Upping the RAM on the Eee PC 900. No Change.
May 19th, 2008 by Joanna Stern
For the most part, I’ve been very content with the way the Xandros Eee PC 900 runs on the original specs. But I figured it wouldn’t hurt to upgrade the 1GB of memory to 2GB.
The Eee PC, like its 701 predecessor, has only one DIMM slot, so if your system comes with less than 2GB and you want to upgrade, you’ll need to throw out the factory-installed RAM. The RAM replacement process is pretty painless, at least compared with that of the HP Mini-Note. However, I will confess it took me a long time to find the second screw to take off the back of the system. For some odd reason, ASUS decided to put an Eee PC sticker over the second screw on the back. Why? Most likely to make me feel like an idiot.
Nevertheless, I was easily able to slip in a stick of Corsair-branded DDR2 SO-DIMM memory.
Upon booting, the Eee PC 900 immediately recognized the upgrade.
So, what has the 2GB increase done? Well, to be honest, not much. Boot time remains the same at 25 seconds, give or take. Skype performance isn’t drastically different; video is still clear and you can run other applications in the background.
I have noticed a slight difference in multitasking. With 1GB, the system was a bit slow to launch programs when others were running the background. For example, OpenOffice Writer used to take 20 seconds to launch while Firefox and other programs were running. Now it opens in less than 10 seconds, with Firefox and the Music Manager open. However, iTunes still isn’t running any better and multitasking causes music to skip frequently.
The 2GB of memory doesn’t result in any drastic differences on the Xandros Eee PC, but I’ll assume running XP with more RAM would prove more beneficial.
May 19th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
The sticker hiding the screw was probably intended to act like the old “void if removed” stickers, meaning if you upgraded your upgradeable machine yourself, you probably voided some manufacturer’s warranty.
I always thought it was stupid to advertise a machine as “user-upgradeable” then limit that ability in the warranty or Terms of Service.
May 20th, 2008 at 1:35 am
Did you upgrade from to 667Mhz?
Would an 800Mhz RAM module work?
May 20th, 2008 at 9:01 am
My experience with the Eee PC 900 was not so good. I have tried two different manufacturers of SO-DIM DDRII memory and in each case when you try to re-start the machine it just sits ther, dark screen and ALL indicator lights on. The same 2 memory modules work flawlessly in my older Eee PC 701. Now I’m starting to wonder if they changed something on the production machines, mine was delivered after May 12th. Anyone have any suggestions?
May 20th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
I am unsure if anyone has suggested this but its worth a try…. go back to the 1gig stick and see if it “unfreezes” your machine
May 21st, 2008 at 10:55 pm
please explain to me, how are you running itunes with xandros? are you using wine?
that would be a great article to step eee pc 900 people through, how to install itunes on your eee pc box.
because i have an ipod and the only interface i have currently is amarok.
obviously you’re not going to be buying any mp3s with that application.
May 21st, 2008 at 11:11 pm
okay i just saw you already have an article about it.
my bad…
May 30th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I see that there are reports of no performance increase…well…the speed of the RAM will provide some increase, but, this is not the place to look for the increase.
If you had one of the early EEE PC’s and loaded windows, then you know that windows sucks up way to much resources. AND windows loves to write to a swap file…with 2GB of RAM, you can turn off the swap file with two benefits…1. you free up the 1 or 2gb of reserved space that the swap file had set aside and 2. windows does all of its work on the RAM chips and doesn’t burn out the solidstate drive which some say have a limited life span.
Yes there is a remote chance that you will use up all of the 2GB of RAM…if you do, reboot and all is well again. If you use the EEE PC in a limited mode…EMail, Internet Surfing and minor work in Office, then you will rarely ever see “Low system memory”.
June 16th, 2008 at 5:07 am
I heard that Xandros can’t detect the 2GB RAM on eee 900.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:11 am
where’s the rest of this eee pc 900 diary? it’s now June 25th, say, is this entry (upping the RAM..) the last of the pack?
tsk tsk tsk too bad…