Laptop only showing 512mb ram.

[Kelethar]

I recently purchased 2x512mb sticks of ram for my laptop. I bought exactly what was supported for it. But, it only shows up as 512mb instead of the 1gb that it should be. I've updated the BIOS, and I used Everest to check to see if the RAM is faulty. Everest shows that both of them are recognized and that they both have 512mb.

System Specs:
Sony VAIO PCG-K13
Windows XP Home Edition
Intel Pentium 4 2800mhz (21x133) Northwood
Installed Memory: Wintec 512mb PC2700 DDR SDRAMx2
BIOS Version: R0107X1 (Latest one for the laptop)

 

[carnageX]

Is your graphics card taking away the 512mb away from your system? Does the BIOS show 1GB system memory total?

 

[Kelethar]

No, I took the graphics card into consideration. It only takes away 32mb, so thats not the problem. BIOS shows 512mb (Excluding the gfx card subtraction)

 

[carnageX]

Try just one stick at a time, and make sure both of them are indeed working.

 

[Kelethar]

Tried them individually, each one showing up as 256mb ram.

 

[KurrentEweser]

Tried them individually, each one showing up as 256mb ram.

There's your answer. They sent you the wrong ram

 

[Kelethar]

I think it's the right ram though, because on Everest they are identified as 512mb ram, individually, 1000mb combined.

 

[KSoD]

Hello,

It should be 1024MB combined. Not 1000MB. 512+512=1024.

Check yoru BIOS settings for your onboard GFX. Could be that they are set to take 256MB or 512MB depeding on the amount of RAM you have in the system.

Cheers,
Mak

 

[Kelethar]

Geez, and I can't even do simple math.

Checked BIOS and said onboard graphics card is using up 32 mb of memory. Now, if my calculations are correct this time, that would leave me with 992 mb. Still more than what is showing. I'm pretty sure it's compatible because I checked my computer and it is compatible with PC2100/2700. But it's only displaying each one as 256mb. Computer isn't recognizing the other half of the RAM for some reason.

 

[KurrentEweser]

That's the result you would get when using sticks larger than what the chipset can handle. Your models specs says it can handle 1024mb. What chipset does Everest say it has? Also check your boot.ini file in the root of you C: drive and make sure there are no memory limit tweaks inadvertently put there. Such as /MAXMEM=512