5680 memory upgrade...anyone ever have any luck?

Criminey, but this notebook is finicky...I've tried two seperate brands thus far, rated pc3200, 3 cas, and this laptop just will not boot up with anything other than what it came with.

I am beginning to give up hope on getting this up to a gig (supports up to 2gig supposedly).

The memory I have are 2 Apacer 256mb, CAS 3 modules, but have not been able to get similarly branded 512 sticks anywhere.

So, I tried some Adata and Patriot, no luck. Anyone have any luck with anything else?

Happen to know the model number? Did you use pc3200 or pc2700

This is what my current memory reads

Chipset Information :
Type :DDR-SDRAM PC3200
Frequency :200 MHz
FSB/RAM Multiplier :1/1x
Channels :Dual
Mode :Linear
PAT Enabled :No
ECC Diagnostic :No
CAS Latency (tCL) :3 clocks
RAS to CAS (tRCD) :4 clocks
RAS Precharge (tRP) :4 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS) :8 clocks

According to that, the Kingston Value Ram I've seen might have problems, as the voltage, RAS to CAS, RAS Precharge and Cycle time do not match--or can I expect the faster ram to clock down?

I've always been a bugger about my RAM timings, sticking close to stock

pc wizard, from the makers of cpuid

http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

You need not open it up....The info is right there. You are running pc2100 ram in one slot and pc2700 ram in the other. You are not only running below specification, but you are running with mismatched speeds, forcing your faster pc2700 ram to clock down to pc2100.

And, you've disabled dual channel memory.

I am sure it is very stable, but you are taking a hit in performance (though it is arguable that in real world applications you will really not notice if).

Interesting, how did this come about. Two different people just give you some RAM?

I have been leaning toward just chucking the pc3200 and going with two sticks of pc2700....

THose look perfect, and match exactly a pair of patriot sodimms I put in. 2.5CAS, 4 ras to cas, 4 rad precharge, and 8 cycle time.

Thank you very much. This confirms that I am just unlucky, I guess, getting two different ram batches that were bad.

Well, the long dark saga of gerryf's laptop memory upgrade travails has come to a successful conclusion.

I was never able to find a supplier of apacer memory on the internet or locally, and after multiple brands of pc3200 had all but given up.

Tried Crucial, Corsair, Kingston, Adata, Patriot, Pny, and Centon (the last two under GREAT protest--I have never had a good experience with Centon and Pny has been limited).

I got lucky, actually, when I hit a local PC store for some old pc133 ram for an old computer I was refurbing for an elderly woman down the street. The guy had a couple of 512mb AllComponent ram marked pc3200 with no added info....he didn't know the timings, or voltage.

What the heck, so I popped the keyboard out in the car dropped the ram in and was stunned to see it boot up! Not only did it boot, it ran 20+passes on memtest86+ all night without a failure.

Here are the specs for those who care:
For those who come after:
I was next going to try www.oempcworld.com, which claims to have available pc3200 that will work in the d500p, which is the Clevo name for the Sager 5680...for what it is worth, Sager also sells some ram in their accessories section for $80 that I completely missed the first time through.

I paid $56 each for the AllComponent, but the time and frustration of finding the ram, not to mention the cost of shipping or driving all the non-compatible ram back probably puts the end cost of each stick closer to $65.