4GB Ram installed by 3.5 usable.

[Amplified]

There are no bios updates available for that HP model you have.

Dam.. I wanted to get full access to all my parts.. but this 3.5GB.. ugh

 

[Okedokey]

Just in regards to the other part of this conversation, members would be served by reading this:

In short, Windows 7 (unlike XP and earlier Windows versions) goes by the philosophy that empty RAM is wasted RAM and tries to keep it as full as possible, without impacting performance.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/windows-7-memory-usage-whats-the-best-way-to-measure/1786

This is also certainly my experience with Win 7 and 8GB of ram.

 

[larsch]

The mobo supports up to 4GB, however th bios is limited.

The chipset only supports an address space of 4GB. So that is the problem. No bios can fix that.