Hiya everyone :)
I've recently installed 4gig of RAM into my pc and would like to know if there is a work-around for letting XP Home see all of it and utilize it in programs, currently it only see's 3.25gb of RAM under My Computer > Properties.
I checked my BIOS also which only seems to see about 3.3gig of RAM *scratches head* do i need to change something in BIOS? I've recently flashed it from the update on the iMedia1628 PB site..
Link: http://tinyurl.com/35g5l5
If that makes any difference? umm i was also reading around about some Boot.ini switch /3gb or something which allows your RAM to been seen by XP properly.. not sure if this will work on my xp home sp2 though?
If anybody has some info on this that they could help me with that'd be great :)
Thank you
Hannah xoxoxoxo

Oh also (sorry after-thought!) i have pagefile on set to "System managed size" which is "Currently allocated 3327mb"
Just thought that may help :)
Hannah xoxoxo

Is there a graphic card using shared memory?
So maybe the graphic card uses the missing RAM.
Therefor check the manual of the graphic card.

Not being an expert, only the 64-bit XP Pro will
handle 4GB.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888...
The RAM reported by the System Properties dialog box and the System Information tool is less than you expect in Windows Vista or in Windows XP Service Pack 2

Then again, your Motherboard has limitations too.

Chuck is right. Only 64-bit Windows will see all of your 4GB. For Windows 32-bit platforms, read the following article.

Dude, Where's My 4 Gigabytes of RAM?

i_Xp/VistaUser

@Chuck 2
@XpUser

What's about the System BIOS, which shows only 3.3 GB of RAM.
This has nothing to do with any windows verion.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=...
How to determine whether your computer is running a 32-bit version or a 64-bit version of the Windows operating system

paulsep,

Thanks for that - you're right! You also caught me for not paying enough attention to the original post. I guess I better refill my coffee cup.

i_Xp/VistaUser

No problem, I sometimes have the same problem and since that, I try to ready things twice before posting a hint.

:-)

PaulSep

Like I said, Motherboards have limitations as to
the amount of RAM that can be installed on them.

So BIOS, Basic Input-Output System, would reflect that.

Yeah that's what I ought to do myself, too :-)

i_Xp/VistaUser

@Chuck 2

Some Mainboard with onboard graphic card did not show all installed memory.
It's directly splitted in System RAM and graphic RAM, if the graphic card uses shared memory.

I know Sound cards could be 'Onboard',
but never thought about Video Cards being so.

There is something else going on here. In the first place large amounts of shared RAM don't come into play until you are in the OS. The BIOS configures the graphics as VGA which only needs like a couple or MB. I have not seen any intgrated graphics chip that can use 3/4 of a GB of shared RAM. I am guessing there is an issue with RAM compatibility here. Poossibly too many banks of RAM.

Hiya guys thanks for all the replies..
My motherboard supports 4gigs of ram (specifically says it on the mobo) also i ran Crucial's compatibility test to get exactly the right RAM, the graphics card is PCI-e ATI x600, which i'll be upgrading soon :)
I was wondering if the boot.ini switch will work on Home XP after SP2 and such, some state where i've looked that 3gigs will work and some say 4gigs will work on the 32bit XP.. i'll edit this post a little later when i have more time with more info :)
Thanks again
Hannah xoxoxo

In response to post 13 ...

Just wanted to say that I thought the problem could be just that this PB computer mobo couldn't handle 4GB RAM. The link below shows that the max it can handle is 4GB anyway. Therefore Othehill could be right about the wrong type.

http://www.memory4less.com/m4l_resu...

i_Xp/VistaUser

In response to post 14 ...

Once again the 4GB will not work to its full extent under any Windows 32-bit platform. Havde you read the article I posted in Response number 4 above?

i_Xp/VistaUser

In response to #15 & 16. While it is true 32 bit versions of Winodws can't normally utilize the full 4GB the BIOS should still recognize the entire 4GB. That is assumming the RAM is fully compatible. Once the OS is running any shared RAM will be deducted from the total along with RAM used for overhead.

"I was wondering if the boot.ini switch will work on Home XP"
Hannah what switch(s) were you thinking about?

There is NO switch to address more memory. You can limit memory [/maxmem]
You can reallocate user/system balance [/3GB]
You can enage PAE (if supported) for addressing MORE than 4gig of ram

There is no boot.ini switch that will make the OS read more RAM than presented by the BIOS.

