Why is the RAM amount wrong in System Information

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Wayne_Reimer?=]

In the Help and Support Center in XP Home, there's a section you can
pull up under "Performance and maintenance" that gives information
about the computer. For some reason on my machine, it is showing half
the amount of RAM that is physically installed. The correct amount
does show up in the General tab of My Computer>Properties and in the
Task Mgr. Performance tab.

Should I be worried? Anyone know why this would happen?

Thanks.

wr

 

[DatabaseBen]

amount of "avail" ram for you, whilst the other is
in use and unavailable

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Wayne_Reimer?=]

in use and unavailable

That's a good guess, but it is labelled as "Capacity" and always shows
precisely half of the installed ram, no matter what demands are being
made on memory.

wr

 

[Val]

Exactly what "...there's a section you can pull up under "Performance and
maintenance" that gives information..." are you refering to?

What application/tool does it bring up, where you are seeing the incorrect
RAM value?

Val

">

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Wayne_Reimer?=]

Exactly what "...there's a section you can pull up under "Performance and
maintenance" that gives information..." are you refering to?

What application/tool does it bring up, where you are seeing the incorrect
RAM value?

Val

The steps to get there are -

Start
Help and Support
Performance and maintenance
Maintaining you computer
Get information about your computer
View general system information about this computer

In the screen that comes up after clicking that last choice, there is a
variety of system info, including memory, which is where I see the
incorrect RAM. All other places I've found where the amount of RAM is
displayed show the correct amount.

I ran a memory diagnostic test to see if anything obvious was wrong
with the memory, but nothing unusual showed up. I plan on installing
some more RAM soon and will be curious to see what happens with that
number.

wr

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Since we cannot determine exactly where it is that your looking, go to
Start/Run and type: msinfo32 and press OK. This will bring up the System
Information dialog. Look in the System Summary section for "Total Physical
Memory".

How much RAM do you have installed on the system?

 

[Val]

OK, I see what you're talking about. Guess I've never poked around in the
Help and Suppor that much.

What you're seeing looks to be a friendly face on information available in
other ways, as well.

Try this:
Open a command prompt (Programs/Accessories menu) and there enter
"systeminfo" (no quotes).
Does that give a correct Total Physical Memory value?

Val


Start
Help and Support
Performance and maintenance
Maintaining you computer
Get information about your computer
View general system information about this computer

 

[Zilbandy]

Try this:
Open a command prompt (Programs/Accessories menu) and there enter
"systeminfo" (no quotes).
Does that give a correct Total Physical Memory value?

There is no command called SYSTEMINFO in WinXP Home. I would doubt
that such a command exists in XP Pro, either.

 

[Val]

You're 1 for 2. It is a command available on XP Pro.

I use it all the time.

Why the hell would I have suggested it if it didn't exist?

Unfortunaltely for Wayne, it's not included in Home.

Val

 

[Val]

Try the system info tool at:
http://rjrsolutions.com/support/tools.php

Val

 

[Zilbandy]

Why the hell would I have suggested it if it didn't exist?

I don't know. That's why I mentioned it's not in XP Home.

Unfortunaltely for Wayne, it's not included in Home.

Yeah, but Start / Run and MSINFO32 works fine in the Home edition.

 

[Val]

I'd forgotten about MSINFO32 - that one really does put a lot of info in one
convenient view.

 

[Val]

It looks like the system information tool in Help and Support gets its
information in the same way MSINFO32 does. One of my machines is also
erroneously reporting 512MB Physical RAM, when in fact it has 1024MB (and is
showing 515MB available!) This shows up in both MSINFO and the H&S tool,
but is correctly reported by systeminfo.exe and in the
MyComputer/Properties.

Hmmm, back to the old expansion of XP - eXtra Perplexing


Val

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Wayne_Reimer?=]

Try the system info tool at:
http://rjrsolutions.com/support/tools.php

Well, I'm really not trying to find out if other system info tools come
up with the correct information, but rather, why this particular one
doesn't. I already know, for example, that XP itself shows the correct
amount when I right-click on My Computer on the desktop and choose
Properties. Since I first posted about this, I also checked my BIOS
setup program, and it also gives the correct amount that I've got
installed. Because of that, I'm less concerned about this than I was
at first - now I think the problem is most likely not something wrong
with my computer. Especially since one of your computers is also
showing the same kind of result.

wr

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Wayne_Reimer?=]

Since we cannot determine exactly where it is that your looking, go to
Start/Run and type: msinfo32 and press OK. This will bring up the System
Information dialog. Look in the System Summary section for "Total Physical
Memory".

How much RAM do you have installed on the system?

Right. On my machine, running msinfo32 is the same as clicking on
"Help and Support" from the Start menu, which is how I got there.
There isn't a System Summary section that I can see (I'm using Service
Pack 1, if that makes any difference). From the screen that appears
when I run msinfo32, to get to the system information, the steps are -

Performance and maintenance
Maintaining you computer
Get information about your computer
View general system information about this computer

My machine has 512 MB installed, which is what shows up in other system
information places, such as the General tab found under System in the
Control Panel. Also, that's what the BIOS setup program shows.

wr

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Wayne

Does your system have a video card that is integrated on the motherboard or is it a separate PCI card?

If it is integrated, this may be why all of the RAM is not available for the system. Integrated cards reserve part of the installed RAM for video related processing. A separate PCI video card contains it's own, onboard adapter RAM.

Open msinfo32 and look in Components/Display for the video adapter information.

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Wayne_Reimer?=]

Wayne

Does your system have a video card that is integrated on the motherboard or is it a separate PCI card?

If it is integrated, this may be why all of the RAM is not available for the system. Integrated cards reserve part of the installed RAM for video related processing. A separate PCI video card contains it's own, onboard adapter RAM.

Open msinfo32 and look in Components/Display for the video adapter information.

Your msinfo32 and mine seem to be different. I don't find
Components/Display. But, in Hardware Information (which is probably
the equivalent), it shows the video card that I'm using. The
motherboard has no intregrated video. I'm beginning to think this is
just an insignificant (I hope) software glitch, especially since Val,
elsewhere in this thread, has the same kind of thing happening.

wr

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Your msinfo32 and mine seem to be different. I don't find
Components/Display. But, in Hardware Information (which is probably
the equivalent), it shows the video card that I'm using. The
motherboard has no intregrated video. I'm beginning to think this is
just an insignificant (I hope) software glitch, especially since Val,
elsewhere in this thread, has the same kind of thing happening.

wr

That's possible, I don't have a version of XP Home installed here that I can look at.