XP not seeing full amount RAM

[poO_onyou]

Hello, I am helping my friend fix his laptop because he said it has been acting slow. After looking at it I found that Windows only recognizes 256mb of RAM. He has 1024mb installed, and the BIOS recognizes all 1024mb. This is on an HP Pavilion laptop running Windows XP Home. The BIOS seems to be extremely basic, there are very few settings to change (maybe there is away see more advanced settings ?). There are no options that would restrict the amount of RAM that the OS sees. I updated the BIOS to the most recent version and that did not help. I have tried swapping the memory sticks, taking one out and leaving one in, but Windows still says it only sees 256mb. I went to check that /MAXMEM was clear, and found that the BOOT.ini tab was missing. I found this to be odd. After some googling, I created a boot.ini file, which restored the tab. MAXMEM is clear. I read about people who had 4+ GB of ram in their computer, but windows only saw 2-3 GB. They enabled /PAE (Physical Address Extension) in boot.ini and this allowed windows to recognize their full amount of RAM. I have enabled PAE, and windows still says it only sees 256mb. Out of curiosity though I went ahead and disabled the Windows Page File. This would seem like a bad idea with only 256mb of RAM, but the computer seems to be running faster. Is it possible that windows is now utilizing the full Gig of RAM but claims to only see 256mb? Does anyone have any other ideas/suggestions to make Windows see the full amount of RAM? I am running out of ideas and have become quite frustrated about this ordeal.

Thanks Mitch

 

[rgeist554]

I read about people who had 4+ GB of ram in their computer, but windows only saw 2-3 GB

This could be due to the fact they are using a 32bit OS. Even then, I don't believe their computer will ever actually use the full 4GB of ram.

Anyways, does your friend's laptop have onboard graphics? I know this will draw from the system ram, but I can't be too sure how much will be assigned to the graphics unless you list a model or something. Even if he has an onboard GPU and it is taking a bit of the RAM, I still don't think it should take nearly the entire GB of ram.

 

[ethaniel]

I don't know of any onboard graphics chip stealing 768mb of RAM (although I have seen a few desktop boards having a 512mb option). Your procedure is simple: You have to test those modules in another laptop, or use other modules in that laptop and try them out. You have to isolate any kind of hardware failure first before turning to software.