SL510 - 8 gigs of RAM and Drive Bay Adapter

[rootbeer506]

Everywhere online shows these laptops as capable of supporting 8 gigs of ram. I have 2 of these dumb things, so I took the 2 gig stick out of one, and put it in the other (making 4 gigs total) and then ordered 2 x 4 gigs for mine, making 8 gigs total. Crucial DDR3 PC8500 ram. Nothing fancy, but should easily be compatiable. With both sticks in, it just beeps and won't post. It works fine with either single stick in, or a 4gig and a 2 gig stick (6 total). When I called Tech support to ask, I was told it only supports 4 gigs, which I proved wrong with my 6gig theory. Also, I put a 60gig solid state drive in it, and I'd like to turn the CD drive into a hard drive bay to put the standard 250gig hard drive in for movies and other media. Anyone know of one that will fit?

[Maliha Community Moderator]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Is your BIOS current? http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?LegacyDocID=MIGR-73436

As for 2nd HDD, lenovo hasn't released or claimed any Bay adapter is compatible with SL series but according to one user the ThinkPad Serial Hard Drive Bay Adapter III works great on SL500:- http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/SL-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/sl500-second-hdd/m-p/154465#M4353

SL500 and SL510 use optical drive of same size and architecture.

[rootbeer506]

Ahh, it probably isn't. I just assumed it was. I'll get on that.

Thanks for the help!

I have a buddy that has a T series (One that will definitley work with that sata III bay thing) I talked to him and I'm going to order it. If it works for me, he'll order another one, if it doesn't, he'll buy it from me. So looks like I'm going to be all set.

[rootbeer506]

Updated bios did not fix the 8gig problem. I'm updated to the 1.46 in the BIOS screen.

The beep pattern I'm getting on the 8 gigs of ram is 4-4-1-2 for what it's worth. Any more ideas? Once agian, works fine with 6gigs, doesn't work at all with 8.

[ColonelONeill]

I've heard occasional reports of certain manufacturers having problems with 2x4GB (usually Corsair) in ThinkPads...

[dflow21]

Are you using Window 7 and if so is it the 64bit version? I had a similar problem after upgrading to 8gigs in my sl510.

Also a 2hdd in the drive bay works. I have an Ocz 120gig ssd as my main and the original 250gig hdd in the drive bay.

I picked the adapter up on amazon, just make sure the one you get matches the dvd drive's sata connections placement.

[grazuncle]

Hi all

my experience with SSD and memory match the above too.

I didn't have to do anything with the BIOS.. I just bought a single 4GB stick and fitted another single I had from an Acer  laptop that couldn't use it with the win7 32bit system (it was sold with 8Gb!!!)

JUst fitted an OCZ agility 3 120Gb drive.. I only have 25Gb left after removing the 320Gb so just ordered an Ultra Bay off eBay.. £15 inc post. will take about 1 week to ten days t arrive. It mentions the SL510 I have, specifically.

With the SSD I might use the laptop for photo editing with PS after all

Keep you posted

[alex1906 Support Specialist - Retired]

Hello rootbeer506,

If you could try and use the 8Gb in the other computer you were speaking of. See if it gives you the same error.

Let us know how it goes,

Alex