4GB Ram Showing as 2.61GB in System Properties

[Powerman]

I just upgraded my DDR Ram from 2.5GB to 4GB.

When I checked in System Properties, instead of showing 3.2 GB, as I would have expected, it shows 2.61GB. What's interesting is previously System Propeties showed 2.5GB - it seems I gained very little, if anything with the extra 1.5GB.

The Bios shows 4GB installed, as does CPUZ. I'm using XP SP3, and have an 8500GT video card with 512mb DDR2.

Any ideas would be appreciated - it would seem Windows is recognizing the 4GB, but it would still be nice to have an explanation of what happened in System Properties.

Thanks in advance,

Robert

 

[ghmage]

Is there something in c:\boot.ini that's incorrectly setting the max mem? I have seen others report this problem.

Edit: Check the BIOS to ensure any onboard graphics is disabled and mimimize the amount of memory you allow it to take. There might also be an option related to how much memory is reserved for your graphics card. What does Windows Task Manager report under Physical Memory?

Even if onboard graphics is disabled, the BIOS may be reserving memory for it.

 

[Powerman]

Task Manager shows:

Task Manager shows the following under the Performance tab:

2743596 as Total

2016452 as Available

1105100 as System Cache

I checked the Boot.ini, and Program Address Extension is enabled.

 

[russki]

Google is your friend. The answer's out there.

Hint: DMA.

 

[Powerman]

Is it possible the RAM isn't showing because of PCI devices grabbing it?

I have a Sound Card and an eSATA card connected via PCI.

 

[rabidbunny]

Google is your friend. The answer's out there.

Hint: DMA.

hehe sounds like the xfiles saying "the truth is out there" XD

i have no idea how to solve this problem. i'd say run memtest just to see if there's any errors produced.

 

[Powerman]

Thanks - I used MEMTEST, and no problems were found. Yes, this does sound like a Twilight Zone kind of thing.

 

[dragonalter]

you're using Windows 32 bit which will only mount up to 3 GB of ram , use 64 bit editions which is capable of mounting up to 16 GB

 

[ghmage]

I found the following to be an interesting read -
http://support.asus.com/faq/faq.aspx?no=D06D6034-D5C9-49C4-5E1B-CF724DB5C000&SLanguage=en-us
When you said 2.5gb it was so much above what I would think of as resources taken by the BIOS or the OS.
And here's another interesting read -
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000811.html

 

[tcsenter]

Is it possible the RAM isn't showing because of PCI devices grabbing it?

If using XP 32-bit, you're going to lose some RAM due to hardware address space needs. You haven't told us enough about the system hardware to determine whether it should be losing that much RAM.

 

[Powerman]

I tried shifting the new RAM sticks between slots. I still got a reading of 2.61GB RAM, leading me to conclude one stick was n/g.

This morning, I sent the RAM back to Newegg. Let's hope the next 2 both work!

Thanks for the help,

Robert

 

[doomsdaydave11]

you're using Windows 32 bit which will only mount up to 3 GB of ram , use 64 bit editions which is capable of mounting up to 16 GB

Eh, Incorrect.

I'm sure if you had 64MB chrome graphics with onboard everything you could even get up to 4GB (and barely any features)