2.99 out of 4 gig ram showing...

[clquestor]

I have a Dell E510, Pentium D, and 4 gigs DDR2 memory installed. Just did a fresh install of xp home and only 2.99 out of 4 gigs ram show up in system info. I ran the Crucial memory scan and it shows that I have 4 installed. Is windows just unable to utilize all 4 gigs? Is it using it and not showing it? Any way I can get Windows to read all 4?

 

[mihir]

The rest of the gig is being used in shared video memory.
You can try any 64 bit OS

 

[Wolfeymole]

Is XP 32 or 64 bit?

32 bit will only allow 3GB of ram whereas 64 bit will allow a lot more.

 

[StrangleHold]

Is XP 32 or 64 bit?

32 bit will only allow 3GB of ram whereas 64 bit will allow a lot more.

XP came in 32 and 64 bit.

Not true. With XP 32 bit it can wildly vary between 3 and 4 depending on your hardware. It can see 4gb. but reserves some for hardware memory adresses, so you end up with what ever is left over available to the OS.

 

[johnb35]

At the most you will see useable in system properties is 3.25 gb. I'm running dual boot xp 32 bit and 7 64 bit with 4gb of memory and 3.25 is all I get in XP 32 bit.

 

[steveamedo]

If it is a 32 bit windows os yet and x64 processor you will have this.. see if your computer has a 64 bit processor... This most likely is the problem.. Re install windows.. so backup your files and re install windows, driver, programs, and then you will utilize the full potential of a 64bit OS... it will also allow you to use the readyboost to it's full potential as well

 

[CrayonMuncher]

If it is a 32 bit windows os yet and x64 processor you will have this.. see if your computer has a 64 bit processor... This most likely is the problem.. Re install windows.. so backup your files and re install windows, driver, programs, and then you will utilize the full potential of a 64bit OS... it will also allow you to use the readyboost to it's full potential as well

What?

 

[linkin]

You need to install a 64-bit operating system.

 

[Okedokey]

Ok, this is the facts.

Windows has not given its users a licence to use kernel which is in all versions of 32 bit os to address over 4GB of memory in total. You can research PAE and 4G tuning however this would not be in accordance with the forum rules as you would be breaking the EULA.

As such (even though it is possible), a Windows 32bt OS will only be able to address 2^32 = 4GB of memory total. So 4GB minus your video card, hdd memory, sound card memory etc etc will = less than 4GB (e.g. 2.9GB) on a 32 bit version of Windows.

As others have mentioned, 64bit os is required to go above this legally.