oilfan04 Posted December 12, 2006 Share Posted December 12, 2006 Just earlier on in the day I purchased an HP Media Centre Laptop (equipped with 1024MB DDR2 RAM), and naturally I reformatted the C:\ drive (No one really wants all the preset stuff on there anyways). The problem I have now is that on my "About Windows" dialogue and when I open the properties under "My Computer", I find Windows is detecting only 256MB of memory (the onboard graphics accounting for 128MB) and the rest appears to have disappeared. However, the entire 1GB of physical memory is accounted for in my "System Information" window when I pull that up. I made sure to install the new .net 3 framework as well, with no luck. It appeared that the problem started when I formatted and installed WinXP Pro as well, and have googled like crazy without any luck. Here are the entire specs of my laptop: MS WinXP Pro 80GB HDD AMD Turion 64 Mobile 2.0GHz 1024MB DDR2 RAM (with 128 of that shared with onboard graphics). Thanks for any help, if you need any more information, just ask. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/35626-xp-pro-ram-detection-issue/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
oilfan04 Posted December 12, 2006 Author Share Posted December 12, 2006 Furthermore, the BIOS is telling me I do have 1024MB Physical Memory installed as well as 256MB shared video memory. I'm not quite sure whether I should install WinXP 64-bit as opposed to what I have installed now (32-bit). I installed every update Microsoft had for my laptop as well with no luck. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/35626-xp-pro-ram-detection-issue/#findComment-253696 Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwhsh8r Posted December 12, 2006 Share Posted December 12, 2006 Try reinstalling windows, that may do it, but it should see all the ram... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/35626-xp-pro-ram-detection-issue/#findComment-253812 Share on other sites More sharing options...
oilfan04 Posted December 12, 2006 Author Share Posted December 12, 2006 Hopefully I won't have to do that just yet though. Unfortunately I'm running short on options (I have even tried swapping the RAM's places with no luck). It could not have corrupted since the BIOS knows it's there. But I suppose I'll keep asking around (please keep responding if you have a theory/fix/hope, anything). Thanks. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/35626-xp-pro-ram-detection-issue/#findComment-253825 Share on other sites More sharing options...
asap18 Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 in the activity monitor screen when you ctrl alt del does it account for all your ram? if it does, then there is nothing to worry about-probably just a corrupt windows file/registry. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/35626-xp-pro-ram-detection-issue/#findComment-253904 Share on other sites More sharing options...
oilfan04 Posted December 13, 2006 Author Share Posted December 13, 2006 (edited) No luck with that either. The task manager only sees 256MB physical memory. But, here's the problem: Both sticks work fine. I tested each of them one at a time while looking in the BIOS and they registered 512MB present. However, there was no change in Windows. It still registered 256MB as opposed to 384MB (because 128 are shared with the onboard graphics). Edit: I think I'll try a repair installation. Maybe a file is corrupt in the system folder of Windows which may be why there is a problem. Edited December 13, 2006 by oilfan04 Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/35626-xp-pro-ram-detection-issue/#findComment-253933 Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwhsh8r Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 No luck with that either. The task manager only sees 256MB physical memory. But, here's the problem: Both sticks work fine. I tested each of them one at a time while looking in the BIOS and they registered 512MB present. However, there was no change in Windows. It still registered 256MB as opposed to 384MB (because 128 are shared with the onboard graphics). Edit: I think I'll try a repair installation. Maybe a file is corrupt in the system folder of Windows which may be why there is a problem. exactly, or just clean wipe. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/35626-xp-pro-ram-detection-issue/#findComment-253945 Share on other sites More sharing options...
oilfan04 Posted December 13, 2006 Author Share Posted December 13, 2006 Tried a repair, no luck, but I noticed there was no boot.ini whatsoever. So I created one pointing it to the partition Windows is supposed to load on. I thought that may have solved my question, but it didn't. Apparently, the problem may lie with Windows' "Physical Address Extension". The Microsoft KB at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888137/en-us pretty much states that, but the problem now is, if there was no boot.ini originally (I don't understand how that can happen), then why would PAE be activated if /pae weren't triggered somehow? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/35626-xp-pro-ram-detection-issue/#findComment-253963 Share on other sites More sharing options...
asap18 Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 check that everythings obvious is enabled in the bios and reformat and reinstall. check you ram seatings in the laptop. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/35626-xp-pro-ram-detection-issue/#findComment-253999 Share on other sites More sharing options...
oilfan04 Posted December 13, 2006 Author Share Posted December 13, 2006 Anything I can set in the BIOS has been set, so it's up to Windows now. This time, though, I'm going to reformat, and install my old Compaq desktop's WinXP Home (pre-SP2) and see what's going on there. If it's all fine, then I suppose I can upgrade to Pro. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/35626-xp-pro-ram-detection-issue/#findComment-254067 Share on other sites More sharing options...
oilfan04 Posted December 13, 2006 Author Share Posted December 13, 2006 (edited) OK, I know it's only been a couple minutes since my last post, and I was just finishing up my reinstall of Windows XP Home. I looked into my system properties to find 992MB RAM (1024MB-992MB=32MB Video Memory) which is right. The system reserves a minimum of 32MB Video Memory, and can utilize as much as 128MB. Now all I need to do is install XP Pro, and hope it still works. Edited December 13, 2006 by oilfan04 Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/35626-xp-pro-ram-detection-issue/#findComment-254069 Share on other sites More sharing options...
oilfan04 Posted December 13, 2006 Author Share Posted December 13, 2006 Alright, so after a day of searching and all of you helping me (which I am thankful for), I have solved the problem. I did an upgrade from WinXP Home into Professional and all seems to be well. Now i can at least sit knowing nothing went corrupt on me. Thanks for all your help, I greatly appreciated it. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/35626-xp-pro-ram-detection-issue/#findComment-254080 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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