Little ram trouble

[Stiffy]

Hi all,

Ok so I have an MSI K8N Neo 4 Plat MB which supposedly supports up to 4gb of ram.

Well, currently I have two 512mb pc3200 nanya chips in slots 1 and 3. I say 1 and 3 because if I try to use them in 2 and 4, the computer spins but it doesn't post or beep or anything. I dont care that much, I can manage with two gigs. So i go out and buy two 1gb sticks of Patriot pc3200.

I stick them in slots 1 and 3. Posts fine, but it only detects 512mb of ram. I tried just one, alternating between the slots. Still, only detects 512mb. For a second I thought maybe another slot blew. I'm stuck with these two darn 512 sticks, which together show 1g. Why won't two 1gb sticks show 2gb?!@!?

Thanks if you can help.

 

[philosofool]

Are you using 32-bit Windows? It can only address 4GB of total system memory and much of that address space is reserved for other stuff, including video card memory. If you have a lot of video RAM, it will take your system down to 3GB of available memory space.

HOWEVER, your computer is still using all 4GB, it just reports 3GB because that's all the OS can address to arbitrary programs. Removing that extra memory won't help you, so leave it in. (Also, upgrading your OS will get it back!)