I had 4 500m ram sticks=2gig,, i replaced them with 4 1g sticks,, under sys info it says i still only have 2g,,, i have an XP,, i went to DELL and ran scan it shows the full 4g,,, any ideas? Windows XP media center Edition, Version 2002, service pack 3 It dosent seem to run any better so i believe it is not using 2 of them and its not just a sys info error
On Feb 2, 9:09 pm, OZ <O...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > I had 4 500m ram sticks=2gig,, i replaced them with 4 1g sticks,, under sys > info it says i still only have 2g,,, i have an XP,, i went to DELL and ran > scan it shows the full 4g,,, any ideas? Windows XP media center Edition, > Version 2002, service pack 3 It dosent seem to run any better so i believe > it is not using 2 of them and its not just a sys info error Ok, you should know that the 32 bit O/S is capable of only addressing 3,25 GB. That does not explain why you only see 2 GB. What does you BIOS say as the machine is booting up ?
OZ wrote: > I had 4 500m ram sticks=2gig,, i replaced them with 4 1g sticks,, under sys > info it says i still only have 2g,,, i have an XP,, i went to DELL and ran > scan it shows the full 4g,,, any ideas? Windows XP media center Edition, > Version 2002, service pack 3 It dosent seem to run any better so i believe > it is not using 2 of them and its not just a sys info error Did you check the Dell web site, before doing this upgrade ? At least one Dell computer, apparently has a 2GB limitation with a 32 bit OS. And I suspect, what happens there, is any memory above the 2GB address mark, is "hoisted" or remapped, to the 4GB+ part of the address space. That means a 64 bit OS can use all the RAM, while a 32 bit OS only gets to see the first 2GB (and the rest is ignored). I didn't believe it, when I read the Dell web site, but some customers commented it did work as the web page described it. I've only seen one Dell model that works that way, and it has no option in the BIOS screen, to do a better job when used with a 32 bit OS. Paul
Try this, go to Start, Run, MSCONFIG, BOOT.INI, Advanced Options, Is /MAXMEM= checked? If so, UNcheck it. OZ wrote: > I had 4 500m ram sticks=2gig,, i replaced them with 4 1g sticks,, under sys > info it says i still only have 2g,,, i have an XP,, i went to DELL and ran > scan it shows the full 4g,,, any ideas? Windows XP media center Edition, > Version 2002, service pack 3 It dosent seem to run any better so i believe > it is not using 2 of them and its not just a sys info error
duke <nospama@3web.net> wrote: >Ok, you should know that the 32 bit O/S is capable of only addressing >3,25 GB. Not exactly. The 32-bit OS has a 32-bit address space, that works out to 4GB = 4,294,967,296. The OS has to use some of that to access your video RAM (even if it's separate RAM mounted on the video card), your BIOS, and a few other things. What's left over varies but is usually around 3.25 to 3.5 GB. See http://members.cox.net/slatteryt/RAM.html >That does not explain why you only see 2 GB. No, it sure doesn't. I wonder if there's a BIOS setting that needs to be made in this machine? >What does you BIOS say as the machine is booting up ? Good question. -- Tim Slattery Slattery_T@bls.gov http://members.cox.net/slatteryt
On Tue, 2 Feb 2010 20:09:01 -0800, OZ <OZ@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > I had 4 500m ram sticks=2gig,, i replaced them with 4 1g sticks,, under sys > info it says i still only have 2g,,, i have an XP,, i went to DELL and ran > scan it shows the full 4g,,, any ideas? Windows XP media center Edition, > Version 2002, service pack 3 It dosent seem to run any better so i believe > it is not using 2 of them and its not just a sys info error I'm not sure why you can't see more than 2GB, but let me tell you this regarding your comment that "it dosent seem to run any better": It is *not* true that more RAM will always make your computer run better. It's true only if you don't have enough RAM to run your applications, so the page file is used instead of RAM. How much RAM you need for good performance is *not* a one-size-fits-all situation, and even 2GB is considerably more than most people need. You get good performance if the amount of RAM you have keeps you from using the page file significantly, and that depends on what apps you run. Most people running a typical range of business applications under XP find that somewhere around 512MB works well, others need more. Almost anyone will see poor performance with less than 256MB. Some people, particularly those doing things like editing large photographic images, can see a performance boost by adding even more than 512MB--sometimes much more. If you are currently using the page file significantly, more memory will decrease or eliminate that usage, and improve your performance. If you are not using the page file significantly, more memory will do nothing for you. Go to http://billsway.com/notes_public/winxp_tweaks/ and download WinXP-2K_Pagefile.zip and monitor your page file usage. That should give you a good idea of whether more memory can help, and if so, how much more. -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003 Please Reply to the Newsgroup
