Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB, but Available Physical Memory is only 380.05 MB???

[jinjen]

Masters,

Confused computer novice here...

Yesterday, I upgraded the ram in my Dell Optiplex GX240
from 128mb to 512 mb, but as the title indicates, when I
initially boot up the system, it only gives me 380ish mb
available memory.

I understand some h/w or s/w takes up some ram, but
MORE THAN 130MBS?????? That is more than the initial
128 mb ram that the system came with.

I only installed a few softwares - MS Office 2000, Norton
systemworks, and a few drives - and wonder what's going on...

Pls advise.

Thanks in advance!

 

[busmaster11]

What exactly gives you that, the POST or within Windows?

If its within Windows, I know 2k/XP will allocate a certain amount to itself, from ~73Megs out of a 128 meg machine to ~118 on a 256 meg machine. Its entirely possible it allocates 130 on a 512 machine... Its not all being used, but Windows will nab it anyway...

Originally posted by: jinjen
Masters,

Confused computer novice here...

Yesterday, I upgraded the ram in my Dell Optiplex GX240
from 128mb to 512 mb, but as the title indicates, when I
initially boot up the system, it only gives me 380ish mb
available memory.

I understand some h/w or s/w takes up some ram, but
MORE THAN 130MBS?????? That is more than the initial
128 mb ram that the system came with.

I only installed a few softwares - MS Office 2000, Norton
systemworks, and a few drives - and wonder what's going on...

Pls advise.

Thanks in advance!

 

[stevewm]

How exactly did you upgrade it?

Did you replace the 128MB module with a 512? If thats the case some motherboards don't support a module that big... Most mobos like this will only detect some of the RAM.

 

[jinjen]

Thanks for the replies.

The system's OS is Windows XP.

I replaces the 128mb with two 256mb sticks,
and it seems it does recognize all 512mb.

busmaster11,

Wow, I didn't know windows take up so much!

Thanks again.

 

[ALstonLoong]

some mobo cannot take 2 stick of double sided ram in 2 ram slot. so if you have 3 ram slot , try to locate the other 256mb ram into another slot.

 

[MrDudeMan]

no, thats just what windows xp does with RAM, its not the mobo


if you all havent noticed, windows XP makes the computer a LOT faster, no matter what speed the components are...in order to do this, it has to allot (sp?) itself more RAM than its predecessors.

you are fine, why do you care anyway? are you going to use all 380mb of ram? games dont even touch a lot of that, and if you arent playing games, are you planning on opening up every application on your computer - three times?

 

[owensdj]

jinjen, go to the Performance tab of your Windows Task Manager. You should see something like 523740K as the Total under Physical Memory if Windows XP is using all of your 512MB of memory correctly. You will see a lot less than that under Available. That's because WinXP uses much of your memory in the System Cache to increase performance. I have 512MB of memory with 201556K as Available and 305912K as System Cache at this moment.

 

[ALstonLoong]

jinjen .. wat do you mean by initially boot ? In the bios ? or in the windows ? If is in the bios, u only see 380mb of ram, try to but the other 256mb ram into another ram slot.

if is in the windows, how do you find out it only gives you 380mb ram ?

 

[busmaster11]

Originally posted by: ALstonLoong
jinjen .. wat do you mean by initially boot ? In the bios ? or in the windows ? If is in the bios, u only see 380mb of ram, try to but the other 256mb ram into another ram slot.

if is in the windows, how do you find out it only gives you 380mb ram ?

This has been resolved. People really ought to read the thread before they post...