What happens if I upgrade more than the laptop's supported RAM capacity?

[milesuy]

I have an HP 520 Laptop. It currently has a "hynix 512MB 2Rx16 PC2 5300S-555-12" RAM stick. I am planning to upgrade the laptop, and I found out that it only supports up to 2GB RAM (as mentioned here: https://www.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/hp---compaq/hp-520).

 

I am in the Philippines, and I can only find 2GB sticks online. What happens if I install 2 sticks of 2GB RAM?

[Guest]

A couple things could happen.

 

It may just not post.

Will post show all memory, but only use one of the sticks.

It might even just work just fine with additional memory, but least likely to occur. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

It really depends, there are a few possibilities

-It works fine, with more than the rated ram. Lots of system support more ram than listed, and the listed ram was the max that was tested or was available at the time.

-It won't post

-Your limited to the rated max.

[Theguywhobea]

It'll probably work fine, I've seen laptops before not have issues with going over what the manufacturer suggested as the max. I can't imagine you are paying a lot for laptop DDR2 RAM so it's probably worth the risk.

[milesuy]

If the laptop works, will it make use of both RAM sticks?

[D13H4RD]

Sometimes, when the manufacturers specifies the highest supported, they may only mean the highest supported at the time.

 

In those cases, so as long as it adheres to the same standard, higher capacities of that same standard should work just fine.