32bit OS CAN address more than 4gigs of ram which is why PAE [physical address extension] programming exists.

3.3gig would be correct with hardware occuping ram. This is not shared memory like with with builtin video. It is hardware loading into system ram like a bios for that hardware.

Imagine the power of knowing how to internet search
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Teachin...

Report Offensive Follow Up For Removal

I read that post earlier too!! :) and thank you, my main question is without doing 'nasty registry hacks' and such is it possible to let applications use more than 2gig of RAM?
Could the /pae or /3gb switch in the boot.ini be any benefit to me on xp home sp2?
I'm not sure why the BIOS is reading 3.3 or so RAM but i can check again if you like? is there anything i would need to do in bios to allow more? like in the I/O settings or something?
Oh and just to say again the RAM is def compat and the mobo (thnx to crucial) .. even printed next to the RAM ports that it can take 4gig MAX.
Thanks for all your help thus far guys :)
Hannah xoxoxoxo

Hannah

I went to the Crucial.com site and they have no listing for RAM to fit your computer. Did you let crucial scan the computer? Did you add FOUR new sticks? Are you sure you didn't keep an original 256MB stick in the mix. That would explain the 3.3GB

Post what exact RAM you added.

"I checked my BIOS also which only seems to see about 3.3gig of RAM".

Hannah are you seeing those numbers in the startup screens?

What exact changes did you make to your RAM recently? How many sticks of what type of RAM are installed?

Crucial:
Q: How much memory can my computer handle?
A: 4096MB
Removing my old 2x 512mb sticks..

I bought 4x's of this 1mb stick:

Memory Upgrade for the Crucial Scanner Results Packard Bell Mexico motherboard (GA-8I945PM) for spec_Mexico Motherboard
1GB, 240-pin DIMM, DDR2 PC2-4200 memory module
* Module Size: 1GB
* Package: 240-pin DIMM
* Feature: DDR2 PC2-4200
* Specs: DDR2 PC2-4200 • CL=4 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR2-533 • 1.8V • 128Meg x 64

All i've done currently is installed the RAM everythin' else like flashin the BIOS etc was before that..

"Hannah are you seeing those numbers in the startup screens?"
Sorry my mistake *blush* In the BIOS it says
System Memory: 3328 (think thats what i might of seen)
On startup during the Memory Test/Check it says 3407872k.. hope this helps :)
Thanks so much for stickin' with me :D
Hannah xoxoxo

3328MB = 3407872K

You have 768MB unaccounted for. Does your motherboard have onboard video? If so, did you disable it to return the shared RAM back to the system? What about your X600 video card...does it use HyperMemory?

http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonx...

I don't think there is any integrated graphics chip that will use 768MB of RAM.

Hannah download SIW.exe and see exactly what it says about total amount of RAM and any RAM used for video. Find it below.

http://www.download3k.com/Install-S...

Hi guys *yawns* just woke up hehe..
Hope this is all you need, if not just tell me and thank you so much :)
From SWI:

Memory:

Property Value
Memory Summary
Location System board or motherboard
Maximum Capacity 4096 MBytes
Memory Slots 4
Error Correction None
Use System memory
Maximum Memory Module Size 1024 MBytes

Device Locator Slot 1
Manufacturer Micron Technology
Capacity 1024 MBytes
Memory Type DDR2 SDRAM
Speed DDR2-533 (266 MHz)
Data Width 64 bits
Voltage SSTL 1.8V
Error Correction None
Refresh Reduced (.5x)...7.8 µs
Manufacturing Date 2008, Week 53
Module Height 30.0 mm
EPP SPD Support No

(Says the above portion 3 more times i.e: slot 1-4 all the same)

Warning! Accuracy of DMI data cannot be guaranteed

Video:

Property Value

Number of GPUs 2
Number of GPUs in SLI mode 206
Display Adapter RADEON X600 Series
Video Processor RADEON X600 (0x5B62)
Video memory size 512 MBytes
Adapter DAC Type Internal DAC(400MHz)
BIOS Date 05/10/26
Display Drivers ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version 6.14.10.6618
Driver Date 2006-06-07 23:08:56
Inf File Name oem0.inf
Inf Section ati2mtag_RV380x

