new 4g installed, 2.48g listed as installed ?

[copakeman]

i have a 939dual sata mb. its been in use for a while. i had 1g (2x512m) installd, i upgraded to 4g (4x1g).
i am using xp pro sp3 at the latest ms update level.
i have the on board video disabled, i use a geforce 8500 pci video card. the on board internet is also disabled,
i use an ethernet card.

i can get the pc to boot up completely. when i go to control panel, system, the display shows 2.48g installed.

i can swap the memory sticks around and the results never change. 2.48g installed is there.

can anyone tell me what happened to my missing memory ?

ty for any replies.
c

[profJim]

A web search using 4gb xp missing memory should provide the answer to your "missing" memory.
With a 32-bit operating system, 3.xx GB of memory is usually reported.
There might be some bios settings that result in only 2.4 GB of memory being reported on your system.
What specific brand/model is your motherboard?

[copakeman]

hi profjim, thank you. i did the search, found lots of info. i made 2 changes to my bios. i enabled memory hole and turned memory clock back to enabled.

on statup, the screen shows 3g installed, which is the actual mem size now.
i look at my bios, it shows 3 positions of 512meg installed, the system from control shows 2g, actual number, installed. i ran belarc advisor, it show 3 positions of 512m installed.
i was happy to see the 3g on startup, but something is not right yet.


my mb is an asrock 939sli32-esata2,
i have an athlon64 4000+ cpu.
the bios ver p2.30, that is the latest level i could find.


i have 3g physically installed, can the mb use and configure 3g or must i have 4g installed ? it does show 3g on the startup screen.

the reason i have 3g is i suspect a 1g stick is bad. i will retry that stick again.
c

[profJim]

You are off to a good start.
Page 13 in your mobo user manual describes the possible memory setups.
For maximum memory performance, dual channel mode is required, where you use two memory modules in one channel, or use four memory modules. It's best that all installed memory modules are the same brand/model/speed/size/rating. With only 3GB of memory installed, memory performance will probably be somewhat lower, but your system will probably be stable.

It's possible that there is a defective memory slot, but the usual cause is a faulty memory module. You can download and run Memtest86+ v4.x from a bootable floppy, usb or cd/dvd disk from Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool. Sometimes you might need to test one memory module at a time to find the bad module.

I'm not at all familiar with AMD systems or ASRock motherboards. If we can't solve your problem, your best bet is to create a thread in the ASRock forum where you briefly state the problem, include a link to this thread, and ask forum members and ASRock tech support to respond in this thread. This way all responses will be in one thread.

Let us know if you have additional questions.
We can best help you if you add a detailed hardware list to your forum signature where you include brand, model and part number information.
Including a link to your memory's specifications will be very helpful.