4GB DDR II RAM but only 3GB visible

See related posts section just below your Post. Read all replies. Be sure to click on the link in jam's reply. There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.

This issue has been beaten to death. The bottomline is what you're seeing is normal when running a 32-bit OS with 4GB RAM. There's no patch, no way to "fix" it, unless you wanna install a 64-bit OS? This explains it pretty well: http://h20331.www2.hp.com/Hpsub/dow... "If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions" - Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction

The other day I was talking with my contact at Dell. Somehow we ventured off to talk about the 4GB. Below is what she explained: Well actually the 4gb memory on 32 bit OS will not read as 4gb but 3.5gb. the real reason is that , the 4 GB "bandwidth" is the TOTAL memory allowed and can be read by the 32-bit OS at one time. This includes Video, Cache, even sound memory allotments. The system memory (RAM) get the least priority. That is why the computer only "sees" 3.5 GB or so of available RAM. I guess the above nicely sumed up in layman's language for the nontechnies the more technical explanation provided HERE by Dell. i_Xp/VistaUser

Maybe even less technical: A 32 bit Operating System is limited to 4gb of memory. There are a bunch of memory addresses that are reserved for the OS and can't be used for anything else.