On Tue, 2 Feb 2010 2008 -0800 (PST), duke <nospama@3web.net> wrote: > On Feb 2, 9:09 pm, OZ <O...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > > I had 4 500m ram sticks=2gig,, i replaced them with 4 1g sticks,, under sys > > info it says i still only have 2g,,, i have an XP,, i went to DELL and ran > > scan it shows the full 4g,,, any ideas? Windows XP media center Edition, > > Version 2002, service pack 3 It dosent seem to run any better so i believe > > it is not using 2 of them and its not just a sys info error > > Ok, you should know that the 32 bit O/S is capable of only addressing > 3,25 GB. > That does not explain why you only see 2 GB. That 3.25GB is not the correct number. The number varies depending on the hardware. Here's an explanation: All 32-bit client versions of Windows (not just Vista/XP/7) have a 4GB address space (64-bit versions can use much more). That's the theoretical upper limit beyond which you can not go. But you can't use the entire 4GB of address space. Even though you have a 4GB address space, you can only use *around* 3.1GB of RAM. That's because some of that space is used by hardware and is not available to the operating system and applications. The amount you can use varies, depending on what hardware you have installed, but can range from as little as 2GB to as much as 3.5GB. It's usually around 3.1GB. Note that the hardware is using the address *space*, not the actual RAM itself. If you have a greater amount of RAM, the rest of the RAM goes unused because there is no address space to map it to. -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003 Please Reply to the Newsgroup
OZ wrote: > I had 4 500m ram sticks=2gig,, i replaced them with 4 1g sticks,, > under sys info it says i still only have 2g,,, i have an XP,, i went > to DELL and ran scan it shows the full 4g,,, any ideas? Windows XP > media center Edition, Version 2002, service pack 3 It dosent seem to > run any better so i believe it is not using 2 of them and its not > just a sys info error Perhaps 2GB is all your motherboard can recognize. What is the model and model number of your Dell?
Which Dell model number is this? "OZ" <OZ@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:20808B01-03B4-4027-AA67-8DFE8EE468B9@microsoft.com... >I had 4 500m ram sticks=2gig,, i replaced them with 4 1g sticks,, under >sys > info it says i still only have 2g,,, i have an XP,, i went to DELL and ran > scan it shows the full 4g,,, any ideas? Windows XP media center Edition, > Version 2002, service pack 3 It dosent seem to run any better so i > believe > it is not using 2 of them and its not just a sys info error
Go to http://www.crucial.com and key in your computer make and model and you will get all the info you need to populate your computer memory properly. "OZ" <OZ@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:20808B01-03B4-4027-AA67-8DFE8EE468B9@microsoft.com... >I had 4 500m ram sticks=2gig,, i replaced them with 4 1g sticks,, under >sys > info it says i still only have 2g,,, i have an XP,, i went to DELL and ran > scan it shows the full 4g,,, any ideas? Windows XP media center Edition, > Version 2002, service pack 3 It dosent seem to run any better so i > believe > it is not using 2 of them and its not just a sys info error
On Wed, 3 Feb 2010 12:24:55 -0500, "Daave" <daave@example.com> wrote: > OZ wrote: > > I had 4 500m ram sticks=2gig,, i replaced them with 4 1g sticks,, > > under sys info it says i still only have 2g,,, i have an XP,, i went > > to DELL and ran scan it shows the full 4g,,, any ideas? Windows XP > > media center Edition, Version 2002, service pack 3 It dosent seem to > > run any better so i believe it is not using 2 of them and its not > > just a sys info error > > Perhaps 2GB is all your motherboard can recognize. What is the model and > model number of your Dell? I also thought that perhaps that was true, but then I reread "i went to DELL and ran scan it shows the full 4g." -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003 Please Reply to the Newsgroup
Ken Blake, MVP wrote: > On Wed, 3 Feb 2010 12:24:55 -0500, "Daave" <daave@example.com> wrote: > >> OZ wrote: >>> I had 4 500m ram sticks=2gig,, i replaced them with 4 1g sticks,, >>> under sys info it says i still only have 2g,,, i have an XP,, i went >>> to DELL and ran scan it shows the full 4g,,, any ideas? Windows XP >>> media center Edition, Version 2002, service pack 3 It dosent seem >>> to run any better so i believe it is not using 2 of them and its not >>> just a sys info error >> >> Perhaps 2GB is all your motherboard can recognize. What is the model >> and model number of your Dell? > > > I also thought that perhaps that was true, but then I reread "i went > to DELL and ran scan it shows the full 4g." Good point.