PC won't pick up RAM on boot up

ashopper327

Hi,

My PC system says that it has 512MB of RAM, but when it boots up it only shows 256MB of RAM.

I've taken out both cards and put them back in but it still only picks up half of what it should be.

Does anyone know why it might be doing this?

busenbust

Are both memory cards identical? Might there be an option in the BIOS to 'tell' the PC to find the Ram?

Oneday77

When you turn the PC on. go into the BIOS. This is likely done by pressing the delete key as it boots up on the first screen displayed.
Once i the BIOD navigate using the arrow keys to see what it says you memory is, if it shows 512MB but windows only shows 256MB your graphics mat be hogging half of it.
You could try booting with the sticks one at a time and see if the system recognises one at a time, also try them in different slots, so 2 slots 2 sticks 4 reboots. You get the idea.

ashopper327

I checked my out the BIOS and it says 512MB - i checked out the graphics card and it uses 256MB so that's why it's only showing 256 on start up.

Thanks for the tip, i just need to upgrade my RAM and i should be fine.

:-)

Oneday77

In the BIOS you can limit the graphics memory aperture to limit how much it uses. Since it sounds like it's onboard graphics, take it down to 64mb for now, should help a little till you get more memory.