Memory question please

[Bob Newman]

This may be dumb but I'm a rookie, please forgive me. I have a computer
that I believe has been upgraded to it's maximum memory (2 GB). When
printing out my "system information report" it says:

Installed system memory (RAM): 512 MB
Total Physical Memory 501 MB
Available Physical Memory 107 MB
Total Virtual Memory 1.46 GB

Does this mean (in round numbers) that it came with 1/2 GB and 1 1/2 GB was
added for a total of 2 GB?

Thanks in advance... Bob

 

[Paul]

This may be dumb but I'm a rookie, please forgive me. I have a computer
that I believe has been upgraded to it's maximum memory (2 GB). When
printing out my "system information report" it says:

Installed system memory (RAM): 512 MB
Total Physical Memory 501 MB
Available Physical Memory 107 MB
Total Virtual Memory 1.46 GB

Does this mean (in round numbers) that it came with 1/2 GB and 1 1/2 GB
was added for a total of 2 GB?

Thanks in advance... Bob

I'm a bit worried about

"Installed system memory (RAM): 512 MB"

That looks like only 512MB is present.

To investigate your system, this Windows program can give you some info.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Unzip the file, and execute cpuz.exe . The "Memory" tab
returns the total size. The timings in the lower part of
the screen, record the number of clock cycles for various
stages of a memory operation. Only the "Size" is what we're interested
in there. You want that to read "2048MB", because you claim
there is 2GB of memory now in the computer.

Next, go to the "SPD" tab. SPD stands for Serial Presence
Detect, and a tiny chip on each DIMM records specifics about
that DIMM. That is how the BIOS is able to automatically
set everything up - by querying the tiny chip on each DIMM,
all the important parameters are revealed.

Under the SPD tab, you'll see "Slot #1" showing in a pull-down
menu. Try all the values in that menu (if your board has three
memory slots, there will be three menu entries). The "Module Size"
field, notes the contribution of each module to the total size
of memory installed.

Using that utility, you'll get a better idea as to whether
you really have a memory upgrade in the computer or not.

Paul

 

[PS]

This may be dumb but I'm a rookie, please forgive me. I have a computer
that I believe has been upgraded to it's maximum memory (2 GB). When
printing out my "system information report" it says:

Installed system memory (RAM): 512 MB
Total Physical Memory 501 MB
Available Physical Memory 107 MB
Total Virtual Memory 1.46 GB

Does this mean (in round numbers) that it came with 1/2 GB and 1 1/2 GB was
added for a total of 2 GB?

Thanks in advance... Bob

No. It's telling you only 512MB is installed and Windows has allocated
1.46MB of disc space as virtual memory.
The machine was not upgraded.

 

[Bob Newman]

It might help to have details of the system model number
and/or motherboard make and model, as well as any further
info you might have about the memory.

Beyond that, as Paul already mentioned your system sees
512MB in total, physical memory, and virtual memory is that
used via pagefile on the hard drive.

Thanks all. I dropped in a 2 GB chip and all is fine.

Bob

 

[Guest]

I dropped in a 2 GB chip

No, you did not. You dropped in a 2 GB memory module that most likely
contains either sixteen 1Gb chips or eight 2Gb chips.