? on amount of memory showing in XP

[eroica]

hello,
newbie w/hardware ? here. I just got a toshiba satellite 1400 W/no memory. I bought a 256mB valueram stick from Kingston. The laptop boots fine but XP says there is only 240mB of memory installed. I read the sticky about onboard graphics taking some memory. Is ther anyway to confirm this is what is happening. I just want to make sure i dont have a defective module that i should send back. The computer is working fine so far....

alan

 

[Rob423]

yea 256mb will show up as 240 sometimes cause your virtual memory takes some of it and it won't show up as 256mb, it's something like that i forgot exactly i know some system resource uses some of the memory for itself, your fine don't worry.

 

[mpasternak]

Shared memory with the built in video card

most laptops do this with the lower end graphics options to save money / space / power. if ya check the ammount of missing ram, you'll see it's exactly 16mb. about whats required for a minimum for modern graphics cards to run windows and stuff.

it maybe adjustable in the bios up to 128mb i've seen on some boards.

 

[fishmahn]

Concur - its the graphics RAM. You should be able to see/set that in BIOS. Even the Dell's here at work have it (they're not laptops but I've seen laptops with that setting in BIOS as well)

I've seen full range options (1/8/16/64 mb) and minimal options (1/8 mb) on integrated boards, so 16 may be the least you can do, or you may be able to lower it. If you don't game, usually the smallest is best (since you won't need the graphics memory)

Mike.

 

[eroica]

thanx for the replies. i went to the toshiba site and looked @ the specs. it says mobo uses trident cyberaladdin-t graphics controller w/16mB UMA external memory. this fits in exactly w/what u guys are saying....

alan

 

[Rob423]

oh yea i knew it was something like that.. virtual memory, graphics card memory ahh good try lol