My memory only registers half of what it is. I talked to a tech at Crucial, and she suggested I update my bios before installing new memory, as that may be the problem. My motherboard is a giga-byte GA-6WMMC7. I've never updated bios, and it scares me! Should I buy more memory instead anyway and forget bios?

Updating the bios is a tricky and could be a dangerous thing to do. You could wipe out the motherboard, if the update is not the correct one. Some investigating is needed to make sure you have the right one. Check your ram, you may just need to replace or add some ram sticks. There are several programs that you can download that will check your memory. Check at majorgeeks.com.

Check to see if the BIOS chip is socketed or soldered to the motherboard. If it's sockited you don't really have to worry about it you can always order another pre programmed chip if it goes wrong. If it's soldered only update it as a last resort unless your very handy with a soldering iron. Although as long as you get the correct update and the power source is reliable everything should go ok.

The usual situation with ram registering only half is because you have high density ram in a motherboard that only supports low density double-sided. A bios update will not be of any benefit in this case. Having checked the crucial website it is apparent that the largest size stick you can put in that board is 256mb. Given the age of the board it definitely takes low density ram. I have a similar vintage gigabyte board in one of my systems and it has the same ram limitation. 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.

Richard59..... I have 128 in slot 1, and 256 in slot 2 (although both read half of that). Can you suggest exactly what I should replace those with? Two sticks of 256?

I agree with Richard59... What you will need to do is take a lokk at booth sticks of RAM. Most likely one of the has chips on one side of the stick and the other has chips on both sides of the stick. Your motherboard will only take RAM that has the chips on both sides of the stick. Replace the one that has chips on one side. Another thing to keep in mind is that some older motherboards require your RAM configuration to be symmetrical, meaning, you will need two 128s or two 256s not one of each.