• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Windows XP on HP laptop only shows 256MB memory no matter how much you install

gigahertz20

gigahertz20

Golden Member
Screenshot of everything

http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/4450/memoryni6.jpg




So I did a clean install of Windows XP on a friend's HP laptop and installed everything, all of a sudden it feels really slow so I look at what Windows shows for memory and it only reports 256MB out of a total of 1GB (he has 2 x 512MB sticks). I tried installing both old and new chipset drivers to see if that would do anything, I updated the BIOS to the latest from HP's website, I also switched out his memory and installed new memory into the laptop, I took out a 2GB PC2-5300 stick from another laptop and put it in this laptop and still Windows will only recognize 256Mb out of the total 2GB. I also ran Memtest and it reported the correct memory amount and came up with no errors. Before I did a clean install of Windows XP Pro SP3, it didn't do this, so I have no idea why it is doing this now.

The BIOS reports 2GB, CPU-Z/System Information also report 2GB as you can see in the screenshot above, but Windows Task manager and System Properties only shows 256MB, and the laptop definitely feels slow so I know it's not using the full amount.


Anybody have any suggestions or anything? I'm at a total loss of what to do.
 
just as I thought "GPU: 256MB Nvidia 7200 Go(64MB On Board & 192MB Shared)" either the install of windows was fubared or the wrong drivers were installed and windows thinks you only have 256MB available.

I'd also run Memtest86+ for about 6 hours to make sure the ram is not having any issues. verify that they are properly seated too.
I know they show up, but it's better to be safe than sorry.
 
Originally posted by: robisbell
just as I thought "GPU: 256MB Nvidia 7200 Go(64MB On Board & 192MB Shared)" either the install of windows was fubared or the wrong drivers were installed and windows thinks you only have 256MB available.

I'd also run Memtest86+ for about 6 hours to make sure the ram is not having any issues. verify that they are properly seated too.
I know they show up, but it's better to be safe than sorry.
Click to expand...

I've tried many sticks of RAM and no matter what, Windows will only recognize 256Mb. What driver could be doing this? I installed the chipset drivers from the HP link I already posted and I also installed new chipset drivers directly from Nvidia and that didn't do anything either. When I open device manager in windows, there are no conflicts or exclamation points so I'm not missing anything.

When I right clicked "My Computer" and went to properties, there is one setting I clicked on while I was searching through everything and it said my boot.ini file was missing and it wouldn't let me in, wonder if that might be part of the problem or something.
 
This is going to sound odd, but I know in dells there is an option in the bios called "os install mode" and it will limit the memory available to the OS. Check to see if HP has something similar
 
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-75...4198&messageID=2836158

This guy had the exact same problem as me and several people posted good responses, here is what caused the problem, it has nothing to do with drivers it seems...

The issue is created by formating the primary hard drive on the HP Pavillion DV9074CL laptop with Media Center Edition and installing XP Pro. I believe the problem is with the boot.ini file and the way the system is partitioned.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I did, the laptop originally had Media Center Edition on it and I formatted it and installed XP Professional. Is there a way to reset or create a new boot.ini file? How would this even affect the amount of memory the system recognizes anyways?

When I formatted the laptop and installed Windows XP, I formatted the main OS drive only, there were two other partionions, one was a recovery partion and the other something else I'm not sure of, wonder if those other 2 partions are screwing it up or something.
 
you will have to wipe all the partitions and manually reinstall from scratch, hope you have a valid CD, and COA for the non media center XP you are using.
 
Don't know what's causing it. It'd be interesting to see how much memory you get when booting from a Linux Live CD or a BART PE CD.
 
Fixed it...

Created an image of everything, then I deleted all the partions on the hard drive, all the hidden HP partionions, one was a recovery partion. After I did that, I installed the image I made using Acronis...but then it gave me a "NTLDR is missing" and wouldn't boot windows. I ran the recovery console on the Windows XP CD and did the fixboot and fixmbr commands, and then it booted into windows. Now it properly shows 1GB of memory and all works great!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top