Anyone tried Studio XPS 1645 with 8GBx2?

I hope I can upgrade my XPS to 16GB. I installed Corsair 8GBx2. My Win7 Ultimate x64 could boot and detect 16GB correctly. However, it's super slow, about 10 times slower. I can't bear it.

Anyway to let 16GB RAM work properly? I have upgraded the BIOS to A13, also upgraded ATI driver to the latest one, but no help. I guess some peripherals caused the problem, the CPU and PM55 should support 16GB, otherwise the Windows won't boot.

I tried 8GBx1, it worked perfectly. But 8GB+4GB had the same problem.

I also tried to boot into safe mode, same symptom.

Did anyone experience the same issue?

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Studio XPS 1645, 1920X1080P, i7-Q820, ATI4670 1GB, Blu-ray, 4GBx2, 256GB SSD

 

My only suggestion is. Test for bad ram module?

 

Thanks. I've already tested the ram using memtest on the same laptop. No issue found.

 

I'm also interested by this issue, because i'm thinking about putting more than 8GB RAM in my SXPS 1645 since the 8GB DDR3 module's price is quite low now.

@benben888 : Did you try to install a fresh copy of windows or by any chance find out what is causing this slowness with 12GB or 16GB RAM installed ? Thanks a lot !

 

How much free space do you have on your SSD? Because windows hibernation use as GB of HDD/SSD as GB of RAM.

If you google you aren't the only one with 16GB RAM problem

 

I sent an email to DELL's technical support service in France, hoping they could clarify the reason of this issue, or better, propose some workaround or fix.

 

hey i know this isnt the thread but im a new and you guys seem to have working 1645's. mines so hot it shuts down but i downloaded the lasest bios ad no difference. if you can help or point me in right direction that would be great

 

DELL France didn't respond my question...

When reading things about Windows's limit for maximum RAM supported, I noticed that Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit only support 16GB RAM, maybe it could be the reason of high CPU usage...

Never mind, benben888 is using Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit, which supports 192GB RAM, and this didn't work properly.

Re: Studio XPS 1645 16GB(8GBx2) support - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

As mentionned in this post above, Ubuntu works fine with 16GB RAM, so there is no hardware problem, otherwise Windows can not boot. So what's wrong exactly with Windows+Studio XPS 1645???

 

Anyone tried Ubuntu 64bit with 16GB RAM? The guy who claimed Ubuntu works with 16GB RAM didn't say any details.
I have installed Ubuntu 12.04 64Bit in my 2nd HDD, but I have no 16GB RAM in hand.

 

Ask DELL for a replacement if your laptop is still under warranty. They only replaced my motherboard, not the whole. :-(

 

I am going to be receiving 2-8GB modules from Newegg on Thursday (2days) so I will try it out on my notebook. I have a Studio XPS 1647 with an i5 by the way.

After I try it out I will let you all now how it turns out for me.

 

The 1st Gen Core i5/i7s that we have only officially support 8GB of RAM, as evidenced by Intel's spec page for your chip: Intel® Coreâ„¢ i7-820QM Processor (8M Cache, 1.73 GHz)

It may recognize the 16GB, but the CPU may not be able to handle all 16GB correctly, which may be the source of your problem.

I guess we'll see for sure when trebills reports his results.

 

trebills, did you get a chance to test out the 2x8GB DIMMs yet?

 

Yes, I did last night I replied from my phone must not of went through. the results were that it did not work at all for me. I first put 16GB in and my notebook just went on a constant reboot cycle. then I tried 1-8GB stick and it started to actually boot into windows and then I got BSOD and then it rebooted. After I put my old 2-4GB sticks in everything was fine again.

Didn't try it with Ubuntu but if it doesn't work with Windows 7 no real point in using it at all, for me anyways.

I did upgrade to a SSD last night and that seemed to help my systems performance a lot. (hard drive WEI went from 5.9 to 7.7, System WEI went from 5.9 to 6.7) So look into that if you want some extra performance.

Bottom line- 16GB Doesn't work at all on the Dell Studio XPS 1647 ( And I am sure this would be the same for the 1640 and 1645)

EDIT: I tried loading Ubuntu (12.04) and the live CD booted fine and i was able to use it normally. However, when running the Ubuntu installer it would fail. Kinda weird that Ubuntu live CD works but Windows CD won't.

 

Many thanks to trebills for your posts.

Actually 8GB of RAM is quite sufficient today (1 VM or 1 3D Game at once + not large RamDisk) and when the day it comes to be insufficient, i would just replace my XPS 1645.

