One DDR3 SODIMM slot, want more memory. How do I piggybag smaller modules together?

[MyReallyLongishDisplayName]

Is it possible connect two memory modules together with fixed length solid jumpers / wedges for fixed length signal routes/multiplexing? I fixed a broken Lenovo Yoga 500 with 8GB installed, only one memory slot. I installed Ubuntu 22.04, performance sucked, needed more memory,  made a search for extra memory and found out that larger DDR3 laptop memory modules cost a lot. There are probably some dual channel, etc. options to exploit? I am fully aware that two modules do not just simply and gently snap into one slot, I don't care, I am asking how to force the fit anyway.

[BondiBlue]

Does the laptop have an SSD installed? On a clean Linux installation I very highly doubt that "only" having 8GB of RAM is causing any performance issues. Even a distro like Ubuntu will run fine with a lot less. 

[jaslion]

14 minutes ago, MyReallyLongishDisplayName said:

I am asking how to force the fit anyway.

Not possible

[MyReallyLongishDisplayName]

7 minutes ago, BondiBlue said:

Does the laptop have an SSD installed?

It had 240GB SSD with Windows, I replaced it with a new ST1000LM048 1T Barracuda traditional drive. I know SSD would increase performance, but I don't think 8GB is enough. I am going to need the space.

I want to use the computer to store / record  / process lectures.  My workflow is Kazam, which was not working on default 22.04 install, for recording the Zoom / Teams video, ffmpeg for compression and cutting, Audacity for removing silence and changing playback speed in order to listen the lectures faster later in my phone. I needed a cheap setup, something to carry with me while physically in the lecture room attending hybrid lectures and still be able to record the lectures. 

 

 

[MyReallyLongishDisplayName]

12 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Not possible

Why? Is it a signaling / memory controller related issue?

[jaslion]

11 minutes ago, MyReallyLongishDisplayName said:

Why? Is it a signaling / memory controller related issue?

The board expects a single memory controller not 2. It wont know what to do.

[jaslion]

19 minutes ago, MyReallyLongishDisplayName said:

I replaced it with a new ST1000LM048 1T Barracuda traditional drive

This is the issue. Add the ssd back and whatch it fly. That hdd is like amongst the slowest current new hdds you can get.

[mariushm]

Yes, not possible. Chipset/cpu can only work with certain chip sizes and chip amounts.

A stick of ram is 64 bit wide, which means they can make a stick with a minimum of 4 ram chips if the individual chips are 16 bit wide, or most often they use 8 chips that are each 8 bit wide.

 

A group of such chips may also be called a rank... so a stick 1Rx8 would be one rank using chips that are 8 bit wide. A stick with 16 chips will be most likely 2Rx8 dual rank, two groups of chips.

 

Server processors may support quad rank, 4 groups of chips but laptop processors generally are limited to one or two ranks and lower frequencies, to save power.

 

The individual ram chips are only manufactured in certain sizes, for ddr3 the maximum is 1 GB per ram chip (8 gbit). They don't fabricate bigger chips.

 

[da na]

That is literally the worst new hard drive you can buy, the SSD is much faster. Put it back in. 

8GB should def be enough for Ubuntu.

[Heliian]

Lenovo yoga 500 can handle up to 8gb of ram, you are at max already. 

[BondiBlue]

36 minutes ago, MyReallyLongishDisplayName said:

It had 240GB SSD with Windows, I replaced it with a new ST1000LM048 1T Barracuda traditional drive.

That's your main issue. You replaced the SSD with an extremely slow hard drive. Using an SSD will speed it up a lot. There's nothing you can do about the memory though. You can't just forcibly add two sticks when the system can only use one. 

[MyReallyLongishDisplayName]

48 minutes ago, Heliian said:

Lenovo yoga 500 can handle up to 8gb of ram, you are at max already. 

