The Quest for 4GB...Help!

[jdogg707]

So after being frustrated with my new iMac's dissapointing performance while running WoW, I decided to buy a new PC. I ran across the recent Dell Inspiron 530 deal that came with a 22" LCD for about $550.00 and decided to jump on it. I bought a new PSU, 8800GTS 512, 4GB DDR2-800, and an X-Fi Sound Card. When the machine arrived, I installed everything and went to town installing Windows Vista Business 64-bit edition. When Vista booted up into the GUI for the first time, I checked out the Start Center which said I only had 3070MB of RAM installed. I rebooted and checked the BIOS, sure enough 4096MB RAM were found. After doing much research I have yet to find an answer, as the machine supports up to 4GB of RAM according to Dell. I am running the latest BIOS from Dell's site as well. Here are my system specs:

Dell Inspiron 530
Intel Core 2 Duo 6550 2.33GHz 4Mb L2 Cache 1.33GHz FSB
4GB DDR2-800 (2 x 2GB) 5-5-5-12
eVGA 8800GTS 512MB Video Card
320GB Samsung Spin Point Hard Drive
16X DVD+/-RW Drive
Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Pro Sound Card
Dell 22" Ultra Sharp LCD
Microsoft Windows Vista Business 64-Bit Edition

Thanks for the help!

 

[MegaVovaN]

Did you install any fixes from Windows Update?
I heard something about this getting fixed via Windows Update.

 

[jdogg707]

Windows is fully patched through Windows Update. Is there another patch that you are reffering to?

 

[MegaVovaN]

I don't know 🙁
I was not referring to anything other than Windows Update.

Maybe check Operating Systems forum? This is not entirely hardware question - maybe people in OS forum can help?

edit: Also "System Memory" forum

 

[heyheybooboo]

4Gb minus the address space required by video cards, other system hardware and virtual memory equals the addressable RAM by the OS.

I guess that would be - regardless of 32-bit/64-bit editions of Vista

 

[Cutthroat]

Turn on memory remapping in your BIOS.