4GB show in XP as 2.87GB RAM

[Guest]

I have an intel 925x chipset motherboard and 4GB of RAM. so all four slots
have 1GB each. All the exact same configs. However, when I right-click on my
computer in Win XP SP1 and click properties, it only shows 2.87GB of RAM
instead
of the 4GB. I looked in the BIOS section when I started up, and it reports
4GB, 1024 in each slot - 4 slots. I have no idea why Windows doesn't show the
right RAM. It showed 2GB when I upgraded from 1 to 2. Please help, this is
bothering me, is the computer even using the RAM I just bought??

 

[BigJIm]

it could be the limits of the chipset for your MB.
read you installation manual

 

[Bob Knowlden]

I believe that it's a limit in the 32 bit version of XP.

I wasn't able to find a reference that's clear to me (non-expert), but this
one is related:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/171793/

If you use the switch listed, you may be able to bump the RAM available to
applications to more than 3 GB, but 4 is not an option.

Switching to XP64 might give an improvement, but support for it seems to be
limited. To confuse things further:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;294418

(Wait for Vista?)


Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

 

[Tim Slattery]

I believe that it's a limit in the 32 bit version of XP.

I don't know what the problem is, but it's *not* an XP limit. WinXP
will handle 4GB of RAM.

I wasn't able to find a reference that's clear to me (non-expert), but this
one is related:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/171793/

This is a 4 year old article that's talking about WinNT.

 

[Guest]

I too am having the same problem. I am getting conflicting information as to
the editing of my boot.ini file so I have included it below and could someone
who knows please tell me where to put the information about my 4 gig of RAM
so that XP Pro can recognise it?
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob Knowlden]

XP will handle 4GB of physical RAM? That's correct, as far as I know,
although I have no personal experience with it.

I'm less sure that Windows will *report* 4GB of RAM as available, though.

The link for the 3 GB switch was ancient and probably a poor choice. (I'd
like to blame the weakish search engine for the KB.) This link may be more
appropriate:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/server/PAE/PAEmem.mspx

"Memory Support and Windows Operating Systems"

It's unclear to me how much memory XP would *report*, with or without the
switch.

I don't know whether the original poster has a problem, or is simply seeing
normal XP behavior. If the BIOS correctly displays the amount of RAM, I
doubt that it's a mainboard related problem.

I'd suggest running a non-Windows memory checker, like memtest86+
(www.memtest.org). Won't necessarily provide all the answers, but passing it
would be encouraging.

 

[Dragunov]

*I have an intel 925x chipset motherboard and 4GB of RAM. so all four
slots
have 1GB each. All the exact same configs. However, when I
right-click on my
computer in Win XP SP1 and click properties, it only shows 2.87GB of
RAM
instead
of the 4GB. I looked in the BIOS section when I started up, and it
reports
4GB, 1024 in each slot - 4 slots. I have no idea why Windows doesn't
show the
right RAM. It showed 2GB when I upgraded from 1 to 2. Please help,
this is
bothering me, is the computer even using the RAM I just bought?? *

Consult your Moterboard documentation, it sounds like you don't have
all your banks activated. My computer requires that I change a jumper
setting to get the other set of banks to work. It's worth a try. (i.e.
one set of banks may not support the type of ram the other set
supports)