Installed memory vs. "installed" memory

Finally got my mother's PC back from being upgraded, and I'm trying to get everything set up. However, there's something odd (at least to me) going on with the RAM.

When I profile the computer, I get this:

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448 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'A0' has 512 MB
Slot 'A1' is Empty

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A note at the bottom of the profile screen says that Windows might not recognize all of the installed RAM.

I know older versions of Windows couldn't directly see and use all of the RAM installed if you had over a certain amount, but I would think that XP would be modern enough not to have that issue. Is this how things should be going? Is there something I need to do to get XP to see all of the RAM, or is it seeing it all but just not reporting it?

see if its detected in the bios or during the pre-bios "count-up" (if your mobo does this). if not id say a stick is bad.

or if you have more than 2 ram slots sometimes ram has to be installed in certain ones if you're only running 2 sticks, which the people should have known before giving it to you. but then i question why the hell they gave it back with windows blatently saying what it does.

Sounds like onboard video. But yeah, try Dyne's suggestion.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by epmode

Sounds like onboard video. But yeah, try Dyne's suggestion.

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ahhh...good call. yeah if my suggestion doesnt work most onboard "video" uses physical memory as video memory. forgot about that.

That might be what it is then, because she has no actual video card - we're just running off of the motherboard's video support.

As for the bios stuff, I think you mean the information shown before the Windows XP "loading" screen comes up. If so, that stuff flies by way too fast for me to see. Is there a way to keep it up for longer to check it out?

theres a setting to enable "fast boot" which you might want to disable (well theres usually that option). theres another setting i cant recall off the top of my head. but just enter the bios and it should say somewhere how much memory you have, some even tell you what DIMM slots are being used.

You have to remember, you're talking to a Mac person here. "Disable fast boot" and "enter the bios" mean absolutely nothing to me. *heh*

im off work in a couple minutes. ill get into my bios and get back to you.

okay to enter "setup" or your bios. for my mobo i hold down delete during boot up. for most mobo's its an f-key. it will say on the screen what button to press. once there, in my settings i go into "standard cmos features" and then ram is listed as "extended memory".

if it says 512 there then its not a bad ram stick but probably more of what ep eluded to. sounds like its allocating 64 megs or so to the onboard and the rest to your system.

that's exactly what's happening, it's reserving x amount of ram for the onboard video, your ram is fine