[Memory] 4GB RAM and Windows XP

G

Guest

Guest
Hi,
I have 4 GB of RAM installed and my Windows XP Pro shows only 1.87GB.
All of them are 1GB sticks (4 X 1GB @ 400MHz DDR1). I understand because of the memory restriction to 4GB in 32bit OS I can get from 3.2GB ~ 3.7GB in 32bit OS where as am getting only 1.87GB. If i remove one stick then it shows 2.87 GB (i.e., for 3 X 1GB it detects 2.87GB and for 4 X 1GB it shows 1.87GB)

My System Details are as follows:
Motherboard : Asus A8N-VM
Processor: AMD Athlon64 X2 Dual Core 3800+
OS: Windows XP Pro SP3 32bit

Note: My BIOS's system information tab reports the correct amount of RAM. I am using 128MB for the graphics card shared from the RAM. Please clear my doubts and help me to use the max of my RAM.

Thanks in advance.
 

hesskia

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Jan 18, 2008
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run memtest on each individual stick to find out if any are faulty--also, some motherboards have issues with 4 sticks of ram.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Memtest with individual stick shows no errors. Motherboard officially supports 4gb and has 4 slots. The thing am wondering is, it shows 2.87gb for 3 x 1gb stick and 1.87gb for 4 x 1gb.
 

hesskia

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Jan 18, 2008
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Are the sticks all the same brand? you may be mis matching sticks with different voltages. try setting the voltage manually.
 

rockyjohn

Distinguished
Did you test each slot to make sure they work?
If you pull one of the four sticks, do you get the higher reading regardless of which slot you pull it from?
Download CPUz and see what it reports for each stick with 4 on board.
 

juvealert

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Apr 13, 2006
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Are u using onboard Video Card ? You may need to reduce the amount of ram allocated for it*. Borrow a video card insert it in the PCIe port and check whether u get all the the installed ram

try one stick installed and boot to windows check the capacity if its ok
insert another stick and reboot to windows etc. as soon as u get less capacity try increasing the ram voltages from bios.


edit: * if it set to Auto (not sure if bios lets u set this option to auto) set it to 512mb or 256mb
 
G

Guest

Guest
thanks for the reply guys..
@ hesskia:
1 stick is Hynix. Remaining 3 sticks are Transcend. All the 4 sticks are operating on 2.5V. Tried manual setting as well, didn't work. Same output.

@ rockyjohn:
Tested each slot and each stick. And yes If i pull one of the four sticks, I do get higher reading regardless of which slot i putt it from. CPU-Z detects all 4 sticks without any problem and shows voltage, frequency and everything as same.

@ juvealert:
Yes I am using onboard video card and it uses *only* 128MB for it. Tried increasing the voltage one by one and no success.
 

brandex

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Jan 24, 2013
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hi' just thought i would let you know ... i have a asus a8n-vm mother board in my p.c'' and if you run a 32 bit o/s then it will not recognise 4 gig of ram ... but it will if you use a 64 bit o/s ..... might help you :hello: ???