I’m not going to go into the basics of how to change RAM modules in a notebook computer here, there are thousands of sources for that information, and anyone who doesn’t know how the little clips on the RAM slots work is better off learning the basics from those sources. What I’m going to cover here is just information specific to the HP 14-an013nr.
The basic specs that you’re looking for PC3L, 12800, 1600 MHz. The “L” is important, it stands for “low-power” (electricity used, not computing power), and they are not always interchangeable. You are also looking for some reassuring terms like “laptop”, “notebook”, “SODIMM” or “SO-DIMM”, “204 PIN”, but those go with the form factor, which you can tell at a glance. You do not want to see long sticks, or words like “server”, “desktop”, “ECC”, or server associated brands like “Sun”, “Cisco”, “Dell” or “Oracle”. You’ll be looking for either 2GB, 4GB or 8GB sticks, but over half of the listings seem to be for pairs of sticks labeled by the total of the pair, so be careful. For example, sometimes listings for two 4GB memory modules say “8GB” (the total) and show only one in the photo. f You’ve only got two slots, presumably one is occupied with a 4GB stick from the factory, so if you buy a pair one memory stick is going to be left over from whatever you do.
One bit of misinformation that seems to have become regrettably widely-accepted from the videos is that the memory access of the chipset is “single channel” and that means that one of the RAM slots is ignored. Why this would be is a bit bewildering, the motherboard was certainly designed around the chipset and processor family, if the chipset could not access both slots why would they be there? I’m guessing this originated with “AICvideo” in this video, which I think is the second one I found:
It’s repeated in this video by Ken Lince, but he credits “AICvideo” for his initial information:
Ironically, “AICvideo” himself says clearly in this (long, rambling) video, (starting at about 22:45) that he himself that he “had two 8 gig sticks, I put them in, worked flawlessly”:
Confusingly, that was on October 2nd, 2016, and video where he says it won’t work is dated October 30th, 2016. What seems to be the case is that it runs both slots in single-channel mode, so there is no speed advantage to splitting the RAM between two slots, but it’s no worse than having twice the RAM in one slot either.
Here’s a link to the manual, for convenience:
http://www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c05227925
Here’s what the manual says about what RAM combinations will work, re-arranged a little:
Supports up to 16 GB of system RAM in the following configurations:
● 16384-MB total system memory (8192×2)
● 8192-MB total system memory (8192×1) or (4096×2)
● 6144-MB total system memory (4096×1) + (2048×1)
● 4096-MB total system memory (4096×1) o2048×2)
● 2048-MB total system memory (2048×1)
Unfortunately, in the manual there are also checkboxes after these lines, listing features that don’t seem to have anything to do with RAM, and of course they have checks in them- or not. Very confusing. Not the first or last deficiency of this document.
In any case, like a whole lot of information in the manual, it’s just nonsense, or at least misleading. Those aren’t the only configurations that work. When I opened my first one, it had the expected 4GB stick in the slot closest to the center of the motherboard. The first change I did to RAM was to put an 8GB stick in the vacant slot. The BIOS and RAM tests then saw 12GB, no problem. Then I reversed the order of the two sticks, no change. I didn’t think to try using only the slot that came vacant, but that doesn’t really buy us anything anyway. It seems almost certain that any combination of 2GB, 4GB or 8GB sticks will work just fine.
Again, there are only two slots. If the arrangement was for dual-channels there would be a speed advantage to splitting the RAM between the two, but as it’s a single channel there is none, so the top priority in upgrading is probably not to end up with a valuable stick left over unnecessarily.
Reviews and posts make it clear that up to 16 GB of memory does work.
In the video “AICvideo” expresses the opinion that more than 8GB of memory is unnecessary in this machine because of the limited processor power. I’m don’t really have an opinion about that yet, but it’s worth noting that because of the integrated graphics the system memory is also the graphics memory, and it does have a full-HD screen, which is a lot more pixels to drive from memory than most notebooks this size.
There’s also the fact that I routinely bring a notebook computer to its knees by using open browser tabs the way most people use bookmarks- as reminders. I have it set to load the same tabs in the next session, and end up, typically, with anywhere from 25 to 90+ open before it crashes… or maybe two tabs with Youtube open… but most people are not that foolish.
That’s about it, there’s no challenge to upgrading the RAM, particularly, other than getting the case open and back together again undamaged.