That's clearly what Lenovo says or what is supported. I searched and found a few references to 16 GB Yoga 500. Perhaps 8GB was all that was available when Yoga 500 was launched / documented and most of the users just took the limitation for granted?

[Middcore]

6 minutes ago, MyReallyLongishDisplayName said:

That's clearly what Lenovo says or what is supported. I searched and found a few references to 16 GB Yoga 500. Perhaps 8GB was all that was available when Yoga 500 was launched / documented and most of the users just took the limitation for granted?

 

I can't imagine what solution you think someone is going to suggest to make multiple RAM modules act like one and fit into a space designed for one.

 

If you want more than the 8GB of RAM you've got, your options are:

 

1. Buy a single 16GB or greater RAM module

2. (There is no 2)

 

And even that is iffy to say the least if the documented max supported memory is 8GB. 

 

1TB 2.5" SSD's can be had for as little as ~$60, 500GB ones for under $40. I dearly hope you didn't put money into acquiring that piece of shit spinning rust Barracuda when you you say more RAM is too expensive. 

 

 

[MyReallyLongishDisplayName]

46 minutes ago, BondiBlue said:

That's your main issue. You replaced the SSD with an extremely slow hard drive. Using an SSD will speed it up a lot. There's nothing you can do about the memory though. You can't just forcibly add two sticks when the system can only use one. 

I remembered the word I used in the topic wrong. The correct word I was looking for was piggypacking. The technique was used to repair or upgrade memory for onboard memory chips by attaching a new memory chip on top of the old chip. Repair required disabling the broken chip, upgrade required wiring extra address line to the chips. My assumption is that most of the memory lines are still shared by differend DDR3 modules. Perhaps the same concept once used for discrete memory chips could be used to piggypack DDR3L memory modules?

[MyReallyLongishDisplayName]

2 minutes ago, Middcore said:

 

I can't imagine what solution you think someone is going to suggest to make multiple RAM modules act like one and fit into a space designed for one.

 

If you want more than the 8GB of RAM you've got, your options are:

 

1. Buy a single 16GB or greater RAM module

2. (There is no 2)

 

And even that is iffy to say the least if the documented max supported memory is 8GB. 

 

1TB 2.5" SSD's can be had for as little as ~$60, 500GB ones for under $40. I dearly hope you didn't put money into acquiring that piece of shit spinning rust Barracuda when you you say more RAM is too expensive. 

 

 

Have you checked the prices of 16GB laptop DDR3 SODIMM memory modules recently?

Edited August 16, 2022 by MyReallyLongishDisplayName
Word laptop missing

[Guest]

The motherboard chipset only supports up to 8GB of memory period.

 

You can solder and shove as much memory as you want, 8GB is all that will show up. 

 

 

[MyReallyLongishDisplayName]

1 minute ago, Guest 5150 said:

The motherboard chipset only supports up to 8GB of memory period.

 

You can solder and shove as much memory as you want, 8GB is all that will show up. 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Heliian said:

Lenovo yoga 500 can handle up to 8gb of ram, you are at max already. 

I tried dmidecode and it said that the maximum size of the memory array is 8GB. This unfortunately supports the 8GB maximum memory limit. As suggested by the others, SSD is then the easiest way to gain more speed.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, MyReallyLongishDisplayName said:

SSD is then the easiest way to gain more speed.

Or sell it and use the funds to invest in something much more recent than 6th Gen Intel from 6 generations ago.... 

 

And SSD won't make read and writes to memory faster, and it won't make the cpu have better IPC either. 

 

Just my two cents, take it as you need.

[MyReallyLongishDisplayName]

11 minutes ago, MyReallyLongishDisplayName said:

 

I tried dmidecode and it said that the maximum size of the memory array is 8GB. This unfortunately supports the 8GB maximum memory limit. As suggested by the others, SSD is then the easiest way to gain more speed.

 

9 minutes ago, Guest 5150 said:

Or sell it and use the funds to invest in something much more recent than 6th Gen Intel from 6 generations ago.... 

