laptop ram failed, need advice

[team flex]

OK, so im not entirely new to pcs, and know my way around them. However, my old laptop, a sony vaio 2010, has recently failed. It is not the first time and has been dropped so is remarkable that it is still going. However, i have data on there i would like to keep, and i would like a back up laptop anyway before i get a new one. So, when it recently failed i cleaned it up and tried to work out what was wrong. After accidentally not putting a stick of ram in, it worked. however, at this point it only had about 700mb of usable ram, which is ridiculous obviously as windows 8 alone needs 500+mb.... so, a 2gb stick isn't working. I honestly don't think i can do anything as it looks fine, i think i need to buy some more

just for pointers, the ram that failed is elpida 2gb 2rx8 pc3 10600s 9-10 f1... it had 1 stick of this and 1 stick of 1gb ram. I know they are both budget, but i was thinking, as it looks to be £10 or more for it, i may as well get some more ram with it, so, i was wondering, what ram would work with the sony? idm if its from ebay, new but i don't want to fork out a lot as i won't use the laptop much

tl;dr, ram like elpida 2gb 2rx8 pc3 10600s 9-10 f1 that would work with sony vaio 2010, model http/www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-EE3E0E-Laptop-Athlon-Premium/dp/B00452UCLQ

laptop: http/www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-EE3E0E-Laptop-Athlon-Premium/dp/B00452UCLQ
ram: http/www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=&_osacat=170083&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xelpida+2gb+2rx8+pc3+10600s+9-10+f1.TRS0&_nkw=elpida+2gb+2rx8+pc3+10600s+9-10+f1&_sacat=170083

cheers

 

[Prostar Computer]

I don't think the Vaios have any memory brand blacklists. You should be able to stick any brand in there as long as the specifications of the memory are in line with what the laptop supports.

Key points:

1. Don't mix brands or specs between sticks. Either match the specs and name on your remaining, working RAM, or replace all of it with the brand of your choosing.
2. You can usually get more value/bang for your buck by purchasing RAM in bundles (a pack of 2 x 2 GB or 2 x 4 GB, for example).
3. Reputable brands for laptop memory: Kingston, Samsung, G.Skill, and to a lesser extent, Crucial and Corsair.

If you had a specific question and I missed, I apologise. I didn't see one. It seemed like you were simply looking for advice.

 

[Barty1884]

Looks like 8GB is the max ram for the laptop posted.

Definitely worth maxing it out and as Prostar suggested, replace both sticks with 2x4GB of the same brand/model/timings to run dual channel.

As far as brands, Prostar listed the reputable ones - in my opinion, for non high-end laptops "ram is ram". As long as the retailer has a refund/replacement policy on the rare chance you get ram DOA, then you should be fine.

I used this in my old Acer Aspire 5733:

http/www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMSO8GX3M2C1600C11-1600Mhz-Mainstream-Notebook/dp/B00EKFH11C/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1437687535&sr=1-4&keywords=2x4gb+DDR3+soDIMM

Under 40quid total.

 

[team flex]

thanks both of you, you would be suprised it was actually hardware reserved... here is the new thread/problem

http/www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2736777/laptop-reserving-3gb-6gb-ram.html