Toshiba Satellite A205 won't recognize RAM upgrade 3GB-> 4GB

Dominipater

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Apr 3, 2017
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I have a Toshiba Satellite A205-S5864.
It's running Win10 Pro 32-bit.
Came with 3GB DDR2 RAM.
Specs from Toshiba say it supports 4GB:
http://support.toshiba.com/support/staticContentDetail?contentId=2011730&isFromTOCLink=false

I upgraded the RAM with 2x2GB Crucial RAM modules CT2KIT25664AC667.

Laptop boots up OK, but while the PC now lists 4GB, Windows still only recognizes 3GB.
Performance tab in Task Manager still says 3GB. I see 1GB listed as "Hardware Reserved".

How do I get it to recognize the extra RAM?
 
You are running 32-bit Windows, which can only address a Maximum of 4Gb of RAM, which includes the hardware reserved memory.
Nothing you can do about this as it's a hard limit.
To use the full 4Gb, you will need to purchase a 64-bit copy of Windows and install from scratch.
 

Dominipater

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Apr 3, 2017
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The graphics card is listed as:
"Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 with 8MB-256MB dynamically allocated shared graphics memory"
Google says this is an on-board graphics chip, part of the MB.

The laptop came from factory with 3GB (2GB + 1GB ram modules).
Task Manager showed the full installed 3GB as available to programs, and no "hardware reserved" amount.

After upgrading RAM to 4GB, the extra 1GB came up as "hardware reserved" in Windows Task Mgr.

So if Win10-32bit can manage 4GB, and the graphics card is designed to dynamically allocate 256MB, what else could be causing the extra 1GB showing as "hardware reserved"?

 

Dominipater

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Apr 3, 2017
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This is an excellent article. Thank You for citing this!

The whole purpose of adding the extra RAM was to speed up this PC.
If going from 3GB->4GB allows 32-bit OS to reserve RAM for HW, and this in turn, gives the OS more net headroom available for applications, then I'd be satisfied.

This topic is complex, but the last section on your cited article perhaps could help me measure if the upgrade has made any net difference in the 32-bit OS. It shows how one can monitor available memory over time. I could do this for 3GB and then 4GB.

Going to 64-bit is the definitive approach, but I'm hesitant not only because of the time investment of fresh install, but also the uncertainty of finding Win10-64 compatible drivers for all the components of this laptop vintage 2007.
 

Dominipater

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Apr 3, 2017
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I located an extra SSD to do the Win10-64bit fresh install. This will allow me to test Win10-64, while keeping the current SSD with 32-bit as backup.

Will try this weekend. Thanks again for the references and patience.