Windows sees 2Gb, when 4Gb is installed - Dell E1505

A few months ago, I bought a 4 gb (2 x 2GB) memory kit for my laptop
Recently I reinstalled it because one of my old cards became corrupt.

The memory issue still bothers me

The BIOS sees 4GB - In parenthesis, it says (3392mb) of memory
but Windows does not see that
CPU-Z throws up 4GB
My Computer says 2GB,
Task Manager says 2GB
When I try to change the maximum memory capacity through MSCONFIG to 4098, it automatically puts in 2047MB (2GB)



So how do I get it to see the ~3.3Gb or so it should?

Is my version of windows just old, or do I need a service pack or hot fix to get more memory to be recognized.
I have 32 bit Windows XP Professional SP2, and I am not upgrading to Vista or 7, so dont advise me to.

K-TRON

 

maybe a stupid question, i know nothing of these things, but have you checked in hardware manager? scan for new hardware maybe?

 

http://discussions.hardwarecentral.com/showthread.php?t=174937

Seems like a problem with XP Home not reading even 3 GB+ RAM for some reason ...

Basically for Vista it's take 4 GB, subtract video RAM and about 300-500 MB for other HW devices, and then you have what's left for RAM.

 

start > run > msinfo32

Whatever that shows is what you have usable.
CPU-Z will show hardware, not what the OS can use.
My computer and task manager will be the same. msinfo32 may or may not show the same.
What happens if you boot into a live CD? Sometimes the OS can just have a problem addressing more than it was installed with, I've seen that at least one other time.

Also I really doubt it's the issue mentioned above.

 

I ran Msinfo32
It says 4GB



I guess this is one of those instances, where I need to reinstall the operating system to see more than 2Gb of memory. I am not going to reinstall until next summer, so its not an option now.

I had another question
Last week when I was running really large illustrator files, windows said that I could only use 815mb or so per program.
What is up with that?
Is that a version of XP issue?
and is there any way to get around that?

I had to use another system in order to open that file, it was quite large. About 350mb

K-TRON

 

The problem isn't XP 32-bit - it can recognize up to 4 GB just fine (subtacting a bit for VRAM, etc. - not that you don't already know that). My suspicions are it's the 1505 itself - according to Crucial, it can only handle 2 GB of RAM. I know that for some models (Inspiron 1720, for instance), you can install and use much more than officially stated (1720 can use 8 GB instead of the stated 4 GB), but it looks like perhaps on the 1505 it actually is limited to 2 GB.

Note your BIOS isn't actually reporting 4 GB of memory - it's reporting 3.3125 GB. Maybe the X1400 et. al. account for the remainder, but it seems a bit of an odd amount.

The first account Google gives me for someone trying 4 GB in the 1505 is actually you, from December 2007. I'm not getting any quick answer of someone who's been able to use 4 GB successfully.

As for the 815 MB issue, I have no idea on that one. XP is certainly capable of running programs with much more memory than that allocated per program - I've come very close to the 2 GB limit at times with no problems (except when a program hits the 2 GB limit, at which point it tends to crash to the desktop). If you get the error message again, it may help to copy it down or screenshot it. I've definitely seen programs that get unstable once they are using a certain amount of memory, but Windows setting such a seemingly arbitrary limit would be a new one to me.

 

I'm pretty sure you have a spare drive laying around. Drop it in, install XP, see how it goes. I suspect it will work fine.

 

I will try that Hep, I do have some extra drives. It would be interesting to see what happens. I am busy until Wednesday, so maybe Thursday I can try it.

K-TRON

 

I'm guessing Apollo13 is right that your laptop motherboard may just not support 4 gb.

EDIT: Yup... Dell lists "Maximum memory: 2gb": http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins6400/en/om/specs.htm

But... make sure you have the newest BIOS for your laptop model. You can get the latest BIOS from dell.com, support section.

 

i had the same problem out of my laptop on windows xp pro 32 bit. the computer was only useing i had 2.75 gig of ram,strange how vista uses less for video than xp does i dont have xp on it anymore <dont ask please lol>

oh btw i was told xp will only recognize 2 or 3 gig was the person that told me that lying to me ? i would liek to know some more insight on this as well ...

 

Hey K-TRON, I hope this doesnt sound insulting, but did you double check that the RAM stick was perfectly fitted? It has happened to me that I put a new stick almost perfectly and the laptop will not recognize it.

If not, could be a problem with XP, since it is 32, you see 3GB max...strange it recognizes only too..

EDIT: just read the documentation from Dell...it says it supports a max of 2GB...

 

No, they weren't lying, they were just misinformed. I installed XP Home SP1 from a 6 year old CD and without any updates or anything it saw the 3.3GB limit just fine.
</dont>

 

Others here have said that they have 3.1-3,3Gb of memory recognized on there E1505's, so the system doesnt have a BIOS limit at 2Gb.
In my first post I stated the BIOS sees all 4gb, but windows doesnt.

K-TRON

 

Last week, I ended up reinstalling Windows.
With 4gb of PC5300 installed, Windows XP Professional SP2 sees 3.25GB of memory

I guess all it needed was a fresh install of Windows

K-TRON