Total Physical Memory?

[Ted Hill]

Hello,

I have a Windows XP Home computer that I have been using for about a year.

It has 512 MB RAM installed: two 256 MB modules.

Recently on start up (before windows actually appears), a message appeared
on a screen with a blue background saying something like:

"The amount of memory has changed" (I don't remember the exact wording.)

After getting into Windows, I went to Start | Control Panel | System |
General

There it tells me that I have 448 MB RAM. (64 MB less than 512)

My question is:

On the System Properties | General tab, what should the number labeled as
"KB RAM" be?

Should it be the actual physical memory, i.e. 512 MB? or should it be 512 MB
minus some amout of memory being used by the system?

I did not make any hardware changes to my system, so I am wondering if
perhaps one of my memory modules has somehow 'gone bad' and lost 64 MB of
memory? Is this possible?

Thank you,

Ted Hill

 

[Ted Hill]

A couple of other things:

I don't specifically recall, what the "KB RAM" used to show, but I'm pretty
sure that it did show 512.

Also, if I hit F2 when starting up and go into the BIOS settings, I also see
448 MB even before getting into windows.

Thanks again,

Ted Hill

 

[Randy Harris]

It should say 512MB of RAM. Sounds like you've got some bad memory.

 

[Ted Hill]

Is this documented somewhere? I looked on the microsoft site, but could not
find any explanation as to exactly what should be displayed for "KB RAM"

My computer is a DELL. I called their customer support yesterday and talked
to someone in India who assured me that "every t'ing OK, don' worry, dat da
way it should be."

It was a very frustrating experience trying to discuss this with someone
that I could not understand and who could not really understand me. And then
being put off saying that everything is fine. When I asked him what his
native language was he said it was English. If he expects me to believe
that, why should he expect me to believe anything he has to say about memory
configuration. <EOR> (end of rant)

 

[-xiray-]

Also, if I hit F2 when starting up and go into the BIOS settings, I also see
448 MB even before getting into windows.

Well that's not good, if you have 512 that should read 512.

Replace the defective memory stick.

 

[neil]

If you have two 256 modules can you remove one at a time and see the result
with a single stick. If one stick reads less than 256 at startup or from
within windows then that is the faulty stick.
Just to be sure your PC video card doesn't share video and system memory
does it.??

Try swapping out the memory.

Neil

 

[Ted Hill]

I don't believe that the video card is sharing system memory.

So, if I put in a single 'good' 256 MB stick, should the Control Panel show
the full 256 MB?

Thanks,

Ted Hill

 

[Alex Nichol]

I have a Windows XP Home computer that I have been using for about a year.

It has 512 MB RAM installed: two 256 MB modules.

Recently on start up (before windows actually appears), a message appeared
on a screen with a blue background saying something like:

"The amount of memory has changed" (I don't remember the exact wording.)

That was probably referring to the Virtual memory - and increasing the
size of the page file. Even with a large RAM, the VM system does not
like having too small an initial size, and if you overdo things it is
likely to increase by far more than is needed. I would suggest for a
512MB machine starting with a page file on C: and an Initial 100 MB. max
maybe 800 or more. But read my page at www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm
and use the tool linked from it in the 'how big a page file' section, to
find out how much you are actually using. It is also possible that you
have a spurious message - see the Problems section, either Intel
Application Accelerator, or I have report (unconfirmed) of something
similar with NAV 2004 installed

After getting into Windows, I went to Start | Control Panel | System |
General

There it tells me that I have 448 MB RAM. (64 MB less than 512)

My question is:

On the System Properties | General tab, what should the number labeled as
"KB RAM" be?

The figure suggests that you have an on-board video chip which is using
64MB from the main memory as video memory, taken out before windows ever
starts to load, and leaving this much (plenty) for Windows.

 

[Randy Harris]

Is this documented somewhere? I looked on the microsoft site, but could not
find any explanation as to exactly what should be displayed for "KB RAM"

Ted, I'm not sure what you are referring to with "KB RAM". On my system it
says "512 MB of RAM" on the General tab of the System Properties applet.

Neil's suggestion of trying one memory module at a time is a very good one.
You could have a bad module, or possibly a bad socket. You can determine
rather easily by putting in one module at a time, if they report the same
amount of memory, try the other socket. It could easily be a simple bad
connection, don't be overly surprised if you take them out, put them back in
and it shows the full 512 MB.

 

[Ted Hill]

My mistake, I meant to say "MB RAM".

 

[Alex Nichol]

I don't believe that the video card is sharing system memory.

So, if I put in a single 'good' 256 MB stick, should the Control Panel show
the full 256 MB?

It is very improbable that a 256 MB module would have one 64MB section
not working. But your motherboard may have an on board chip, and the
RAM for that may still be reserved in BIOS settings, even if you are
using a separate card. Check in BIOS settings

 

[the JarHead]

Does your box have built in Video? Check the BIOS settings; if you
had the internal Video disabled it may have reset and re-activated.
This would consume 8-16-32-64 MB's of RAM.