RAM Problem!!

[chrisdl]

Hi, hope someone can help me with this.

I have 640MB of RAM installed on my pc (emachines 220 running XP Home) but when i go to computer properties it says i only have 256mb. I removed the 512mb upgrade that i installed over a year ago and rebooted the pc, checked and it was showing 128mb so i reinstalled the 512mb and removed the 128mb and rebooted the pc and it shows 256mb so i then put both in the pc and rebooted and it still shows 256mb.

I had no problem until recently when i noticed my pc was running slower than normal. My motherboard supports 2gig of Ram so i don't think there's an issue there.

Checked the bios and where it says "extended memory" the number says something like 650000kb. Is this RAM??

I'm getting desperate, hope someone can help.

Cheers.

 

[macdude425]

The absolute FIRST thing I would suggest is that you run Memtest86 and see if it returns any errors. Google for it and download it. Should the results return negative, you have bad stick(s), otherwise, we need to look into what else could be a problem.

 

[Nukem]

Have you checked your Bios? It could possibly be corrupt? giving false readings in the system. but other than that I agree with macdude... Bad stick of 512

 

[chrisdl]

Thanks guys.

I couldn't get memtest to work, i'm a bit of a newbie to be honest but i tried the 512 stick in another machine and it showed at 448mb. Put it back in mine and it's showing at 256 on it's own and with the other 128mb stick in the other bay.

I've tried swapping the sticks around with the same result.

The bios still shows 65280kb of extended memory.

Are there settings in xp that can be tweaked or do i have a mobo problem.

Thanks again.

 

[Nukem]

you can go into the bios and look for the RAM/ DDR settings... if it let's you change it from auto to DDR400 that might bring it up to system specs... Just a thought.

 

[chrisdl]

Nothing like that in my bios i'm afraid. I ran the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool and this returned no errors.

Do you think a bios update would help??

 

[chrisdl]

I've ordered a bios upgrade to see if that helps, the site ran "bios agent" and it recognised 640mb of RAM installed so it seems there is no problem with the stick or the DIMM sockets so i'm guessing it must be an issue with XP.

Any ideas?