Ram upgrade

[banzask]

Hello, a couple of months i ago i got dell studio xps 7100 and it game with 4gb ram 2x2gb modules, i brought 1 x 4gb module and put it in the 3rd slot and that was perfectly fine 8gb worked perfect, a few days ago i brought another one of the exact same 4gb module and the os picks it up but says that i have 12gb but only 8gb i can use, i have windows 7 home premium 64bit and according to websites i have have up to 16gb on the os and motherboard i really don't know what to do i can not really get rid of the os and get a new one because i have so much data which is all college work as im a student i can not afford to loose and don't have anything big enough to back it up. could you please give me some help

Thanks

Banzask

 

[professorturtle]

Hey mate,
Don't worry about your data - It'll all be intact.

Some things you should try include:
-Click start, type in 'msconfig' (without marks). Click system information -> advanced options. This should be under the 'boot' tab. Just clear the maximum memory and do a restart.

-Get into your BIOS by pressing 'del', enter, etc during startup. See if 'memory remapping' is enabled. If it isn't - enable it. If you can't find it - don't worry about it.

On the more technical side of things - you can try individually testing each RAM stick/module in a known good working slot (either slot #1,2,3 in your case - if you feel like it and have time, I recommend trying MemTest86+). If they all work - try using a memory stick in slot 4. If the computer continues to boot and recognizes the memory like normal - then both the DIMM banks and modules are good and working.

If you made it this far without it working, it would be likely to be a BIOS setting or (highly unlikely - but) a Windows setting.

Remember this - you won't lose any data unless you damage the hard-drive. Having a stick of RAM not work is unlikely to damage your hdd.