Windows XP recognizes just 256MB out of the 1.2GB of RAM

Discussion in 'Windows OS's' started by zoobooboozoo, Jan 20, 2011.

  1. zoobooboozoo

    zoobooboozoo Geek Trainee

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    Hello there, i just switched the broken HDD on an old PC with another one, formatted and installed Windows XP SP3 on it.
    The motherboard on the PC - nForce 3 250GB.

    When I got to 'My Computer'-->'Properties' it says 1.81 GHz 256MB of RAM, while there are 1.2GB of RAM.

    I checked my hardware using CPU-Z, and what I got is what I really have inside the PC:
    2 X 512MB
    1 X 256 MB
    and a total of 1.2GB

    the specifications of the three cards is the same, all PC3200(200MHz), and the only difference between them is the CAS Latency which is 2.5 on the 256MB card and 3 on the two 512MBs.



    Anyone knows what might be wrong?
     
  2. zoobooboozoo

    zoobooboozoo Geek Trainee

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    when i pulled the 256MB out and restarted XP recognizes the 2 X 512MB
     
  3. Wildcard

    Wildcard Big Geek

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    Hi,

    I am not sure but maybe it is the difference in CAS latency causing the problem. I think the ram would try to run at the lowest CAS latency that is installed, but it can cause stability issues if the RAM wasn't designed for it. So if the 2 512 sticks are trying to match the 256 and it makes them unstable, I would guess that windows couldnt use it and then not give them addresses? But when you took out the 256 stick, there was no more conflict so the ram runs and is recognized with no problems. Was windows xp recognizing all 3 sticks before you reinstalled it?
     
  4. Ghostman 1

    Ghostman 1 Mega Geek

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    I would say that the 256 chip is bad, How does it run without it ? Is there any errors ?
     
  5. AngryKevin1oo1

    AngryKevin1oo1 Geek Trainee

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    Hmm, sounds like a bad stick of ram, I would go with the one you pulled out or you can just try running with the 256mb one to see if it's really bad, try running memtest, with all of them in the slots.
     
  6. Ghostman 1

    Ghostman 1 Mega Geek

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    What is the make and model of this pc ???
     
  7. supportmart

    supportmart Geek Trainee

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    Useful information about Windows XP and memory consumption.
     

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