RAM not being recognized

**phantom3113** · September 23rd, 2009

I got some more memory for my lappy recently to upgrade it from 2 Gb to 4 Gb. Once it was installed, I checked System Monitor, but it said I only had 2.3 Gb (an increase of about 600 Mb, from 1.6). I did some searching around and found out that due to PAE (or something) that 32 bit OS's can only handle up to 3-3.5 Gb, so I took one of the two 2 Gb sticks out and replaced it with the prev. 1 Gb stick, to make 3 Gb. However, System Monitor still says I only have 2.3 Gb. Why?

**louieb** · September 23rd, 2009

Just a guess that the rest is reserved for video memory. Sure sounds like a lot though. I have 4GB on my desktop running 32bit XP and 32 bit Ubuntu and a little over 3GB of memory is all either one see.

**phantom3113** · September 24th, 2009

If that's the case, is there a way to return it to "regular" memory?

**louieb** · September 24th, 2009

Maybe. Go into BIOS setup and see if video memory is something you can adjust.

Another thing I forgot earlier - Check you motherboard specs. Some motherboards have limit to the amount of ram they will use.

**phantom3113** · September 25th, 2009

I remember hearing that about the motherboard, so I checked the specs of my laptop off Gateway's site, and it said it can support up to 4 Gb of Memory. Under BIOS, it has two sections that list memory; Physical memory and Base memory, I believe. I can't edit them, they're just values that show up. As far as I can tell, there isn't anywhere to edit video memory...

The link here contains the specs for my lappy's motherboard: http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/...6210Rsp2.shtml