Oct 31

What is the difference between SDRAM and SODIMM RAM?

SmartA$$ asked:

I bought a RAM chip to upgrade my Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop, I put in my model number and they guarenteed it would be the right RAM.

What they sent me was SODIMM and it didn’t work. When I called Dell they told me it was the wrong kind and I need SDRAM? But when I call the company that I bought the RAM from they said that as long as it physically fits the computer it is the correct kind. The RAM does fit and properly snap into the slot but the computer won’t recognize it.

I have updated my BIOS to the latest revision and it still doesn’t work.

Do I have the wrong RAM? or is there something else I need to do to get it to work?

' rel='external nofollow'>Scottso Says:
November 1st, 2008 at 5:59 am

rofl “as long as it physically fits the computer it is the correct kind”

they dont know what they are talking about

u shud pay a visit to crucial.com, they have a thing similar to other sites where you can punch in the model of ur computer (i.e. inspiron 5100) and they will list all their compatible products as well as which ones would be recomended AS WELL as give you information on your pc like whether or not it supports dual channel or requires matching pairs

jcjunkact Says:
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:24 pm

you may have a bad module or the ram may be too slow.

however what they said is correct, if it fits it will work. the only ram that fits laptops is sodimm or small outline dimm. the desktops sdram will not fit.

the ram standard for the 5100 is 266 mhz or pc2100. if the number on your ram module is less than 266 or 2100 its too slow.
take the processor you have and check the fsb (533). divide fsb by 2(266). if the ram speed is more than one step lower than fsb/2 then its too slow.

also if you bought a 1gb module, the maximum is 1 gb so you need 2 x 512 mb modules. the larger module will not be supported.

otherwise you just got bad modules

Tyler H Says:
November 5th, 2008 at 12:34 am

you got the right kind its just that there are pc133 ram pc100 and more you might of got the wrong one i would check the old ram to see…..there should be a sticker on it

Mike C Says:
November 6th, 2008 at 10:36 pm

SODIMM is the small outline version of SDRAM so is correct for a laptop.
Your computer has a maximum memory of 512MB have you tried something bigger than this. The two slots have a max of 256MB each.

Mark Says:
November 8th, 2008 at 3:53 pm

SODIMM is the correct typ of memory for Notebooks. I think your problem may be with the speed of memory they sent. Perhaps look at the sticker on the old sticks of memory to see if they match what they sent you.

In any case, SODIMMS are notched a specific way, If the memory fits Then its definately the right type. SDRAM would be roughly twice as long.

Here is a link to some matching memory for your laptop.

Its seems you’ve only bought One single Memory chip. You may want to find out from Dell if your computer will work with a single chip, or if it needs to be in pairs.

Also, have you met your size limit for your memory slot? For example, if the most you can have per slot is 512mb , and you bought a 1GB single chip, the RAM won’t register.