Windows only showing 2Gb of ram

[TW]Fox · 19 Dec 2008 at 11:37

Hi guys,

New Windows XP install is only showing 2Gb of ram. There are 4Gb in the system. I'm aware of the 4Gb 32bit limitation but when I had XP on my main machine with 4Gb of ram it would show 3Gb, which was fine.

This one only shows 2Gb. Whats wrong? I've got 2x2Gb sticks.

benjo · 19 Dec 2008 at 11:39

Does it show 2GB in the task manager? Also does it detect both on post? Stupid suggestion but I had this and one stick wasn't seated properly

Burnsy2023 · 19 Dec 2008 at 11:43

Like Benjo said, does bios see it happily? How many graphics cards do you have with how much VRAM?

bledd · 19 Dec 2008 at 11:43

the graphics card takes a huge lump out too

install xp64/vista64

[TW]Fox · 19 Dec 2008 at 11:48

I've only got two Vista 64 licenses and they are in use.

Problem solved - the IP35 Pro was only showing 2Gb of memory as they were in slots 1 and 3. Moved to 1 and 2 and 4Gb works fine, Windows shows 3.25gb.

bledd · 19 Dec 2008 at 11:51

do you lose dual-channel in that setup though?

[TW]Fox · 19 Dec 2008 at 15:31

Yes I do, which presents a new problem but this is more relevent in Motherboards so I'll start a new thread

Curiosityx · 19 Dec 2008 at 19:16

Have you tried setting the PAE switch in the boot.ini file?

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/server/PAE/pae_os.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/server/PAE/PAEdrv.mspx

Ive had similar issues on HP Proliant x86 Servers with 4Gb of Physical memory installed.

Regards