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System will not read over 2G ram

O

OZ

Flightless Bird
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
 
D

duke

Flightless Bird
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 ?
 
P

Paul

Flightless Bird
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
 
B

Bob I

Flightless Bird
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
 
T

Tim Slattery

Flightless Bird
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
 
K

Ken Blake, MVP

Flightless Bird
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
 
K

Ken Blake, MVP

Flightless Bird
On Tue, 2 Feb 2010 20:30:38 -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
 
D

Daave

Flightless Bird
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?
 
J

John

Flightless Bird
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
 
U

Unknown

Flightless Bird
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
 
K

Ken Blake, MVP

Flightless Bird
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
 
D

Daave

Flightless Bird
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.
 
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