patzky1 Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 Hey all, I figured this was a good as forum as any to ask a computer question since many of you here are more savvy than I. My computer stats: Socket-A Amd Duron, 700 MHz ASUS A7V8X-MX (333/266/200 MHz FSB) a 256MB DDR 266 and a 128MB DDR 266 for RAM XP SP2 (Dell edition from a friend) Ok, so the BIOS recognizes all of the ram, 384MB, at POST. However, when the system gets all booted up and I go to check the system properties it says only 64 MB of RAM!! This does not seem to be a simple setting problem because whether I only put in one of the RAM sticks or both it will always only say 64 MB. How do I fix this? Is there some setting I can change or what? This is teh suck. If it helps, when the computer used to run Millenium Edition it recognized all of the RAM, but thats apples to oranges since its now XP. By the way, XP does not run well on 64 MB of RAM... Any help MUCH appreciated! Pat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 Hmm, do you have an onboard vid card that is allocated a bunch of it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mario_82_ZXT Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 Go to Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Information. Check to see how much RAM it says it has. Like stated by yourself, XP will not run with 64 mb of ram. You would get an error message if that is what the system thought it had. Mario Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patzky1 Posted February 17, 2005 Author Share Posted February 17, 2005 Mario: Well, actually it Does run with 64 ram, but it runs with a lot of virtual memory, around 110 MB (read: slowly). I'm using it right now as a matter of fact. Drax: I'm using the motherboard's VGA port, with no video card installed in the AGP slot. Shouldn't be a problem, right? I think it is more an OS setting issue. This is what the memory part of "system information" throws out, but I can't see where it says anything about memory: 0xFFFF0000-0xFFFFFFFF System board OK 0x0000-0x9FFFF System board OK 0xFEC00000-0xFEC00FFF System board OK 0xFEE00000-0xFEE00FFF System board OK 0xFFF80000-0xFFFEFFFF System board OK 0xDC000000-0xDDFFFFFF VIA CPU to AGP Controller OK 0xDC000000-0xDDFFFFFF Video Controller (VGA Compatible) OK 0xD8000000-0xDBFFFFFF VIA CPU to AGP Controller OK 0xD8000000-0xDBFFFFFF Video Controller (VGA Compatible) OK 0xD0000000-0xD7FFFFFF VIA CPU to AGP Controller OK 0xDF001000-0xDF0010FF Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller OK 0xDF002000-0xDF0020FF VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter OK 0xA0000-0xBFFFF PCI bus OK 0xA0000-0xBFFFF VIA CPU to AGP Controller OK 0xA0000-0xBFFFF VgaSave OK 0xC0000-0xDFFFF PCI bus OK 0xC8000-0xCBFFF System board OK 0xF0000-0xF7FFF System board OK 0xF8000-0xFBFFF System board OK 0xFC000-0xFFFFF System board OK 0x100000-0xBFEFFFF System board OK 0xBFF0000-0xBFFFFFF System board OK 0xC000000-0xFEBFFFFF PCI bus OK Pat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 Even a cheap *** 32mb video card in the AGP slot will dramatically increase your performance over onboard video. Can't recommend enough that you find something to put there! Your system RAM is being allocated to the on board video card. If you get a real video card you will once again have your system RAM available to you for its real purpose. Something like a ATI Radeon 9200 SE 128MB will cost you less than $50 and make a night and day difference to the way your whole system operates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaleMX Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 Try pulling the 128 stick out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tannji Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 In your machine's bios there will be a setting that controls how much system memory is allocated to onboard ram. There is no doubt that getting an inexpensive AGP card will increase the performance of the system... but dont get a PCI card.... there is no real justification for it, AGP is quite inexpensive, and an AGP card functions better as a bus-master. (grabs resources better than a PCI card.) As for ME vs XP.... as long as you hardware is good, (and your mobo is decent) and you have everything installed properly, there is no comparison between ME and XP. ME is a crippled POS that was meant to hook people to the newer look of windows, and was never intended by MS to be used or supported for very long. I wont get into all the issues that are inherent with ME, but being as XP is already installed, keep it, it does everything better than ME, including networking, ie: internet will run better, not that you will notice if you are on dialup, lol. Also, even tho 256MB is the lowest recommended amout for XP... you might have a problem with that mobo and running 2 different sizes of ram. Good luck.. post back with followup! tannji Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zfan Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 Windows XP sucks butt! When I tried to add the service pack 2 upgrade/updates the computer locked up then crashed. I learned to run Ghost software and ghost my hard drive so I don't have to go thru that again. Bill Gates and Microsoft suck. I will never own one again. Apple is the only way to go! Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tannji Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 LOL... there is no definitive operating system.... I used to do a lot of work with images, and most of the machines were macs.... being as I was more familiar with MS... I hated life for the most part, because of all the lost files, file system coruption, ect.... I had by far more trouble with the mac OS than I have had with 98 or XP. Most of that was due to comfort level with the software. SP2 works well for most people, and for those that did have issues, most were compatibility problems and have since been resolved. Having lots of experience with MS, I waited 6 months before installing SP2.... and have yet to have an issue with it. I have never once had a BSOD with XP, and any lockups or crashes were due to specific software problems, not OS problems. Then again, I build all my own hardware, and dont have to worry about as many hardware or software incompatibilities. Being as I like to have access to hardware and software options that arent available with the macs, I stick with MS or linux and X86 for now. With Cell on the horizon, perhaps that will change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patzky1 Posted February 17, 2005 Author Share Posted February 17, 2005 Ok, so I'm going to get a cheap video card for the AGP slot to see if that helps. I agree with you guys that it will definetly free up some ram, but I still dont' think that is the problem. I really think that XP is somehow only sensing 64 mb of ram total...We'll see, I'll post later what the result is. Oh and thanks for the input, guys! Pat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tannji Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 XP doesnt actually sense ram.... (XP tells you what the bios and firmware told it during the post and boot sequence) so if in fact you are unable to get rid of the problem thru bios tweaking or hardware swapping, it will most likely be a problem with your actual ram slots.... pretty strange one too, as most problems in that area would usually either prevent booting or cause lots of error messages. My money is on configuration probs.... I think you'll figure it out, or accidently fix it thru adding or removing hardware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COZY Z COLE Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 First let me say that anyone suggesting the the "unstable" ME is better than XP as a OS needs to do some serious research on that subject...... There has been reported problems with XP SP2 recognizing total ram. Go to this MS link for info. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;888664 In following Mario's directions the first page when you click system info is System Summary. Drop down the list and you will see Total Physical Memory. That is the ram your machine is recognizing. On some older motherboards they will not accept more than a 128k stick in a slot or they need to have jumper wires changed. A check of your manual or the manf. web site will give you this info. Also it is wise to not mix type/manf. of ram sticks when adding memory. As to the statement that XP is using all the ram even at idle........Free/unused ram is bad....... By design XP is trying to utilize all the memory and when an application comes in it swiches that memory to it . I paid for it and I want it used. How much RAM do you need for XP??? 256K min...........512k good...... 1G ideal. Compared to a few years ago RAM is cheap...... More ram .. more speed, of course to a point. I notice your processor speed is 700mhz so I'm guessing it is an older machine. The basic new DELL processor speed is 2.4ghz and what a difference that makes in opening/closing applications. There are additional ways to speed your computer up such as a reg. cleaner, deleting temp. internet files, optimizing your hard drive,checking your start-up programs,ect. FWIW LARRY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheelman Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 240zJake, You'll never see a BSOD from ME. It doesn't display a BSOD like all the NT variants do, it will just die on you. As for XP being a resource hog I have to disagree and side with Cozy, it will use all the memory available to it and then re-assign it as needed. I have run it in a VMWare partition with only 128 meg of ram and it was fine, a bit slow because I have a dual 500 MHZ machine but it was usable. Patzky1, When you buy that AGP video board be aware that some older MBs don't provide enough power through the AGP slot to drive them. I got an Invidia card for mine and ended up exchanging it for a PCI board because my AGP slot wouldn't drive it. Another thing, stop being so cheap and get a registered version of XP home. It's only $99.00 and then you'll be able to keep it updated with all the latest security patches. The DELL version has DELL specific drivers that might be part of your problem. Tannji, No app should be able to crash or hang XP. Anytime that happens its a driver or system service problem, unless you're running system hacking tools that know how to hook into the lowlevel guts of XP. If you're doing stuff like that which fall way outside the accepted Windows programming model then all bets are off. One thing all of you need to know is that none of the NT variants of Windows (NT, 2000, XP) use any of the bios for anything other than the initial boot. Windows scans all the hardware in the system to determine exactly which drivers to load. It has to do this because the bios is written to run in the very old x86 real mode which Windows does not use, if it did we would still be dealing with the 1meg memory barrier and 640k of usable ram just like in the MS-DOS days. But my guess is none of you guys have ever dealt with DOS. Wheelman (20 year veteran of the programming wars) "One OS to rule them all, One OS to find them, One OS to bring them all and in the darkness bind them." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandonsZ Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 Look at your task manager it will say memory usage. CTRL-ALT-DEL Task manager click around the tabs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auxilary Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 first, do free checks. 