks!

---> see images below
Image 1: https://imageshack.com/a/img922/5162/Ji9cWY.png
Image 2: https://imageshack.com/a/img922/9389/984rdg.png

 

[Tolis_GR]

Enter BIOS and see if it gives an XMP profile option to enable. You may want to try this first. If there is no XMP, try to manually enter the timings as illustrated in CPU-Z tab jedec, also manually set the voltage at 1.35 or 1.40

I entered into BIOS and could not find anything XMP. CPU-Z will not let me edit values and does not recognize the two sticks of RAM, It just has Slot 1 and Slot 2 but everything is empty. How can I edit on CPU-Z and set voltage? What voltage would I set?

Thanks

---> see images below (sorry for lack of quality)

Image 1: https://imageshack.com/a/img923/1133/tqgiTd.jpg
Image 2: https://imageshack.com/a/img923/5353/idf1oU.jpg

You cannot enter values in CPU-z. I said to enter them in bios, exactly as shown in CPU-z, SPD tab, JEDEC#4 of 800mhz. (should be 11-11-12-28). Explore bios to extra settings as i cannot see any memory management setting in the menu. Some laptops have them hidden

 

[jloeza75]

You cannot enter values in CPU-z. I said to enter them in bios, exactly as shown in CPU-z, SPD tab, JEDEC#4 of 800mhz. (should be 11-11-12-28). Explore bios to extra settings as i cannot see any memory management setting in the menu. Some laptops have them hidden

I will try, but my SPD tab on CPU-Z is empty, for both slots (1 & 2). What does JEDEC#4 of 800 MHZ mean? I am sorry I am not that great with this stuff. Is the (11-11-12-28) a preset?

Thanks!

---> see image below
Image 1: https://imageshack.com/a/img922/8971/FstdlW.png

 

[Tolis_GR]

You cannot enter values in CPU-z. I said to enter them in bios, exactly as shown in CPU-z, SPD tab, JEDEC#4 of 800mhz. (should be 11-11-12-28). Explore bios to extra settings as i cannot see any memory management setting in the menu. Some laptops have them hidden

I will try, but my SPD tab on CPU-Z is empty, for both slots (1 & 2). What does JEDEC#4 of 800 MHZ mean? I am sorry I am not that great with this stuff. Is the (11-11-12-28) a preset?

Thanks!

---> see image below
Image 1: https://imageshack.com/a/img922/8971/FstdlW.png

Ok, doesn't matter ignore it. 11-11-12-28 are the timings of your ram, as shown in your cpu-z memory of your first post. Each timing has a description i.e tcas etc. Normally in every bios you should be able to find these descriptions and manually edit their values. Change only those that are shown in your cpu-z memory and ignore any other. Still, if you find memory management in your bios, you may see XMP profiles which you should test if they do the trick.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

It's possible that even though the laptop has 2 memory slots it does not support dual channel mode. It's common for laptops to not support it especially lower end ones.

I don't see it specifically mentioned on the HP support page. Maybe try contacting them.

 

[BFG-9000]

Your processor's Beema microarchitecture only has a single-channel memory controller for DDR3L so this is normal.

That's why it only supports up to 16GB, instead of the 32GB that their desktop chips of the time supported.

 

[jloeza75]

Ok, doesn't matter ignore it. 11-11-12-28 are the timings of your ram, as shown in your cpu-z memory of your first post. Each timing has a description i.e tcas etc. Normally in every bios you should be able to find these descriptions and manually edit their values. Change only those that are shown in your cpu-z memory and ignore any other. Still, if you find memory management in your bios, you may see XMP profiles which you should test if they do the trick.

I have searched through the BIOS for a while now, I still can not find anything I can edit those values into or change into. I will try updating my BIOS but if all else fails I think I will just visit a technician.

Thank you!

 

[jloeza75]

It's possible that even though the laptop has 2 memory slots it does not support dual channel mode. It's common for laptops to not support it especially lower end ones.

I don't see it specifically mentioned on the HP support page. Maybe try contacting them.

I do not know how much my laptop was, it was a hs graduation gift from my aunt to help with my college work. I updated the RAM because running Word and PowerPoint plus browsing the web at the same time makes it so slow.. I also like to play minecraft every once in a while but when I do I get lots of lag. I seemed to have misplaced the manual because I can not find it. Anyhow, here is the product page for my laptop.

Thanks!

---> http://scn.by/9t9ab0htw8kehq

 

[jloeza75]

Your processor's Beema microarchitecture only has a single-channel memory controller for DDR3L so this is normal.

That's why it only supports up to 16GB, instead of the 32GB that their desktop chips of the time supported.

Does this mean my only option is Single Channel? If so is it bad that I bought the 16GB kit? Will this affect the speed of the RAM greatly?

Thanks!

 

[BFG-9000]

It means it's not HP's fault, AMD chose to only wire a single channel to their SoC to make the platform cheaper.

With such low processor performance it can hardly matter--the applications that benefit most from memory bandwidth are compression (Winzip) and games. I think you can agree that is not a suitable gaming system anyway.

 

[jloeza75]

It means it's not HP's fault, AMD chose to only wire a single channel to their SoC to make the platform cheaper.

With such low processor performance it can hardly matter--the applications that benefit most from memory bandwidth are compression (Winzip) and games. I think you can agree that is not a suitable gaming system anyway.

I agree, by far one of the worst things to game on. I only use it for school work however, (rarely play Minecraft on it) I just hope it reduces the sluggishness when I use various apps at once.

I will follow up with HP Support and ask if there is anything I can do about it, but I am now sure that is the answer.

Thank you all!