My computer is not properly recognizing my CPU and RAM. I have a PIII with 192 megs of RAM, and my computer thinks it has a PII with 64megs. And, oddly enough a PII/64RAM was what my computer originally had before I upgraded it several years ago. This is strange indeed. I first noticed this problem I was having when I installed a new graphics card in my computer. I installed a GeForce 3 and everything seemed to be working fine. I installed the drivers and I didn't think I had a problem. Then I downloaded the Warcraft 3 demo to test out my 3d card. The game was surprisingly choppy very, very, choppy and my harddrive was constantly making that loading noise. My system, with the new card, was fairly well above the system requirements, so I figured my harddrive probably needed defragmented. So I defragged my harddrive(which took only forever and a day). I then gave the game another try, but I got the same crappy performance. Then I had the hypothesis that maybe I somehow loosened a stick of ram in my computer when I was installing the card. So I right-clicked on my computer, went to properties, and checked to see how much ram windows was saying I had. It said I had 64mb! And not only that, it said my CPU is a PII when I know good and well it is a PIII! I proceeded to shut down my computer and I unplugged the power cord and opened up the case. I pushed in both sticks of ram to make sure they were in good. It didn't seem like they moved at all, it felt like they were in there pretty good already. But I had no idea what to do about the whole "PII" situation. I rebooted my computer and I watched the first screen. It correctly stated that I had a PIII, but when it when through the memory check it stopped at only at like 132 megs of ram.(it normally stops at like 196(which correctly shows up as 192megs in windows). And unfortunately I don't remember what it said when I rebooted my computer for the first time after I installed my new card). When windows loaded it said I had 128 megs of Ram and it was still saying a I had a PII. At this point I decided to go to computing.net and tell you guys about it. Any opinions or suggestions? Thank you for your time.

Go to RUN and type DXDIAG press enter...

The PIII as PII enumeration by Windows 98 (First Edition) is by design - FYI when M$ released the OS (Win98) back in the middle of 1998, the PIII's hadn't debuted back then, so not correctly identifying you PIII as one is no big deal. As we all know, this does not have any negative performance effect on the system other the improper ID, and I really wouldn't worry about that part too much. However, if it bugs you that bad, you can always acquire Windows 98SE (Second Edition) and you won't have to worry about that situation anymore ;-)

When re-seating your ram you have to actually remove it and re-insert it. Try swapping the slots that your ram is installed in to see if one slot or stick has failed, then test using memtest86 to see it isn't giving errors. I used to have a signature but it disappeared and I just couldn't be bothered writing another so please feel free to ingore this.

Thanks for all the replies. But what I do not understand is how exactly, one slot or one stick could have failed. At first it said 64 megs, then it said 128. I have a 64 stick and a 128 stick. So that would mean that the 128 stick(or slot) stopped working, and 64 stick(and slot) were still working. And then the 64 stick(or slot) stopped working and the 128 stick(and slot) started working again. But I'll move the sticks around and see if it helps. Also, any ideas as to how this happend? ESD maybe?

With parts that old, many things could cause that behavior.