We do "mid-life kicker" upgrades (RAM and/or SSD) for lots of clients on desktops and laptops, and it nearly always makes the machines feel like new again. A couple of caveats:
The crucial.com scanner is our go-to tool for figuring out which RAM a machine needs, but I'm never buying Crucial RAM again, I found after a while (2-6 months?) the RAM gets flakey, and needs replacement again. Yeah, lifetime warranty, but who has time to deal with those kinds of issues? Make sure you keep the old RAM in case things start acting wierd, so you can swap back... [Kingston has been pretty good for me, either their regular or Hyper-X, FWIW, and the NewEgg product picker works so much better than Amazon, IMHO, that I usually determine what I need from Crucial and then buy at NewEgg.]
As Rhymes points out, mixing and matching will sometimes work, but depends on so many factors that you are really better off getting the full new kit of however much RAM your machine can handle.
Not every RAM upgrade is successful, just one of those timing or voltage or other more esoteric problems, so run your normal workload for a while or run a RAM test like memtest86.com to make sure there are no issues.
Overheating can also be caused by dust or pet hairs clogging the cooling system, use a flashlight to see if you can detect any clogging of the cooling fins, and blow the cruft out backwards when the machine is off and the covers are open.
SSD upgrades are a little more work, as you have to transfer your data over to the new drive. Some kits come with an external housing so you get all the parts and software you need. I usually use a Linux box with a couple of removable SATA drive housings and ddrescue(*) or equivalent, or Acronis or other cloning software if the drive sizes are different.
(*) Many times drives going bad will get really really slow as they retry a lot, so ddrescue can recover most or all of your data if you catch it in time, and return the machine to 'normal' speed.
And yes, a lot of modern laptops (and some desktops) are so small and thin that the RAM is soldered to the motherboard, and can't be replaced. Make sure when you buy a new one you max out the RAM and buy as much SSD as you'll need for the future. 8*)
Versatile software engineer with a background in .NET consulting and CMS development. Working on regaining my embedded development skills to get more involved with IoT opportunities.
SHout out to Apple for ensuring I cannot replace the memory on my 2012 Mac Book Pro! I mean technically I could pay $300+ for a new motherboard, but at this point I decided to surrender. I found a deal on an HP Spectre last weekend and am trying out the 2 in 1 thing. So far, it's really enjoyable for notetaking!
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We do "mid-life kicker" upgrades (RAM and/or SSD) for lots of clients on desktops and laptops, and it nearly always makes the machines feel like new again. A couple of caveats:
The crucial.com scanner is our go-to tool for figuring out which RAM a machine needs, but I'm never buying Crucial RAM again, I found after a while (2-6 months?) the RAM gets flakey, and needs replacement again. Yeah, lifetime warranty, but who has time to deal with those kinds of issues? Make sure you keep the old RAM in case things start acting wierd, so you can swap back... [Kingston has been pretty good for me, either their regular or Hyper-X, FWIW, and the NewEgg product picker works so much better than Amazon, IMHO, that I usually determine what I need from Crucial and then buy at NewEgg.]
As Rhymes points out, mixing and matching will sometimes work, but depends on so many factors that you are really better off getting the full new kit of however much RAM your machine can handle.
Not every RAM upgrade is successful, just one of those timing or voltage or other more esoteric problems, so run your normal workload for a while or run a RAM test like memtest86.com to make sure there are no issues.
Overheating can also be caused by dust or pet hairs clogging the cooling system, use a flashlight to see if you can detect any clogging of the cooling fins, and blow the cruft out backwards when the machine is off and the covers are open.
SSD upgrades are a little more work, as you have to transfer your data over to the new drive. Some kits come with an external housing so you get all the parts and software you need. I usually use a Linux box with a couple of removable SATA drive housings and ddrescue(*) or equivalent, or Acronis or other cloning software if the drive sizes are different.
(*) Many times drives going bad will get really really slow as they retry a lot, so ddrescue can recover most or all of your data if you catch it in time, and return the machine to 'normal' speed.
And yes, a lot of modern laptops (and some desktops) are so small and thin that the RAM is soldered to the motherboard, and can't be replaced. Make sure when you buy a new one you max out the RAM and buy as much SSD as you'll need for the future. 8*)
YMMV, but great post, thanks!
SHout out to Apple for ensuring I cannot replace the memory on my 2012 Mac Book Pro! I mean technically I could pay $300+ for a new motherboard, but at this point I decided to surrender. I found a deal on an HP Spectre last weekend and am trying out the 2 in 1 thing. So far, it's really enjoyable for notetaking!