Windows does not recognize Ram

pburlison6 · 03-01-2009, 09:24 AM

I have 4 banks for memory on my motherboard. I originally had 2 sticks of memory 256 a piece. About a year ago I installed two more 1gb sticks. Everything was fine. In my system setup it showed 2 1/2 gb of memory and in windows it showed 2 1/2 gb of memory. Yesterday I removed the 2 sticks of 256 and installed 2 sticks of 1 gb. This gave me a total of 4 gb. In the system setup it recognizes 4 gb but in windows it only recognizes 3.25 gb. Why is it not recognizing all 4 gb? Windows recognizes 1.25 gb of the new memory. Please help.

**Lead3** · 03-01-2009, 11:38 AM

My guess is you are using a 32 bit version of Vista. A 32 bit version only has 4.0 GB of address space and some is used for hardware, etc. Therefore a 32 bit system will only
be able to use about 3.25GB for memory. If you want to be able to use it all, you must install a 64 bit operating system.

Cobracon · 03-02-2009, 03:50 AM

This is the perrenial NOOB question...............

They ask before doing any Google searches.

03-01-2009, 09:24 AM	#1 (permalink)
pburlison6 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 9 OS: windows vista	Windows does not recognize Ram I have 4 banks for memory on my motherboard. I originally had 2 sticks of memory 256 a piece. About a year ago I installed two more 1gb sticks. Everything was fine. In my system setup it showed 2 1/2 gb of memory and in windows it showed 2 1/2 gb of memory. Yesterday I removed the 2 sticks of 256 and installed 2 sticks of 1 gb. This gave me a total of 4 gb. In the system setup it recognizes 4 gb but in windows it only recognizes 3.25 gb. Why is it not recognizing all 4 gb? Windows recognizes 1.25 gb of the new memory. Please help.

03-01-2009, 11:38 AM	#2 (permalink)
Lead3 Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Florida, USA Posts: 1,380 OS: 98SE,2000,XP SP3,VISTA SP2 x64 & x86, Windows 7 x64 & x86 My System	Re: Windows does not recognize Ram My guess is you are using a 32 bit version of Vista. A 32 bit version only has 4.0 GB of address space and some is used for hardware, etc. Therefore a 32 bit system will only be able to use about 3.25GB for memory. If you want to be able to use it all, you must install a 64 bit operating system. __________________

03-02-2009, 03:50 AM	#3 (permalink)
Cobracon Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Location: Roosterpoot, MS; US of A Posts: 63 OS: XP Pro SP3 & Win 7 RC My System	Re: Windows does not recognize Ram This is the perrenial NOOB question............... They ask before doing any Google searches. __________________ *Have you scanned the RAM timings for Operator's Headspace?? Too much real estate between the audio collectors will prevent proper operation of your computer.......B.Lowe* Last edited by Cobracon; 03-02-2009 at 03:57 AM.