Asus motherboard p5lp le Bios reads memory wrong

[pennyhenny]

I have an HP Pavilion a1620 PC. I was running two, PC2-4200, 512 MB sticks. I upgraded to a total of 4GB, 4-1GB sticks in each bank. I realize XP does not register the full 4 GB. But it does register over 3GB. The problem is in the BIOS it is registering as a total of 128MB, 32 MB in each bank and also says it is PC2-5300 which my mobo should be able to handle even tho the sticks I ordered was suppose to be PC2-4200 and says so on the labels. I have went to HP website and updated drivers for my BIOS, but has made no difference. I took out all but two of the sticks and it still shows them as 32MB sticks. Can anyone help or suggest what to do?

 

[jaquith]

Welcome to Tom's Forum!

I would first try to Clear CMOS, if there's no jumper then unplug and remove the CMOS battery ~10 minutes. Boot into the BIOS, set the date/time and Load Defaults, and check remapping, save and exit = Yes.

BIOS:
Remapping -> Disabled {32-bit}

None of this really explains the low amount of RAM. My assumption is that RAM is incompatible with your system.

Q - When you right-click My Computer | Properties how much RAM is listed?

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Pavilion%20a1620e&Cat=SSD
DDR2 PC2-5300 • CL=5 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR2-667 • 1.8V • 128Meg x 64 • • Part #: CT625429

 

[pennyhenny]

Welcome to Tom's Forum!

I would first try to Clear CMOS, if there's no jumper then unplug and remove the CMOS battery ~10 minutes. Boot into the BIOS, set the date/time and Load Defaults, and check remapping, save and exit = Yes.

BIOS:
Remapping -> Disabled {32-bit}

None of this really explains the low amount of RAM. My assumption is that RAM is incompatible with your system.

Q - When you right-click My Computer | Properties how much RAM is listed?

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Pavilion%20a1620e&Cat=SSD
DDR2 PC2-5300 • CL=5 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR2-667 • 1.8V • 128Meg x 64 • • Part #: CT625429

It is 3.62MB of RAM

 

[pennyhenny]

WIN XP registers the correct amount. It is the BIOS that doesn't. I have checked the specs for my mobo and it should be able to use 5300.

 

[jaquith]

It is 3.62MB of RAM

You couldn't even boot into Windows, do you mean 3.62GB of RAM? If so then you're fine and ignore the BIOS; it could be 'reserved' for MOBO chipsets, devices, etc.

In the Task Manager {Ctrl + Alt + Delete}, Performance tab:
Physical Memory
Total = ?
Available = ?
System Cache = ?

edit: in your BIOS does it have the following?
System Memory
Usable Size : XXXXX MB

 

[johnnyq1233]

It's probably a bios reporting error...systems built by hp/compaq, dell and others are designed for customers that do not know anything about computer hardware...
So their bios is set to standards that are limited...
Therefore upgrading is designed to be done by their service centers..costing you losts of money and keeping the employees jobs intact!!
If the memory displayed in system info is correct then I wouldn't worry about it too much!...
JQ

 

[pennyhenny]

You couldn't even boot into Windows, do you mean 3.62GB of RAM? If so then you're fine and ignore the BIOS; it could be 'reserved' for MOBO chipsets, devices, etc.

In the Task Manager {Ctrl + Alt + Delete}, Performance tab:
Physical Memory
Total = ?
Available = ?
System Cache = ?

edit: in your BIOS does it have the following?
System Memory
Usable Size : XXXXX MB

Yes I meant 3.62 GB of RAM.

 

[pennyhenny]

As WinXP is reading the memory correctly, I am not going to worry about it. Thank you all for your responses.

 

[pennyhenny]

Best answer selected by pennyhenny.