An HP laptop running the Microsoft Windows 10 operating system that I was using
was performing poorly and when I checked the system's performance with the Windows
Task Manager, I could see that the memory utilization
was consistently high. So I decided to check on whether I could increase
the memory in the system. A sticker on the underside of the laptop showed
the model number to be G70-460US. I wondered whether I could also
get the model number from a
Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC)
command if the sticker was no longer present or was illegible, so I opened a
command prompt window and checked to
see what information I could get using the wmic csproduct get
command.
C:\Users\Public>wmic csproduct get /? Property get operations. USAGE: GET [<property list>] [<get switches>] NOTE: <property list> ::= <property name> | <property name>, <property list> The following properties are available: Property Type Operation ======== ==== ========= Description N/A N/A IdentifyingNumber N/A N/A Name N/A N/A SKUNumber N/A N/A UUID N/A N/A Vendor N/A N/A Version N/A N/A The following GET switches are available: /VALUE - Return value. /ALL(default) - Return the data and metadata for the attribute. /TRANSLATE:<table name> - Translate output via values from <table name>. /EVERY:<interval> [/REPEAT:<repeat count>] - Returns value every (X interval) seconds, If /REPEAT specified the command is executed <repeat count> times. /FORMAT:<format specifier> - Keyword/XSL filename to process the XML results. NOTE: Order of /TRANSLATE and /FORMAT switches influences the appearance of output. Case1: If /TRANSLATE precedes /FORMAT, then translation of results will be followed by formatting. Case2: If /TRANSLATE succeeds /FORMAT, then translation of the formatted results will be done. C:\Users\Public>wmic csproduct get Vendor, Name, Description Description Name Vendor Computer System Product HP G70 Notebook PC Hewlett-Packard C:\Users\Public> C:\Users\Public>wmic csproduct get Vendor, Name, Description, IdentifyingNumber Description IdentifyingNumber Name Vendor Computer System Product 2CE9320837 HP G70 Notebook PC Hewlett-Packard C:\Users\Public>wmic csproduct get Vendor, Name, Description, IdentifyingNumber, SKUNumber, UUID Description IdentifyingNumber Name SKUNumber UUID Vendor Computer System Product 2CE9320837 HP G70 Notebook PC E0431802-AB86-DE11-BFAF-B22033C41A8C Hewlett-Packard C:\Users\Public>
Since I wasn't able to view the model number that way, I opened a PowerShell prompt and queried for the SystemSKUNumber. I saw NW168UA#ABA, which was the part number on the sticker on the underside of the laptop and identifies the laptop as an HP G70-460US. Querying for the model number just shows "HP G70 Notebook PC.
PS C:\Users\Public> Get-WmiObject win32_computersystem | Select-Object SystemSKUNumber SystemSKUNumber --------------- NW168UA#ABA PS C:\Users\Public> Get-WmiObject win32_computersystem | Select-Object Model Model ----- HP G70 Notebook PC PS C:\Users\Public>
If the sticker hadn't been readable, I thought I could likely have
obtained the serial number for the system via a wmic bios get serialnumber
or PowerShell Get-WmiObject win32_bios | Select-Object
SerialNumber command and then enter the serial number at the
HP support website to see the model number associated with it. Both
commands returned the same number, but, surprisingly, when I entered that
serial number at support.hp.com, HP's
website returned the message "Sorry, no results match your search."
Since my original goal was to determine how much, if any, additional memory could be added to the system, I used WMIC commands to determine the amount and type of memory already in the system.
C:\Users\Public>wmic memorychip get capacity Capacity 2147483648 1073741824 C:\Users\Public>wmic memorychip list brief Capacity DeviceLocator MemoryType Name Tag TotalWidth 2147483648 DIMM0 21 Physical Memory Physical Memory 0 64 1073741824 DIMM2 21 Physical Memory Physical Memory 1 64 C:\Users\Public>wmic memorychip get manufacturer, capacity, partnumber, speed, memorytype, devicelocator, formfactor Capacity DeviceLocator FormFactor Manufacturer MemoryType PartNumber Speed 2147483648 DIMM0 12 Micron 21 16HTF25664HY-800E1 800 1073741824 DIMM2 12 Samsung 21 M4 70T2864QZ3-CF7 800 C:\Users\Public>
I checked the crucial.com website, from which I've often purchased memory in the past, to see the amount of memory that can be installed in an HP G70-460US system, I saw that the standard amount present in such laptops is 3GB, which was what was in the laptop I was using, but the laptop will support a maximum of 4GB of memory. The Crucial site listed DDR2-800 SODIMM memory modules as compatible with the system.
When I queried for the form factor for the memory modules in the system with a WMIC command, the form factor was listed as 12, which indicates a small outline dual in-linde (SODIMM) memory module. A value of 8 indicates a dual in-line memory module (DIMM), which is the type of memory found in desktop computers.
From a WMIC command, I could see the memory type had a value of 21. Values you may see for memory type are shown below:
| Value | Type |
|---|---|
| 20 | DDR |
| 21 | DDR2 |
| 22 | DDR FB-DIMM |
| 24 | DDR3 |
So for this particular laptop, I could replace the one gigabyte memory module with a two gigabyte DDR2 memory module. Since the 2 GB module that would remain in the system was a DDR2-800 (PC2-6400), I will buy another 2 GB DDR2-800 memory module and install it in place of the 1 GB module.
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