 

Yea 8GB seems to get it done. I was building a ROM on my Ubuntu VM while playing around with a Windows 8 VM the other day. I had 200mb free. Lowest I've ever seen it. On the day to day running one VM I would still have about 3GB free.

I just need a desktop.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

Sounds like your 1647 even worses than my 1645. At least my Windows 7 can boot without crash.

If I could have 16GB running, I would disable the page file, enable a 2GB ramdisk to store temp files and Internet temp files, and will never run out of memory.

 

I have got my 8GB*2 kit this week and tried it on my Studio XPS 1645 :

on existing Windows 7 32bit (kernal patched to support up to 128gb ram) and 64bit, system performance was extremely low like everyone here

and then i tried a fresh install of windows 8 consumer preview 64bit, oddly enough, it runs without problem.

i will try to install a fresh copy of windows 7 64bit and see if it woks normally

 

If you ever get around to doing a clean windows 7 install, let us know.

 

I believe there must be sth wrong with Windows 7 drivers. Good luck!

 

I tried a fresh install of Windows 7 64bit, still working very slowly, just like existing ones. Actually in throttlestop, you can see C0% is always 100% or near 100% no matter how high you adjust cpu frequency.

And in Windows 8 Consumer Preview 64bit, it works way much better than in windows 7, but it still have some issues :

Boot up time (5400rpm HDD) : with 8GB RAM, it is around 40 to 70 sec, and with 16GB RAM, it takes more like 3min10sec to 3min30sec to arrive at desktop

SuperPi 1M : I know it is a single thread test but it shows a performance down here - with 8GB RAM, i can reach 10,815sec, and with 16GB RAM, the best i got is 11,189sec. This is roughly 3,3% of performance down. Actually with 8GB RAM, it goes easily under 11sec, and it is not possible when 16GB RAM is installed

IE10 : With 16GB RAM installed, IE nearly always crashes when i try to launch it first time after boot (not immediately), and it will work fine after this crash; but with 8GB RAM, it just doesn't crash so easily. No heavy usage scenario is tested here, it crashes nearly randomly.

"Software Protection" system service : sppsvc.exe often occupies 12 to 13% of cpu usage with 16GB RAM installed (1 logical core fully occupied out of 8), and it doesn't happen with 8GB RAM installed

Superfetch system service : when it is enabled, svchost.exe does same thing like sppsvc.exe when 16GB RAM is installed. This is not a issue for me as i always disable it. But i just couldn't disable "Software Protection" service, and it never caught my attention before in windows 7.


So in conclusion : with 16GB RAM, it works in Windows 8 but not as well as with 8GB RAM

I will install Windows 8 RTM when i got time, and test it with more real life scenarios.

 

To me, it looks like there is something at the mainboard or bios level that just doesn't like 16GB of RAM or that doesn't like 8GB SODIMMs. I know of users successfully running 16GB or RAM in their G73s, but we have 4 SODIMM sockets, so i am running a 4x4GB configuration rather than a 2x8GB one.

I remember of older laptops in the XP era where the amount of RAM was actually bios locked of all things.

 

Actually there are plenty of laptop models equipped with PM55 chipset and Clarksfield CPU who support 16GB RAM flawlessly out there : HP Envy 15, ASUS G73, Toshiba X505, DELL M17x-R2, etc.

I don't know whether they are all equipped with 4 SODIMM slots or not (Envy 15 does), but it is still disappointing for me that Studio XPS 1645 can not support it well.

 

G73JH is 4 sockets (i got one), the m17x also has 4 sockets. The G73JH is also HM55 rather than PM55 and things still work fine. I could always try a 2x8GB set in my G73 once i order it for my M6700.

 

That would be very interesting to see how other laptops with PM55+Clarksfield would perform with 8GB*2 RAM installed.

Looking forward to see your test results, please keep us posted.

Thanks in advance

 

I'll be trying with 2x4GB + 2x8GB actually, windows HP will not allow me to use more than 16GB, but getting to the RAM socket on the other side of the mobo is too much of a pain so i'll leave the 2x4GB in. I won't have results for this for a couple of days, unless my M6700 ships before wednesday, i will order the RAM on that day just in case my favorite e-tailer has a deal on the vengeance sodimms. I will post an update once i try it.

 

hello, any news ?

 

Tested on Windows 8 RTM, same issues.

 

The 16GB RAM now is lower than $50, what' a pity I can't use it! I should buy Envy 15 3 years ago.

 

Lucky for me that Crucial accepted my RMA and refunded me, so I don't have to have 16GB spare RAM with no use, for which I paid over 70 euros.