max ram upgrade Presario cq56

Here is the Maintenance and Service Guide for the Compaq Presario CQ56:

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02...

If you scroll to page 18, item (9), you will see the part numbers of the memory that you can install in your computer - you can install 1GB sticks or 2GB sticks.  Pay attention to “Intel” vs “AMD” - you have to match the kind of CPU that is in the computer.

If you scroll to page 2, you will find that the system supports up to 8GB of system memory.  However, you can install only 4GB, so apparently there are 4GB of memory which are permanently installed in the computer.  That’s the only way that you could install a maximum of 4GB and end up with 8GB total.  (I didn’t know that any laptops were set up this way, but that’s the only conclusion I can come up with when I see a total maximum of 8GB and an installable maximum of 4GB.)

If you have 32-bit Windows, then you won’t be able to utilize anything above 4GB.  (actually, you can get close to 4, but not quite that high.)  If you have 64-bit Windows, then you can utilize all 8 GB.