# Bought 4 GB RAM computer using 3 GB



## kooley (Aug 18, 2007)

Hi everyone,

I bought the following system with 4 GB RAM.

Intel® Core™ 2 Q6600 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB), english 
Operating System Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium Edition 
Memory 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 4 DIMMs 
Video Cards 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT- DDR3 
Hard Drive 500GB Serial ATA

But In the System dialog box it says I have 3070 MB ram and in the welcome center it says I have 3.00 GB RAM.

How can I get my system to use the missing GB of RAM

Thanks much!

K


----------



## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Hi, :wave:

Windows will not be able to recognize or utilize all 4 GB unfortunately unless you are running the 64-bit version. If you install Linux, however, it will quickly use up 4 GB even in 32-bit mode.


----------



## SamFisher (Sep 8, 2007)

What type and brand of mother board do you have?


----------



## kooley (Aug 18, 2007)

> What type and brand of mother board do you have?


Thanks for the help but...I feel silly and I'm not entirely sure

This is what's on the bill...and i bought it from Dell
Intel® Core™ 2 Q6600 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)
4GB DDR2 SDRAM AT 667MHZ-4X1GB,DIM,P 

From The control panel - System - I get Dell Dimension DXP061 if that helps.

From Control panel - device manager - computer - I get ACPI x86-based PC

If this is not the exact info. you need is there an easy way to find it?

Thanks for the help!

K


----------



## SamFisher (Sep 8, 2007)

Did you check in the bios ? if you don't have to select any settings in there?Like for my mother board i had to go in the bios settings a few options in the cpu configuration advanced settings so it could read the whole 4GB.There would be probably a option in there that you should change may be in not sure worked for me.I don't sure if Vista is limited to less than 4 GB like Windows XP i don't think Vista has limitations like XP had.


----------



## speedster123 (Oct 18, 2006)

If its under warranty, notify them, otherwise I would check that all 4 dimms are securely pushed in.


----------



## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

If you disable the Dell splash screen in the BIOS, you can see the POST which will show how much memory is detected.


----------



## tosh9i (Aug 3, 2006)

I don't know if this applies, but just to be safe, I'm going to post it anyway:

"4GB isn't necessarily too much, however...

Any 32-bit operating system (Win98, NT, XP, Vista 32-bit) has an addressable memory limit of four gigabytes TOTAL. That includes more than just RAM. Things like video cards and other random devices that have built in memory will be deducted from that 4GB cap. After your system tallies up all those devices' memory, it will have somewhere around 3+ GB of usable RAM (give or take).

Because of this, some say that installing 3GB of RAM will give you much better performance. Especially if you install the cards in pairs (i.e. two 1GB cards and two 512MB cards). This is something that I still need to see some actual numbers on, but in theory it makes sense. 

The only way to currently get 4 full GB of RAM is to use a 64-bit O/S. But that's a whole other can of worms. "

http://forums.pugetsystems.com/showpost.php?p=29206&postcount=9


----------



## TomBrooklyn (Nov 28, 2005)

Is there any advantage to getting the 4GB upgrade to this Dell system with Vista Home 32 and the Q6600.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...code=ss&c=US&l=EN&dgc=SS&cid=30349&lid=681192

(click on the memory icon near the bottom to see the memory choices)


----------



## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Not really Vista 32 will only see 3.2 of it.


----------

