Only showing 448mb out of 1 gig

bogus666

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Apr 22, 2009
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im installing some memory for my grandparent's laptop. its a gateway mx3210 with a 1.4ghz celeron processor. before i installed the new ram i noticed it was only showing 192mb out of 256mb. im not sure why its doing this, i've googled this problem to no avail. im thinking it might be the gateway laptop itself. the bios options are very limited on this comp. my question is, is there any way to get this to recognize the full amount of ram?
 

IH8U

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Dec 29, 2007
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Sadly, no. The Video card (onboard), and the CPU, as well as other random programs (in the OS) set aside memory to properly run. Personaly I'd go with 2GB of RAM and call it a day.
 
the issue is the lappy's integrated graphics - They are using RAM for video purposes. As advised above: Install the new DIMM, smile, and give your grandparents their computer back.
 

bogus666

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Apr 22, 2009
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yeah thats what i figured. thanks for your help guys. this stuff just kind of annoys me, which is why i will never let a company like gateway build my comp.