Difference between actual/reported RAM

[Peter]

When I had 2gb of RAM Windows reported 1.86gb. I just doubled it to 4gb and
it shows in the BIOS as 4gb but in Windows only 2.85gb. I realise that it's
probably being eaten alive by my video and TV-FM cards plus other
parerphernalia but isn't that loss a bit much?
Is there anything I can do to improve matters or should I just ignore it?

--
Peter
Toronto, Canada
XP Pro SP2 x 2 + Vista Ultimate fully updated
P4 D865GBFL HT @ 3.0ghz 2.0gb DDR 700gb HD
ATI Radeon 9550 Graphics
Creative Soundblaster Audigy 4 Audio

 

[Jim Macklin]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291988


"Peter" <ex-brit AT rogers DOT com> wrote in message
| When I had 2gb of RAM Windows reported 1.86gb. I just
doubled it to 4gb and
| it shows in the BIOS as 4gb but in Windows only 2.85gb. I
realise that it's
| probably being eaten alive by my video and TV-FM cards
plus other
| parerphernalia but isn't that loss a bit much?
| Is there anything I can do to improve matters or should I
just ignore it?
|
| --
| Peter
| Toronto, Canada
| XP Pro SP2 x 2 + Vista Ultimate fully updated
| P4 D865GBFL HT @ 3.0ghz 2.0gb DDR 700gb HD
| ATI Radeon 9550 Graphics
| Creative Soundblaster Audigy 4 Audio
|
|

 

[Peter]

Thanks Jim, but that is as clear as mud to me unfortunately.

 

[BigJim]

windows will not recognize 4 gigs of ram and it is also a limit of the
chipset on the board. It is just a limitation. If you want to run and see 4
gig of ram you need a 64 bit OS. I never did find out if it is being used
even if you can't see it. Even with Vista, 2 megs of ram is plenty.

 

[Peter]

When I removed the extra 2gb the system took forever to boot for some
reason, so now it's back in. A waste I guess but hopefully wont damage
anything.