Slow PC performance after replacing 800mhz RAM with a 667mhz one

Hi everyone this is my first post to the community!

So i have a laptop (HP pavilion dv7 2030ev) and after 8 years of solid performance the pre-installed RAM stick failed to pass the Memtest.It was a DDR2 800 Mhz 2GB from Samsung.

Yesterday i went to a retailers shop in order to replace it and the only RAM stick they had was a Transcend DDR2 667 Mhz 2GB from Transcend.(Possibly this http://www.plaisio.gr/anavathmisi-d...DDR2-667-JetRam-2GB-Dimm-Bulk-JM667QSU-2G.htm

To the point now,i took out the old stick and replaced it with the new one but the pc seems to be running somewhat slowly.I have Windows 7 64bit and when not multitasking i'd say my laptop is doing OK, but when i open a program while running something else(e.g. Firefox) the cursor turns into the Windows hourglass and i have to wait about 1 minute before the program opens.

I do not know a whole lot about PCs so i downloaded CPU-Z and took some screenshots so that you get a clear picture of what's going on.Hopefully you can give some advice on what to do and if it is the new RAM that causes this.


alternatively here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gcr9j4ntargzi4i/CPUZ.png?dl=0

Any help would be appreciated!

Yes, the computer will not perform as well with slower memory. Does this surprise you?

Your biggest problem, however, is not the speed of the memory but the amount. 2 gb is not enough to run Windows 7 efficiently. When it runs out of memory (RAM) it will begin to use hard drive space as virtual memory (aka, "swap file"). This dramatically slows things down as the hard drive is a mechanical device and so the operation takes much longer than if it is done in real memory.

According to HP that laptop can use up to 8 gb of RAM: http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c01722170

Does it have only one RAM socket or was there another one that was not populated?

You can purchase used DDR2 800 RAM for not much really. Moving up to 4 gb would improve your performance significantly.

https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&k...targid=kwd-13671620538&ref=pd_sl_4in669du8b_e

Even if you had to go with DDR2 1066 your performance would improve significantly if you moved up to 4 gb.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hynix-4-GB-...716492?hash=item1ebe7a79cc:g:6noAAOSwux5YYBrA

If you have two RAM sockets you will be able to get by cheaper with two 2 gb DDR2 800 modules than you would with one 4 gb. 2x2 gb is much more available.

Hi trents thanks so much for taking the time to reply to my ''nooby'' thread. I actually didn't know the performance would drop but thanks for making that clear.
The laptop has one more free RAM socket (total amount of 2) so i am going to take out the Transcend and replace it with these:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-RAM-Cru...978007?hash=item4b0a74dc97:g:bMgAAOSwh2xYBfEj

Good choice.