Hello;

I have had a Compaq Presario 1500 laptop for about 2 years now, and I am quite un-satisfied when it comes to multi-tasking several applications at the same time. Sometimes it is so slow that I cannot minimize a full-screen application to read up on something on the net. I currently only have 256 megs of ram, but I read on the internet that tihs model could have up to 1 gigabyte. This is great, but therein lies my question. The laptop has two ram slots, one of which has been empty since i got the computer. Could I get a gig of ram and still keep the 256y meg stick as an added boost? or is the 1 gig the maximum for both slots?

Well if your laptop supports a maximum of 1gb then that means 512mb per RAM slot.
Here are a few links on Newegg which is the Maximum Memory you could get for your Laptop. This is if you are in USA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145482
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134037
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820172102

if you are tec minded and the presario has a 915 intel chipset just do a pin mod!!

you can put at least 2gb, but read the ram guide in the guides forum first.

Thank you for your replies. i'll be sure to look into them.

@ woody: Thank you for the links. I have been looking at RAM here at canadian retailers, and it's $20 for 512 mb, but it's probably not as good quality as the $25. then again, I don't know much about RAM, and what the difference is between the speeds and whatnot. all i know is that for an additional $15, you can get 677 mhz ram instead of 400mhz or something.

@ insoman my computer is like 5 years old, and I believe the 915g chipset is for desktop PCs (mine is a notebook).

I don't think your Motherboard will support 400mhz or 667mhz according to this link the maximum your Motherboard can support is 1gb of RAM or 512mb per slot at 266mhz - http://www.memorystock.com/memory/CompaqPresario1500Series.html

Try downloading this and go to the Hardware area and look at Memory it will tell you what frequencies your Motherboard can support - http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html

But what i linked you might be the max it can support.

alright, thanks for the link.

Downloaded siw, used it, and the situation is sadder than i thought.

.. 133 mhz is the fastest i can go. rofl.

would the lower frequency make it cost less? do they even make 122mhz ram any more?

No i should have said you have to double the number it shows, DDR stands for Double Data Rate - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR_SDRAM here is a link to read about it.
Anyway the number it shows you double it and that is your maximum Bus Speed for your RAM. So i did link you the top RAM you could buy in the first place and now that is confirmed.

Your Maximum RAM - DDR 512mb PC2100 @ 266mhz (2 cards Max)

I don't know any Canadian Retailers so just look for what i said.

You could follow the guidelines here:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...product=95163&docname=c00536914#c00536914_doc