Why wont my system specs show the right amount of ram installed?

legitlogic

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Sep 20, 2008
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I had 2x1GB installed on my laptop i then recently received 2x2GB of ram from newegg. First of all when i installed both of them i could immediately tell one of the sticks were bad because my laptop would load up then get a blank crazy looking picture. So im sending it back for a different one. So now at this point i installed the one good working 2GB with my old 1GB which gives me 3GB. Keep in mind i stayed with the same brand, model, etc. Anyways so with 3GB installed i go to view system specs and it showing that i only have 2.25GB installed why is that? Is something wrong? I know my laptop can hold up to 4GB so i dont know what the problem is. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
 

legitlogic

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Sep 20, 2008
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18,510
Yes i read the sticky and as it states:
"Q: My system does not recognize the full capacity of the modules I installed. How do I fix this?
A:
1. If the system memory appears to be off by several megabytes, then check to see if you have an on-board graphics processor on your motherboard. Often, on motherboards with integrated VGA, a portion of the system memory, such as 8MB, is placed aside for video memory.
2. If the system is recognizing only a fraction, such as 1/2 or 1/4, of the total capacity of the module, then the problem is most likely due to you using modules with memory chips that are too high in density. Many older systems require lower density memory parts. As memory modules with higher megabytes are developed, the density of the memory chips also must increase. Older, lower density memory parts are phased out and become harder to find. Current modules with high density memory components may not work with the older systems."

This is not helping me as i have the exact ram im supposed to have and my cpu is only recognizing 2.25GBs when it should be around 2.75GB-3.0Gb. So im still wondering why its not recognizing the full capacity? Yet ill run a system scan using crucialscan or cpuid and the scans are saying i have 3GB installed. So if someone could really help me out here it would be really appreciated. Again i HAVE read the sticky.
 
Because your GPU and other components that require memory take up 750 MB and you most likely are using a 32-bit OS. Even if you install 4GB, you won't be able to use all of it unless you use a 64-bit OS. Vista shows the amount of installed RAM, but that doesn't mean that's it available to the OS (unless you use the 64-bit version).