Bruce Boschek composed on 2014-11-18 07:05 (UTC+0100):

> I think the problem is that Dell only offers a maximum of 4gb, but the
> machine has 2 slots and can accommodate 2 x 4mb.

Dell BIOS have a way of supporting less than the hardware specifications
support. For instance, the hardware would support the speed of PC6400 RAM,
but Dell configured it so RAM would run no faster than PC5300 supports, which
it did because at that time it offered a more expensive up model that
featured that difference. Another instance would be a chipset supporting
multicore (e.g. 945G/GX620, IIRC) but the BIOS not even allowing POST with
more than a single core even though both CPUs are same die size and family.

> I was unable to download the specs from Dell,

I tried for a while, but eventually gave up. As is common on dell.com,
specifications for non-current models can be very difficult to find.
Sometimes having an appropriate service tag helps.

> but all memory upgrade outfits say that the N5050 can handle 8gb, for
> instance here:

> http://www.dellmemoryram.com/dell-laptop-ram/DellInspiron15N5050.html

> That does not explain why Ken cannot see the other 4gb, of course. It may
> not be seated correctly or there may be a setting in bios, or the module
> is defective.

It used to be PC100 and/or PC133 that memory module density could be an
issue. I don't know if anything so new as an N5050 could still be subject to
a RAM density limitation, but from Dell it wouldn't surprise me.
--
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