Hi Ken,

As you have noticed, there are various opinions abouit this memory issue.

The official specs of the Inspiron N5050 are here
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/inspiron-15-intel-n5050/manuals
Download the Specs Manual  PDF and you'll see that this laptop  can take 8
GB

Sofar as the memory addition not being recognized, try the following:
1. Leave only one memory module in place and see what the system reports.

2. if 4 GB, take it out and try it in the other slot. If OK. you'll know
that that one is usable
  If not, then there's a problem with the socket, which is hard to believe
since previously
the system  reported 4GB  (2x2GB) , unless you only had  1 4GB module to
begin with.

3. Remove the just tested module and try the same procedure with the other
Module,
    i.o.w. in both slots respectively..
If OK, you'll know that both are working.

4. Insert both modules- you should now have 8 GB showing.

Usable for the system is another story if some is allocated for video
memory.
but is not in the realm of 4 GB ,probably about 1 GB  or so and you'll have
7 GB  left for the system.

Suggestions to clean the system from junk files and temp files are valid,
but if using CCleaner, be careful what you delete.
CCleaner can often be too aggressive.

Do it in stages - Untick most in both sections when you start and
scrutinize the entries.

BTW -the Dell webpage above also has various tests - Let the Dell detector
do some work there ....

Good luck.

Peter E.



On Sun, Nov 16, 2014 at 6:31 PM, Ken Shearer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> My wife has a 64-bit Windows 7-based Dell Inspiron N5050, which came with 4
> GB of RAM. She has complained that it has been running more and more
> slowly,
> so I decided to add another memory card. I got it directly from Dell since
> I've had issues with third-party RAM before on my own machine. I installed
> it per the directions in the user manual, but when I next started the
> computer and looked at the System Information display, I saw that it still
> only shows a total of 4 GB of RAM even though a total of 8 GB is physically
> installed in the machine at this point.
>
> Is there something I should be doing to "activate" the other 4 GB of RAM?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Ken
>
>
>

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