System MemorY

[Guest]

I just upgraded my system memory to 4 gigs. The bios and the system
information show four gigs but when right click my computer and select
properties it shows 3 gigs. I also notice that the system is only showing 2.5
gigs available memory instead of 3.5. What causes this??? Please help!

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I just upgraded my system memory to 4 gigs. The bios and the system
information show four gigs but when right click my computer and
select properties it shows 3 gigs. I also notice that the system is
only showing 2.5 gigs available memory instead of 3.5. What causes
this??? Please help!

Did you Google before asking?

Essentially - if you really want to use all 4GB - you will need Windows XP
x64.
You can do some 'trickery' to utilize 3GB of memory - sort of - but Windows
XP 32bit just doesn't handle RAM in the way I think you expected.

Example from a Google search:
"Windows XP 4GB memory"

http://www.howtofixcomputers.com/bb/ftopic117376.html

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I just upgraded my system memory to 4 gigs. The bios and the system
information show four gigs but when right click my computer and select
properties it shows 3 gigs. I also notice that the system is only
showing 2.5 gigs available memory instead of 3.5. What causes this???
Please help!

32-bit XP can use up to 4GB. However the 4GB address space has to be shared
with memory used for other devices. So Windows (not just XP but all 32-bit
versions, including 32-bit Vista) can't use that entire 4GB for itself.

How much it can use is not simply 3GB, but depends on what devices are
installed. It's normally a little more than 3GB. So installing more than
about 3GB of RAM is usually a waste of money.

But why have you so added so much RAM? How much RAM you can make effective
use of depends on what apps you run, but exepet for those doing things like
video editing or photographic editing of large images, it's a rare person
who will see any difference in performnace by going above 512MB or 1GB.