Cant use more than 2gigs?

[timph2]

Hi,

I just installed 2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-5300CL4D-4GBPQ

Into a dell XPS600 that had 2 gigs originally. Removed the old 2 1gig sticks and installed the new 4gbs. System seems to see it. BIOS shows 4 gigs and in windows system information displays:
Total physical memory as 4,096.00MB but only 1.07GB available physical memory. Total virtual memory 2.00 GB / 1.96GB available virtual memory

Under system properties I still only see 2.00GB of ram.

System is running XP Pro 32bit. I thought i could still get higher than 2 on this? Is there anything else I can to do use more of the ram or did I end up just wasting money?

Thanks for your time

[GSKILL TECH]

Strange, check to see if you have the latest BIOS for the motherboard.

Reseat the memory just in case.

Test each one to see if it detects 2GB.

If you see any memory hole remapping, or similar options in BIOS, make sure they are enabled.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[Tradesman]

Also might check in MSCONFIG.......go to START, type in MSCONFIG hit enter, should open a menu, select the Boot tab, then ADVANCED and check to make sure MAX MEM isn't checked

[timph2]

Thanks for the reply.

Looks like i am on the newest bios that I can find for it.. tried moving, 1 at a time and no issues. bios sees 4 with them both in, and windows Total physical memory sees 4,096.00MB but only 1.07GB available physical memory

maxmem also isnt checking.

Any other ideas that I could check? hate thinking i just wasted money on this to be at exactly what I was at before...=/

[Tradesman]

Did you check through MSCONFIG as mentioned above to see if Windows is limiting the amount of DRAM, XP Pro 32 bit should be able to use up to +/- 3.5 GB. Just went and looked at the system specs for XPS600 which seems to say that the system maxes at 2GB (total either 2 or 4 sticks) but it appears the chipset and windows can see all fine, may want to contact Dell, they may have placed a restriction in the BIOS or something, if everything sees the full amount, should be able to access it, unless Dell has done something, which it looks like they have from the spec sheet here:

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/t...=19&l=en&s=dhs

[GSKILL TECH]

Is 2GB available physical memory present with one module installed?

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[timph2]

I did check through msconfig for the setting.

Just read more about the xps 600 and others saying something along the lines too. I cant seem to find any work around for it either yet, so I guess Im just out of luck maybe.

2GB is there with 1 installed. 2 installed everything shows 4 but not available for whatever reason.

[Tradesman]

Might drop Dell a note and see if they have any input, new BIOS or whatever

[12in Below]

depends on shared video memory two... do you have a video card with 2gb or more? if you have 4gb physically there and a 2gb video card, or even any video card a 1gb up, then windows at best will only show 2.75gb available. normally it would only show 2gb because 2 is being shared with the video card. all of thats, of course only if you are using a 32bit version of windows and not 64bit where all 4gb would show up.

[Tradesman]

Any word from Dell?