Newly installed SDRAM is only partially showing up.

[Damon]

Hi,

Sorry if this isn't precisely Windows related,

I just added two 1-GB sticks of SDRAM into my Dell computer to bring it up
to 4 GB, but it's only showing up under System as 3.25. Which is interesting.

My tower has four RAM slots. When I bought the computer it had four 256 MB
sticks (1 GB), two of which I replaced with two 1 GB sticks a while back
(2.5) and today I replaced the remaining two 256 MB sticks with two 1 GB
sticks to bring it up to 4 GB.

When I turned my computer back on, I was notified that my computer's memory
had changed, giving me the choice to continue or run setup. I chose to
continue.

I am aware that RAM has to be installed in a certain order and as far as I
know I did so, but 3.25 is a strange number. My specs are: Dell Dimension
E510, Pentium 4 3.0 ghz, Windows XP Pro. I bought the RAM off of the Dell
website.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

D

 

[Buffalo]

Hi,

Sorry if this isn't precisely Windows related,

I just added two 1-GB sticks of SDRAM into my Dell computer to bring
it up to 4 GB, but it's only showing up under System as 3.25. Which
is interesting.

My tower has four RAM slots. When I bought the computer it had four
256 MB sticks (1 GB), two of which I replaced with two 1 GB sticks a
while back (2.5) and today I replaced the remaining two 256 MB sticks
with two 1 GB sticks to bring it up to 4 GB.

When I turned my computer back on, I was notified that my computer's
memory had changed, giving me the choice to continue or run setup. I
chose to continue.

I am aware that RAM has to be installed in a certain order and as far
as I know I did so, but 3.25 is a strange number. My specs are: Dell
Dimension E510, Pentium 4 3.0 ghz, Windows XP Pro. I bought the RAM
off of the Dell website.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

D

That is because WinXP 32 bit cannot recognize more ram than that.
Nothing wrong with your ram or your setup, it is just a operating system
limit.
If you go to a 64bit system, then more ram can be used.
Buffalo

 

[Jose]

Hi,

Sorry if this isn't precisely Windows related,

I just added two 1-GB sticks of SDRAM into my Dell computer to bring it up
to 4 GB, but it's only showing up under System as 3.25. Which is interesting.

My tower has four RAM slots. When I bought the computer it had four 256 MB
sticks (1 GB), two of which I replaced with two 1 GB sticks a while back
(2.5) and today I replaced the remaining two 256 MB sticks with two 1 GB
sticks to bring it up to 4 GB.

When I turned my computer back on, I was notified that my computer's memory
had changed, giving me the choice to continue or run setup. I chose to
continue.

I am aware that RAM has to be installed in a certain order and as far as I
know I did so, but 3.25 is a strange number. My specs are: Dell Dimension
E510, Pentium 4 3.0 ghz, Windows XP Pro. I bought the RAM off of the Dell
website.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

D

Here is one reasonable explanation of what sounds like normal behavior
(a popular question though):

http://blogs.msdn.com/hiltonl/archive/2007/04/13/the-3gb-not-4gb-ram-problem.aspx

Some Google searches will find many others.