Have 4 gb RAM showing in BIOS, but Windows says 1 gb

[TerriTypes]

Hello,

I upgraded from 1 gb to 4 gb on my Compaq Presario. The 4 gb shows in BIOS, shows in CPU-Z and also when I ran a Crucial check. It shows 4 gb in Control Panel/System as well, but if I go into My Computer and view C: Compaq, it shows 76 gb free of 103 gb - so it's still showing my system as having only the original 1 gb. Does this matter as long as all the other sources say I have 4 gb, or does this mean Windows isn't allocating the RAM properly? If the latter, what can I do to fix this?

I've reset and then updated my BIOS. I've tweaked the memory cards, made sure they are installed and connected, and I checked 4 different places before buying the RAM, including HP/Compaq to make sure I was buying the correct modules. I bought 2 identical modules, have 2 slots.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Wamphryi]

Dude C:\ is your HDD (your Hard Drive) and Windows is telling you that you have have 76 Gig free out of a total of 103 Gig. That is not how much RAM you have it is a completely seperate component. Your system has 4 GB RAM and all is good.

 

[TerriTypes]

Dude C:\ is your HDD (your Hard Drive) and Windows is telling you that you have have 76 Gig free out of a total of 103 Gig. That is not how much RAM you have it is a completely seperate component. Your system has 4 GB RAM and all is good.

That's a relief to know there's nothing wrong with my new RAM - thanks! I've never understood the difference between what shows on the HDD and the RAM amount (i.e., read: I never took the time to learn). I thought with the additional RAM that the HDD would show an increase too. When there was just 1 gig of RAM on my PC, I was seeing the same numbers in HDD as I am now, so that's where I was confused. Can you please explain the difference if you have the time? Much appreciated.

 

[Wamphryi]

RAM is known as Random Access Memory. One way I have of describing the situation is as follows. Imagine you are a CPU. Your job is to obtain, process and deliver information. There is a huge pile of books on the floor in front of you. That is your Hard Drive. All the information you know is in those books. Now of course you don't need or want all of that information at the same time. So you will reach down and pick up the information you want with your hands and hold it there. Think of RAM as your hands. The more hands you have to hold the books the less you have to constantly bend down and pick up new books and put away books. You can simply hold more books and read off them the moment you need too. At the end of your shift you put all the books down and shutdown. Nothing is left in your hands it all resides in the books on the floor. This is stored memory or the Hard Drive. Does this make sense?

 

[TerriTypes]

RAM is known as Random Access Memory. One way I have of describing the situation is as follows. Imagine you are a CPU. Your job is to obtain, process and deliver information. There is a huge pile of books on the floor in front of you. That is your Hard Drive. All the information you know is in those books. Now of course you don't need or want all of that information at the same time. So you will reach down and pick up the information you want with your hands and hold it there. Think of RAM as your hands. The more hands you have to hold the books the less you have to constantly bend down and pick up new books and put away books. You can simply hold more books and read off them the moment you need too. At the end of your shift you put all the books down and shutdown. Nothing is left in your hands it all resides in the books on the floor. This is stored memory or the Hard Drive. Does this make sense?

A very cool answer! Thanks so much for your reply!

 

[TerriTypes]

Best answer selected by TerriTypes.