 

And SSD won't make read and writes to memory faster, and it won't make the cpu have better IPC either. 

 

Just my two cents, take it as you need.

Googling suggested that Yoga 500-14IBD has Intel HM87 chipset. Quick google search suggested that this specific chipset has a maximum memory limitation of 32GB. 8GB limit is for one module only. I need to do some reading, if this is enough for expanding the memory or if the full set of lines to the memory controller is actually required for adding an extra module.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, MyReallyLongishDisplayName said:

 

Googling suggested that Yoga 500-14IBD has Intel HM87 chipset. Quick google search suggested that this specific chipset has a maximum memory limitation of 32GB. 8GB limit is for one module only. I need to do some reading, if this is enough for expanding the memory or if the full set of lines to the memory controller is actually required for adding an extra module.

OK, let me rephrase that. 

 

The proprietary bios and lack of dimm slots makes it impossible. 

[Blue4130]

1 hour ago, MyReallyLongishDisplayName said:

 

Googling suggested that Yoga 500-14IBD has Intel HM87 chipset. Quick google search suggested that this specific chipset has a maximum memory limitation of 32GB. 8GB limit is for one module only. I need to do some reading, if this is enough for expanding the memory or if the full set of lines to the memory controller is actually required for adding an extra module.

The chipset has that limit across 4 slots. You have one slot. You can't add three extra slots needed for more ram. 

 

2 hours ago, MyReallyLongishDisplayName said:

I remembered the word I used in the topic wrong. The correct word I was looking for was piggypacking. The technique was used to repair or upgrade memory for onboard memory chips by attaching a new memory chip on top of the old chip. Repair required disabling the broken chip, upgrade required wiring extra address line to the chips. My assumption is that most of the memory lines are still shared by differend DDR3 modules. Perhaps the same concept once used for discrete memory chips could be used to piggypack DDR3L memory modules?

Piggybacking you mentioned... Notice that they disabled one chip and replaced it. They didn't just add a chip onto an already working chip. They essentially were too lazy to remove a chip before replacing. 

[jaslion]

10 hours ago, MyReallyLongishDisplayName said:

 

Googling suggested that Yoga 500-14IBD has Intel HM87 chipset. Quick google search suggested that this specific chipset has a maximum memory limitation of 32GB. 8GB limit is for one module only. I need to do some reading, if this is enough for expanding the memory or if the full set of lines to the memory controller is actually required for adding an extra module.

32gb across 4 slots. You can add a 16gb stick and it either wont work or will only allow 8gb to be used. This laptop cannot understand more.

 

Having a decent ssd will mean it will have some decently fast virtual memory and that will greatly help. But again a basic ubuntu install runs fine on my ancient i5 4200u 4gb of ram windows tablet with a 128gb ssd but was slow on my dell with a i5 4200m 12gb of ram with a 500gb sshd till I slapped in a full ssd.

 

That dell has double the cpu power and triple the ram but modern ubuntu ran like crap on it as it expects flash storage now.

 

Windows is the only os that up till earlier versions of 10 was still ok with using hdds as boot drives. Now with later versions of 10 and 11 hard drives just dont cut it and the systems are nearly unusable yet awfully slow emmc laptops work faster simply because their random data acessing is leagues ahead of any hdd even if their average read and write performance for big files is worse.

 

Linux has embraced flash storage for decades and in the last 5 years the leaving behind of hdds as boot drives became very clear. Yes it can still run on a hdd and thats perfectly fine for a system that is just supposed to execute some tasks but the moment you as a user want to use it as a regular desktop you run into issues.

 

So just add that ssd back and your problems will 99% sure just vanish. Worst case if you are on the latest and greatest ubuntu you just have to drop to the lts version.

 

Oh btw that toshiba is so crap that if you pick up and put your laptop down a bit too hard whilst its running it will just die. 2.5 inch hdds became really fragile ever since they became obsolete as storage mediums for laptops.