Maxing out laptop memory

I have a Dell Inspiron e1505 and Crucial's memory finder tool says it maxes out at 2gb of ram, but for fun i tried out a 2gb stick and a 1gb stick and it gave me the message that the ram had changed then booted to windows(windows 7) and windows showed all 3 gigs....

Is that okay? am i missing something?

 

It would seem Dell is missing something - an update to their specs page. I note it says it has two memory slots and it supports memory module capacities of 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB, and 2 GB. So 2 x 2Gb for 4Gb should be it's max.

But down further it says it has a maximum memory of 2Gb. Since you successfully got it to read 3Gb (what does CPUz say?) then it would appear Dell's documentation was wrong from the beginning, or they released a BIOS update to support more RAM but did not publish new documentation.

The only concerns are the added demands on power and cooling. Keep all the vents, drive and card bays, and cavities clean of heat trapping dust. Keep an eye on your temperatures and consider using a Notebook Cooling Pad w/ext. power supply.