The section on adding/modifying storage is going to be MUCH more complex and involved. I’ve been working on it for weeks, and it changes each time I get a new part and try an new experiment. Coming soon…
– Robert the Wombat
Intro to the HP 14-an013nr, the hardware hacker’s bargain notebook
Happy Hacker’s Notebook: Opening the case of the HP 14-an013nr
Hey Robert the Wombat, so I have a few questions about upgrading this Notebook. I’ve watched the embedded YouTube videos above but I’m still confused on some things. First, I plan on ordering a 4GB RAM stick to add to the existing 4GB, even though its not dual channel I’m hoping I will see a benefit from adding more RAM. Then, I want to install a 120GB or 240GB SSD. Is it possible to clone the eMMC to the SSD and then I can use the eMMC as secondary storage? Also, what is the best free backup and cloning software in your opinion?
Lets say I’m able to do the SSD clone and and RAM upgrade, do I need to access UEFI to change the boot drive or will the Notebook do that automatically? Do I need to change the RAM settings at all? Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing back from you!
Mustafa,
First, I apologize for taking so long to get back to you. Aside from moving 500+ miles after… decades in one area, aside from some real problems with the move, the loss of a pet, a hurricane, an epidemic and political turmoil, the blog quit working. Reading it was no problem, but I got axle-wrapped to the point where none of my changes, though they looked fine in the previews, showed up online. Long story, took months to track it down because I really didn’t have time to devote to it. That part seems to be working fine now, but I still am not getting email notification of comments… working on it. If it’s not resolved this week I’ll change the email account I’ve been using.
I’m sure you’ll see an increase in speed from upgrading from 4GB RAM to 8GB, especially in multitasking, but it will be incremental. The upgrade in perceived speed in going to an SSD from a HD is huge. The eMMC is probably faster than a mechanical drive, but it’s pretty slow.. and tiny.
Sorry to say that while I was able to copy the UEFI to a SSD with no problems, I had zero luck in getting the machine to boot off of it anywhere but in the original eMMC. I tried several things over a period of days. Eventually I gave up and moved on, the advantages of their eMMC are marginal… primarily expanded on-board diagnostics, but you can download the actual technician’s diagnostics for these machines from HP themselves, and it’s meant to be run from a thumb drive and it’s been updated, so it’s no great loss. The diagnostics actually in ROM will still work without the eMMC in place, but the options are a little more basic and it’s an old-fashioned character-based user interface.
As for leaving the eMMC in place and using it as a second drive, you can, depending on your approach, but I opted not to. There are only two SATA connectors on the motherboard, one is a common flat-ribbon for the eMMC as it comes and the other is a (notebook style) optical drive interface. As noted in the videos referred to you can use that one, hook a hard drive or SSD to the optical interface using the circuit board from an adapter, or you can find the cables pretty easily to do it.
I opted not to do that, primarily because I suspected that the connector for the optical drive might not be as fast as the one intended for the hard drive or eMMC. Perhaps it really is, perhaps it’s all in ASIC chips intended to meet the same speed requirements, but on the other hand- if you were specifying parts and setups for an optical drive and there was a way to save a buck or even a few cents at a sacrifice of full speed, why would you not do it? The optical drive is never going to approach the bandwidth requirements of main storage, nobody… except someone really hacking around in there like we are, would ever know… and even in that case, it might be close.
I saw no compelling reason not to use the connector that goes to the eMMC instead. I opted not to use that internal bay, which is really designed for hard drives, as it was just much easier to mount the SSD (which doesn’t need the rubber shock mount gasket) in the optical drive bay, as the original HD mounting gasket is hard to find. There are other arrangements that would work, but it seemed sort of pointless. I just sourced the same ribbon cable that other HP models using this motherboard use for their hard drives (instead of the eMMC) and it was easily long enough to reach the optical drive bay, so I’m more assured of full speed (whether it was necessary or not).
I have the part number for the cable somewhere if you need it.
Hope this helps, and again I apologize for the delay.
RtW
Hello, I just added another 4GB Ram stick to this laptop. Using Userbenchmark I see I am getting half the RAM speed, is this because I added a second stick of Ram? If I add one stick of 8GB will I get full speed, or wont it make a difference?
Thanks,
Paul
Hi Paul,
From what I can tell by Robert’s first post on this thread, he was able to get multiple RAM sticks to work in this laptop. However I can tell you that I have been running a single 8gb RAM stick in this laptop since 2017 and am getting the full speed of 8gb. I’ve never tried playing around with a second 8gb stick but I can say with confidence that the single one works well enough for me paired with a 1tb SSD connected to the optical port (that I use to boot windows).