[SOLVED] Inspiron 15 N5040 RAM upgrade compatibility

Mar 14, 2020
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I have a Dell Inspiron 15 N5040 with 3GB of RAM (2GB of Hynix HMT325S6BFR8C-H9 and 1GB of another brand).

I used Crucial's recommendations to find out it can take up to 8GB. Money is tight, so rather than buying from Crucial I got 2 second hand 4GB sticks with specifications which I thought matched Crucial's as well as the current RAM (DDR3 1333MHZ 1.5V)

The RAM I bought second hand:
Kingston KCP313SS8/4
Kingston KTL-TP3BS/4G

I tried installing both sticks and also one stick at a time. The Window 10 boot screen appears for a second then the laptop blue screens and restarts itself and this cycle continues. When I go into the BIOS it shows 8GB of RAM, it just won't boot. When I put the original RAM back in everything is ok.

Any thoughts of what I've done wrong and could try next would be appreciated :)
 
Solution
Have you tried holding down the power button (while battery is removed) before attempting the installation? Have you tried both of the slots?
If the sticks are not broken, I don't see why they won't work. As a last resort, try to reset the bios.

sdedu77

Respectable
Dec 9, 2018
325
54
2,040
Have you tried holding down the power button (while battery is removed) before attempting the installation? Have you tried both of the slots?
If the sticks are not broken, I don't see why they won't work. As a last resort, try to reset the bios.
 
Solution
Mar 14, 2020
2
0
10
Have you tried holding down the power button (while battery is removed) before attempting the installation? Have you tried both of the slots?
If the sticks are not broken, I don't see why they won't work. As a last resort, try to reset the bios.

Thanks for the advice. I tried doing a power drain and inserting the sticks into each slot but no luck. I went into the setup menu on booting and ran a self test, when it reached the memory section the screen degraded into a fuzz and froze so I can only think the sticks are broken.

I think I’ll just bite the bullet and order from Crucial!