I have 4 GB of RAM installed, but DXDIAG shows only 3, as does the System info from the control panel. WHY?

Question

The BIOS recognizes all 4 sticks. 2 of the sticks are Ballistix, 2 are Dell (came with comp). Comp is Pentium Core 2 Duo custom from Dell.

I have verified that all sticks are working by installing individually and have also tried all the slots and different configurations.

Any ideas? Thanks.

Answer 1

well everyone sorta has the right idea. here is your problem:

in a 32 bit environment ie. windows xp home/pro/MCE

vista x86 operating systems, there is a technical limit on how much ram the pc can use. that limit is between 2.5 and 3.5 GB typically 3 or 3.5GB



now if you wish to get all 4gb of your ram you must upgrade to a x64 or 64 bit operating system ie.



windows xp pro x64, vista x64(any version)



there is no problem with anything. as long as your bios shows that 4gb is installes and working, then there is no problem



Simply put: this is a limitation of the 32 bit operating system environment.

Answer 2

Nope. And neither are those: Forgiveness of sins:Acts 2:38 · Washing away of sins:Acts 22:sixteen · Salvation: Mark sixteen:sixteen;Mark sixteen:sixteen; a million Peter 3:21 · getting into Christ:Galatians 3:27; Romans 6:3 · Being born back:John 3:3-5 · Being clothed with Christ:Galatians 3:27 · Union with Christ's loss of existence:Romans 6:3 · Sharing his resurrection:Romans 4-5 · Receiving the Holy Spirit:Acts 2:38-39 · getting into Christ's physique:a million Corinthians 12:13

Answer 3

When 4GB RAM is installed with WinXP (32-bit version), XP allocates a portion of that RAM for PCI-Express, PCI, onboard devices, etc. The result is the memory amount being reported somewhere between 3.0 & 3.5GB.



Just to explain a bit: 32 bit means you cannot have more than 4GB of RAM (2 to the power of 32 is 4GB), and because your BIOS, graphics card and other devices also claim memory, the amount of usable RAM is less than that. The patch I mentioned actually extends the address range to 36 or 40 or so bits (at least, that's what I gather), which will allow for a lot more memory.

Answer 4

The two people here that say it is your motherboard, they are the ones to listen to here. Unbeknown to a lot of us, many motherboard mfg. put 4 slots on their boards but never told us that 3 gigs of RAM was the max for a 32 bit processor. Of course it is not a problem if you have 4, 512 meg sicks. Check the specs on your Dell motherboard and you will find you answer.

Answer 5

what does the OS say? i am sure it is the OS which cannot recognise ur memory size. 32 bit OS can read max 4gb. add to this, the memory required by the video [are u sure u have less than 1gb for video mem?]



the question is a bit incomplete...maybe some additional info wud hv helped like>video card, dell model,

Answer 6

well u have to make sure they all have the same frequency same type of memory like pc3200 and/or DDR 2.

try :

-rearranging the memory wit the higher frequency closer to your cpu.

- maybe your system maxes out at 3gb of ram

- there is something wrong wit that that 4th slot



and dude best way to really help you out is call dell 24 hour support they'll have your answer like that and maybe if your computer have problems they'll fix it if you still have your warranty



hope that helps

Answer 7

Last time I had a RAM misconfiguration it was because the speeds didn't match between the different SIMMS mfg. I ended up replacing all the SIMM with the same mfg and I had the 4gig. Also, what OS r u running? Linux is rated at 4Gig. Pretty sure Win98 can't.

Answer 8

With 3 GB you reached the memory barrier of your computer's 32-bit operating system. Read this article and you will understand what happened. http://www.dansdata.com/askdan00015.htm

Answer 9

in the display tab of dxdiag, check if any memory has been shared. it should be 1gb approx. even if the dxdiag doesnot show it as shared then there should be 1gb approx video memory give or take 4-16mb (that is standard graphics chipset memory)

Answer 10

Some motherboards just won't (or, are not designed to) recognize if you have more than a certain amount of ram installed.

Answer 11

first check wht is the max amt of memeory yr mb will allow.