If there's nothing unusual going on you can get a bigger and faster module but it's very possible it'll run slower than its rated speed because the memory controller doesn't support higher speeds.

Within each standard (DDR1 in this case), speeds are backwards compatible. Also, the DIMM itself doesn't clock anything, the memory controller on the motherboard does.

So see a speed indication as the speed limit on a road: staying under the limit is always safe, going faster risks crashes. There's no problem at all with running slower.

What might be a problem though is the capacity/density of the SO-DIMM. The Evo N1020V has an ATi RS200M chipset. I'm having trouble finding clear specs for the chipset, but the laptop indicates a max memory of 1GB using both SO-DIMM slots. I strongly suspect that it can handle max 1Gb chips (note the lower-case b, this is bits not Bytes), which works out at max 512MB per SO-DIMM. If you want 1GB of RAM, you will thus need two 512MB SO-DIMMs rather than a single 1GB SO-DIMM.

dionb wrote on 2023-03-09, 14:54:

What might be a problem though is the capacity/density of the SO-DIMM. The Evo N1020V has an ATi RS200M chipset. I'm having trouble finding clear specs for the chipset, but the laptop indicates a max memory of 1GB using both SO-DIMM slots. I strongly suspect that it can handle max 1Gb chips (note the lower-case b, this is bits not Bytes), which works out at max 512MB per SO-DIMM. If you want 1GB of RAM, you will thus need two 512MB SO-DIMMs rather than a single 1GB SO-DIMM.

I've read the instructions of the notebook, which i've found on a site:

Yeah. it seems that it uses 512mbX2. I've found two on Amazon, but... is it a problem if they are not Compaq original, like the manual suggests?
The 256MB ram it's a Samsung, but it's branded as Compaq spare part.

SavageKurtain wrote on 2023-03-09, 15:30:

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I've read the instructions of the notebook, which i've found on a site:

Yeah. it seems that it uses 512mbX2. I've found two on Amazon, but... is it a problem if they are not Compaq original, like the manual suggests?
The 256MB ram it's a Samsung, but it's branded as Compaq spare part.

That's mainly rear-end covering: they can't guarantee stuff so they only recommend what they can guarantee.

Unlike in the SDR-SDRAM period, in DDR1 things were pretty straightforward. The only thing to watch is that you need double-sided (16-chip) SO-DIMMs. Very late 8-chip SO-DIMMs will only be half detected.

dionb wrote on 2023-03-09, 15:59:

That's mainly rear-end covering: they can't guarantee stuff so they only recommend what they can guarantee.
Unlike in the SDR-SDRAM period, in DDR1 things were pretty straightforward. The only thing to watch is that you need double-sided (16-chip) SO-DIMMs. Very late 8-chip SO-DIMMs will only be half detected.

The one i chose seems double sided, so it should work, right?

I not seen PC3200 DIMMs w/o PC2700 and PC2100 timings in the SPD chip.
Dunno about "PC1600 only" chipsets...

Gamecollector wrote on 2023-03-09, 18:11:

I not seen PC3200 DIMMs w/o PC2700 and PC2100 timings in the SPD chip.

I don't see the point to your post as I have, the first two systems I checked had PC-3200 DIMMs that do not have all 3 sets of timings.

Agree red-ray. Have witnessed some DDR 333 and 400 that have only 166. Not all SPD are programmed the same 😀