is my memory faulty?

[anime_dude07]

I bought 4 1GB sticks of memory, not name brand, and my system info only shows that it registers 2.75GB of it... is there somthing wrong with it? not in a big hurry I guess... just ki8nda wanted to know if I did soemthing wrong, or maybe it needs to be fixed in bios... help if you can...

 

[lancec2c30]

Are you running windows XP? If so that might be the cause of your problem... It only registers 3 gigs.... and 2.75 seems close to that.

 

[meat_helmet]

You must have a 32bit OS.

That means there is no way it will read more than 2.75-3.2GB of ram. It is a limitation of 32bit operating systems and there is no way around it.

I suggest you do one of three things:
1. Buy a 64bit OS
2. Exchange it for 2GB of some name brand RAM (eg, crucial ballistix)
3. Keep it and only run 2.75GB.

I would personally go with the 2nd one if i were you. But your OS will not 'see' any more than that...

 

[baron5]

wen i have used xp 32 bit i could run up to 3.5GB. apparently it still uses all 4gb but the rest is allocated to shared memory instead of ram.

im not sure if vista is different but if u want to use all 4GB properly get a 64 bit bases OS

 

[peterhuang913]

Are you running windows XP? If so that might be the cause of your problem... It only registers 3 gigs.... and 2.75 seems close to that.

Sigs are there for a reason. He has the 32-bit version and needs a 64 bit one.

 

[anime_dude07]

so with a 64bit OS, it will register the full 4GB?

sorry, can't exchange now... it was an eBay purchase, and I already threw away the packing materials... plus I really dont feel like going through all the red tape to do that...

how horrible would it be to just run it w/ the 2.75GB? and like baron said, does it re-allocate itself somewhere else?

one more thing... can I upgrade from a 32bit to a 64bit? or do I have to buy an all new version of vista?

 

[veg1992]

exactly... ^ and yes you can...