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    computer will not recognise all 4gb as available RAM

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Cpt.Derrek, May 26, 2008.

  1. Cpt.Derrek

    Cpt.Derrek Notebook Geek

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    I have an Alienware Area-51 M9750 and am duel booting between windows xp media center and windows vista home premium 64-bit and both operating systems only recognize 2556mb of available RAM when I have 2 2gb sticks of RAM installed. On the bios it says 4gb of physical and 2556mb of available, is their a way to change the available RAM?
     
  2. vashts121

    vashts121 Notebook Evangelist

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    Take them out for 10min, switch slots and see if it's detected. If all 4gb aren't detected, then run Memtest to check for errors.
     
  3. Cpt.Derrek

    Cpt.Derrek Notebook Geek

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    ok i will try that
     
  4. Xirurg

    Xirurg ORLY???

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    ^a G R E E D ! :)
     
  5. dtwn

    dtwn C'thulhu fhtagn

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    Doesn't the M9750 see only 3+ GB of RAM due to motherboard constraints anyway?
     
  6. f4ding

    f4ding Laptop Owner

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    Yea, T7600 uses the 945GM chipset, you won't be able to see the whole 4GB. You'll see somewhere around 2.5GB to 3.xGB depending on your hardwarea configuration.
     
  7. Cpt.Derrek

    Cpt.Derrek Notebook Geek

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    oh well thanx anyways
     
  8. ViciousXUSMC

    ViciousXUSMC Master Viking NBR Reviewer

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    the 945 chipset can only address 4gb of ram, of that it holds usually about 756mb for system use, then inside windows some of your ram address space is going to be used by your video card, in your case with 2 you get hit harder. And possibly your system ram will share with it via turbo cache or some other similar technology.

    The idea that your seeing more than 2gb there in the first place means that both sticks of ram are working, its simply a matter of address space.
     
  9. powerpack

    powerpack Notebook Prophet

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    The fact that the Bios saw 4GB was a clue that switching was not going to resolve? Think of that in the future. It does look like others have Identified the issue.