1. see if there's a bios update for your motherboard 2. pull out 128mb dimm and see how it works. if there's no change, pull the 256 one, but leave teh 128 in. troubleshoot. if it shows a different number, something's wrong with the ram identifier on the dimm chipset 3. the above comment about a better videocard is dead on. PM me and remind me to look around, I may have a spare diamond 32 meg agp somewhere, I think. You can have it for cost of shipping if I find it 4. Lose the duron 700. That's about as fast as a celeron 400. It has 64k cache, and is DOG slow. Find a used athlon xp 1500+ or higher (number does not equal actual speed, 1500 is more like 1.2 ghz) and use that. 384k l2 cache > 64k l2 cache 5. I'm not sure if that motherboard properly allocates ddr memory. I would try pc133 if your board supports it, you may ahve better luck. Something tells me you have an ECS K7S5A motherboard that supports both PC133 and DDR memory banks, but only one set at a time. to those bashing XP: it's actually one the most robust OS microsoft has produced for the end user since windows 3.11 (which wasn't even an OS). Mine hasn't BSOD'd since I've installed it 2 years ago. I had a small problem with first release of SP2, but system recovery actually did a wonderful job on the rollback. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mario_82_ZXT Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 Again, like stated above, check to see if your motherboard has a slot for two kinds of ram. I have a K7S5A and it only runs with one type of ram. You have to choose which, and DDR is better. Check here for what windows detects: (my laptop, this is the main page in system info) I will also state that XP doesn't suck as bad as some of you claim. A computer is only as smart as the one using it. If yours sucks... well thats saying something :neutral:. Mine rarely BSODs, but that might have something to do with what I do Also, 256mb is enough for most people. I have 512mb on my main comp and it is more then enough for my games, photoshop, web dev, and whatever else I decide to do. Again, a Duron is slow, and most motherboards that support durons support athlon xp's (yours is kinda slow, so it might need an Athlon instead on an Athlon XP, sorry I'm not sure) Anyways good luck Mario Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patzky1 Posted February 18, 2005 Author Share Posted February 18, 2005 Ok this is what I get if I go to programs>accessories>system tools>system information: IT DOES read the total installed ram of 384MB. However, if you go to control panel-system it shows a different value: "AMD Duron, 699 MHZ, 64MB of RAM" i.e. the confusion I have right now! I am under the impression that the two should match. If I hit Crtl-Alt-Del and look at the performance section it says the total memory = 65,076K (65MB), available ~ 12,500K, and cache ~ 16,500K ----------------------------------------------------------------------- OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600 OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation System Name ... System Manufacturer VIA Technologies, Inc. System Model KM400-8235 (new in 2003, supports up to 2gigs ddr) System Type X86-based PC Processor x86 Family 6 Model 3 Stepping 0 AuthenticAMD ~699 Mhz-----(I know, I'm gonna update this soon enough) BIOS Version/Date Phoenix Technologies, LTD 1006, 9/15/2003 SMBIOS Version 2.2 Windows Directory C:WINDOWS System Directory C:WINDOWSsystem32 Boot Device DeviceHarddiskVolume1 Locale United States Hardware Abstraction Layer ... User Name ... Time Zone Central Standard Time Total Physical Memory 384.00 MB Available Physical Memory 4.03 MB Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB Page File Space 151.91 MB Page File D:pagefile.sys -------------------------------------------------------------- So, the system does recognize the ram but is not using it for some reason? I might also add that the computer had no problem recognizing (and using) all of the 384MB when it ran ME. Same setup still as during ME, but with a different HDD. Pat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mario_82_ZXT Posted February 18, 2005 Share Posted February 18, 2005 Total Physical Memory 384.00 MB Available Physical Memory 4.03 MB Hmm... Troubling sign. You either have a virus, spyware, or a resource hog because something has eaten up all the available physical mem. Try booting in safe mode and rechecking the stats, see if it is higher. If it is a lot higher, it is probably spyware. Run Spybot Search and Destroy, Lavasoft Ad-Aware, and a anti virus (update all of them first). If you need a free anti virus, there is one by AVG Also, try rebooting the comp to see if it frees up some more mem. Mario Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patzky1 Posted February 18, 2005 Author Share Posted February 18, 2005 REALLY don't think it's a virus, though. I have updated Norton that runs once a week, have run SpySweeper, etc. and never had more than a couple viruses pop up, the usual stuff. Also, the computer is not chugging away constantly like it would if it was as you suggest. After restarts it says about the same free memory every time. Pat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mario_82_ZXT Posted February 18, 2005 Share Posted February 18, 2005 That is still way too low. Is the computer very sluggish? You might have a lot of things running in the background. If your task bar is very long, that may be it. Try running some computer testing software, something that will test the memory. But if the computer is running OK (or faster then before you added the ram) I think it is probably just a glitch. An odd one at that. Mario Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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