Missing Memory On Xp Pro

kingsam

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Joined
18 Dec 2001
Messages
130
Hi,can anyone help me,i recently did a format and installed xppro+sp2 and all my drivers etc,etc,but windows is saying in device manager etc that all i have is 1.50gb of memory,but i have 4 sticks of 512 installed,they sticks are all ok & the bios says i have 2gb??Any help anyone.:cry: :cry:

ABIT AV8 THIRD EYE MBO
3200 AMD 64 939P
2GB CORSAIR XMS(4STICKS)
6800 GT G/CARD.
 
Could be a problem with double sided and single sided ram. I would try each stick one at a time to see if they are working up to par, then try to switch the postions of the sticks as you add them see if it makes a difference.
 
Tryed one stick at a time and all of them are fine.Tryed them all in my m8s pc,and they all work.So any other sugguestions.Why does the bios find all the memory(2gb)and not windows?Help please.:cry:
 
I have a similar problem
I put in 4 1gb sticks
Win XP says 2.86 gb installed
Bios sees all 4gb
Had 2 1gb sticks and 2 256Mb sticks
Win saw 2.5GB
However - my performance has gone thru the roof :)
I checked Intel tech docs for my MB
no issue mentioned there
I called tech support at gateway - they said - yep - Win will not see it
in system propeties but it does work as 4Gb
 
Windows XP can only see 4gigs total RAM, whether it be physical or virtual. Turn off your pagefile, and you have all your RAM running.

Unfortunately some applications absolutely need to use virtual memory - in that case I'd recommend Windows Server 2003 as your primary OS.

XP will not see more than 3 gigs physical RAM
 
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turning off the pagefile does not change how much ram is running, it forces data to be paged out instead of those that go to the pagefile, these will more likely to be missed since the pages that can go to the pagefile have nowhere to go even if they are the best candidate

the pages that go to other files will be released in the stead of the pages that go to the pagefile if you turn it off

do not turn off your pagefile no matter what anyone tells you, do not lower the default no matter what anyone tells you

he said he has 2 gigs, so the four gig threshold is not the issue, I think the issue is probably hardware, something sharing memory isntead of having it's own, like the video card
 
Mastershakes said:
Unfortunately some applications absolutely need to use virtual memory - in that case I'd recommend Windows Server 2003 as your primary OS.

Thanks for reinforcing what I said Perris.
 
As far as i know i dont have anything sharing the memory,i have 6800GT 256MB GRAPHICS CARD,but that aint sharing anything i dont think.Im stumped on this one,windows is definitely slowed down a bit,by losing this 512 stick.Is there any memory testing prgs that i could try??
 
Mastershakes said:
Thanks for reinforcing what I said Perris.
I guess I didn't understand what you right mastershakes, but to clarify, all applications use virtual memory, it's the only way the operating system runs.

there is no turning off paging or virual memory, that can't happen, what you do when you turn off the pagefile is force the pages that go to differant files to be paged even when data that should have gone to the pagefile is the best candidate

the pagefile is for new information that has no other image on the disc or network, all files act as their own respective pagefile and the pagefile is only their for miodified or new work, that's it.

I guess I am more verbose then you are in explaining these things
 
kingsam said:
As far as i know i dont have anything sharing the memory,i have 6800GT 256MB GRAPHICS CARD,but that aint sharing anything i dont think.Im stumped on this one,windows is definitely slowed down a bit,by losing this 512 stick.Is there any memory testing prgs that i could try??
there is a chance your bios is acting the same way it's supposed to when you reach around 4 gigs, which is to reserve some address space for hardware...I don't know though
 
I just updated by bios to the latest version,and the memorys now all there and my pc seems to be running back as it was.I hope this is the end of this little problem.Thanks for all the advice guys,much appreciated:)
 
then it seems the bios was acting as though you were approaching the 4 gig limit and reserving address space for hardware...shakes was correct to point to threshold

the bios was poorly written, the manufacturer fixed it
 
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