memory upgraded or not

[rodchar]

hey all,
i just upgraded my gateway computer's memory from 2gb to 4gb. when i look in
the bios it shows all 4gb (4 1gb chips expandable to 8gb). however, when i
look at computer properties it says 3.25gb is this correct?

i tried the new chips individually and in each slot and everything looked
right for each chip by themselves.

thanks,
rodchar

 

[VanguardLH]

in message

i just upgraded my gateway computer's memory from 2gb to 4gb. when i
look in
the bios it shows all 4gb (4 1gb chips expandable to 8gb). however,
when i
look at computer properties it says 3.25gb is this correct?

The 32-bit version of Windows XP will reserve a gigabyte for the OS.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888137/en-us

 

[Paul]

hey all,
i just upgraded my gateway computer's memory from 2gb to 4gb. when i look in
the bios it shows all 4gb (4 1gb chips expandable to 8gb). however, when i
look at computer properties it says 3.25gb is this correct?

i tried the new chips individually and in each slot and everything looked
right for each chip by themselves.

thanks,
rodchar

It is explained here. On a 32 bit OS, addressable space is sometimes limited
to 4GB total, and some address space is needed for system busses. For example,
people with two video cards for SLI, find their usable memory when they install
4GB, is a lot lower than yours. So finding only 3.25GB is not the worst possible
situation. I just wish documents like this, had more examples of different
hardware configurations, so people could see the effects of the choices they've
made.

http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/4GB_Rev1.pdf

Paul

 

[rodchar]

thanks everyone for the helpful insight.
rod.