RAM problems?

[Mouseferatu]

My computer is supposed to have 512 MB of RAM, according to the literature and the sticker on the machine. It never occurred to me to doublecheck that.

But now the system info is telling me I've got 384 MB of RAM.

Wha...?

I realize that I'm pretty tech-ignorant, but what are the possible explanations for this?

 

[MrFilthyIke]

My computer is supposed to have 512 MB of RAM, according to the literature and the sticker on the machine. It never occurred to me to doublecheck that.

But now the system info is telling me I've got 384 MB of RAM.

Wha...?

I realize that I'm pretty tech-ignorant, but what are the possible explanations for this?

Obviously, a lolcat was "in ur computr, stealin ur rams"



Sorry, I got nothing.

 

[ssampier]

Do you not have a dedicated video card? If not, your BIOS may take a chunk for shared video processing (in this case 128 MB). Most let you adjust that size.

Depending if you have the space for it and the age of the computer, you could easily get a PCI or AGP (newer computers would have a PCI Express slot) card that will free up your RAM and provide better display and performance.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Shouldn't this have been posted in the Software, Computers and D&D Utilities forum?

 

[Ranger REG]

I realize that I'm pretty tech-ignorant, but what are the possible explanations for this?

If you bought it from a store that offers technical support, then you should let the store's technician check it out ... while you're watching him.

 

[trancejeremy]

Probably onboard video is using it. Unless you got a computer specifically made for gaming, you probably have onboard video ('cause it's cheap).

 

[XCorvis]

Download SIW here: http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html?soptid=602

It gives you detailed info about your computer hardware and software. The website sucks, but the software is good.

Start the program, go into the hardware section on the left. Find Memory. It should tell you how many sticks you have in the system and what size they are. If it shows one at 512 or two at sizes that add up to 512, your video card is using the ram, and that's OK. If you see anything else, tell us what it says.

The alternative is to open the case and just look at the ram, but that can be a major undertaking if you're not used to computer innards.

 

[Redrobes]

Some old machines used to have limits on how much RAM you can add. If the motherboard has a 384 limit then adding more wont be detected. I had an old machine with this same issue. I had 4 DIMMs in it with 128, 128, and then I added a 256 and it didnt show all of it. As said before it could be allocated for video. The only way to be sure is to check the BIOS. If your not too tech savvy then I would just keep with it and not make any changes to it.

 

[ssampier]

I couldn't get SIW to work on my computer. I've had good success with CPU-Z.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

It tell you lots of good information about your CPU and chipset, as well as your RAM.