PC not using all the RAM

sup2jzgte

New Member
I'm at a lost now, I have tried all I can think of and I need help.

Today I setup my old Dell Dimension 1100 desktop for my mother I did a fresh XP install and all works well except the pc is not showing all the ram that is installed.

In the PC I have a 1Gig stick and a 256MB stick and in the Bios all the ram shows up, but when I check My System only 256 shows. For troubling shooting I pulled the 256 stick out and tried the 1Gig unit and it still only shows 256. I tried both slots with each stick and no matter what all I get is 256. The odd thing is the bios shows 1280MB.

If either stick was bad the PC would not have booted.........correct? All the bios settings are correct, but for some reason I can not get all the ram to show.
 
If either stick was bad the PC would not have booted.........correct? All the bios settings are correct, but for some reason I can not get all the ram to show.
Correct if there was bad RAM it would not boot. I assume you are looking at system properties not some Dell tool called 'My System' right?
 
Ok I figured it out, damn Dell has some really odd features in their bios. I had OS Install Mode On and when its on the system acts like 98. Once I shut it off everything was fine.
 
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