Display Adapter RADEON X600 Series Secondary
Video Processor RADEON X600 Secondary (0x5B72)
Video memory size 512 MBytes
Adapter DAC Type Internal DAC(400MHz)
Display Drivers ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version 6.14.10.6618
Driver Date 2006-06-07 23:08:56
Inf File Name oem0.inf
Inf Section ati2mtag_RV380x

Name RADEON X600 Series
Chip Type RADEON X600 (0x5B62)
DAC Type Internal DAC(400MHz)
Memory 512 MBytes

(Btw the video card is 256mb's, not sure why its saying 512mb.. wrong driver maybe?)
Also i'm not seeing a big noticable difference since i've upgraded this RAM, but maybe we can figure out why :)
Thank you all alot
Hannah xoxoxoxo

Well, from that information I guess I have been wrong about what should be showing in the startup screens. Learn something new each day.

I now believe your computer is functioning as it should. Don't worry about the lost .7GB of RAM.

Extra RAM is only useful if needed. Most tasks performed on a personal computer don't need 4GB of RAM. The only time you may see improvement is when using programs that can take advantage of the extra RAM.

Why did you feel the need to upgrade in the first place?

Guess I wasn't specific enough Hannah

There is nothing wrong with your system
There is nothing you can do to "read" more memory.
There is nothing you can do that will make any difference.

You might want to re-read the link Xpuser supplied called dude where is my ram?

Imagine the power of knowing how to internet search
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html

Hi guys :)
Responding to post #26:
I just wanted a little extra in my system, was only planning on getting 2gig seeing as i like to play online games (Getting a new card very soon) and just thought i could do with a little tune up, when seeing the price of 4gig from crucial i was fairly surprised/happy and decided to get the 4gig for when i upgrade to vista and for a little 'future-proofing' so to speak, so i won't need to add more later :)
I was just wondering if i could squeeze a little more out of the RAM and get it to show the actual '4gig' but thats fine if i cant :)

Responce to post #27:
That's fine wanderer, no need to re-read i was just curious as to where the rest was going and if i could get a little more out of it :)

I'm happy with my system either way right now and thank you all for your great responces and for the program link which is very handy :)
Cheers all..
Hannah xoxoxo

Jus' da facts, ma'am
We jus want da facts!

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/syste...

I too have the imedia 1628

I too have 4gb ram

I have Vista x86

Bios only shows 3328mb

my system info is as follows

Property Value
Memory Summary
Manufacturer None
Part Number None
Serial Number None
Name Physical Memory


Device Locator A0
Manufacturer None
Part Number None
Serial Number None
Capacity 1024 MBytes
Memory Type DDR
Speed 533 MHz
Data Width 64 bits
Bank Label Bank0/1
Form Factor DIMM
Total Width 64
Type Detail Synchronous


Device Locator A1
Manufacturer None
Part Number None
Serial Number None
Capacity 1024 MBytes
Memory Type DDR
Speed 533 MHz
Data Width 64 bits
Bank Label Bank2/3
Form Factor DIMM
Total Width 64
Type Detail Synchronous


Device Locator A2
Manufacturer None
Part Number None
Serial Number None
Capacity 1024 MBytes
Memory Type DDR
Speed 533 MHz
Data Width 64 bits
Bank Label Bank4/5
Form Factor DIMM
Total Width 64
Type Detail Synchronous


Device Locator A3
Manufacturer None
Part Number None
Serial Number None
Capacity 1024 MBytes
Memory Type DDR
Speed 533 MHz
Data Width 64 bits
Bank Label Bank6/7
Form Factor DIMM
Total Width 64
Type Detail Synchronous

Warning! Accuracy of DMI data cannot be guaranteed

Property Value
Display Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
Video Processor GeForce 8500 GT
Video memory size 512 MBytes
Adapter DAC Type Integrated RAMDAC
BIOS String Version 60.86.41.00.H2
BIOS Date 07/06/07
Display Drivers nvd3dum,nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2umx.dll
Driver Version 7.15.11.6925
Driver Date 2007-12-12 05:36:00
Inf File Name oem11.inf
Inf Section nv_G86_0

Any ideas why bios doesn't show full amount,

I have the same brand spec make as original?

Please reply