Windows not seeing all RAM

[Mr. Goodbytes]

Well I just purchased a Dull Precision T3400 for an employee at the office, and rather than pay their outrageous price for a RAM upgrade, I purchased (2) 2 GB sticks of Crucial Ballistix RAM from Newegg.

The BIOS recognizes each of the sticks as 2GB in their appropriate slots (this mboard has 2 pairs of dual channel slots). That's of course a total of 4 GB. Problem is that WinXP Pro SP2 only sees it as 3.25 GB. It has it's own PCI Express graphics card, so that's not the culprit.

Is this a registry problem or something? I'm completely baffled because there doesn't seem to be any apparent reason that it's not seeing all the RAM.

[Jarhed7276]

It's because you are using a 32 bit OS.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605

(Even though this article is for Vista it applies to XP/W2K as well)

[Mr. Goodbytes]

Yeah, I was just searching google after I posted. Too bad, because I have some xp64 discs but they are pretty much useless because 64 doesn't play nice with all our software and peripherals. Stupid Dell doesn't even warn you that buying 4 GB won't get you 4 useable GB on XP Pro.

[osprey4]

Why is it Dell's responsibility to explain the limitations of the OS you're buying?

[RamonGTP]

Why is it Dell's responsibility to explain the limitations of the OS you're buying?

Becuase Dell is the sales person in this case, that's why. As a sales person it is your responsibility to educate your customer on what they are purchasing and not sell them something that is physically impossible for them to use. At the very least there should be some notation as you're customizing your system. They have those notations for many other things, why not the ram+OS selection too?

I know if I build a client a computer and sell him 8GB of ram and a 32bit OS, they'd sure be upset. If I came back with "why is it my responsibility to explain the limiations of the OS you bought?" I'm the idiot, not them.

[osprey4]

Never heard of caveat emptor?

[dr_roberts49]

That's not good customer service, osprey4. There are salespeople that will sell ice to eskimos, but whenever I encounter a customer who makes a questionable purchase, I always try to educate them. Isn't that what we do on TechIMO? Now if a customer is given all the facts and still chooses the wrong path, then it is no longer our problem. Unfortunately I think we've all seen this kind of behaviour in the tech world.

Robert

[ShyguyXPC]

actually Dell does provide that info, but not up front in your face...

I went to their site, configured a Precision T3400 & found the link, since I remember seeing it once before in the last few months when I was playing with some Desktop & Laptop configs for a friend...

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/t...closure_config

read under the Memory Section... Second item.

When you configure your system, the link to that page is right there, at the bottom of the first Scroll list of options (For CPU, GPU, RAM, etc)

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...=bwcw9zz&s=bsd

[RicheemxX]

Never heard of caveat emptor?

Gotta say I'm in agreement here. Personally (and no offense meant) I'd have thought someone that has been a long time member of the forums would have known about the ram limitations or at least known to research what they are buying before they buy it. I don't buy any computer/electronics without doing at least a little research.

edit: RamonGTP, dell didn't sell him a system with 4 gigs, they sold him one with 2, to which he added 2 more. Once you make the buy upgrades and knowing their compatibilities are your responsibility.

[RamonGTP]

I disagree... The fact that the option is there, one would not be "in the wrong" to assume it will work. Afterall, why have the option if you can't use it? And not everyone who shops at Dell's website is a longtime member of a tech forum. Infact, the majority are not and wouldn't know any better. It is enteirly logical to think that if they let you configure it that way, it will be fully functional. Weather or not a single individual "should have known" better for whatever reason is really not the point here.

Enlighten me RicheemxX... If dell didn't sell it to him, who did?

[RicheemxX]

straight from the dell site

With 32-bit workstations, the maximum addressable memory is only 4GB, of which a maximum of 3GB is available to applications. That's often far too little elbow room for large files in today’s high-end workstation applications.....1 The total amount of usable memory available will be less, depending on the actual system configuration. To fully utilize 4GB or more of memory requires a 64-bit enabled processor and 64-bit operating system.

they provide the info via the "help me choose" its your responsibility to read it

edit: heck they are even nice enough to have it on the main page, along with info informing me that my 500g hdd isn't really going to be 500gigs

*For hard drives, GB means 1 billion bytes and TB equals 1 trillion bytes; actual capacity varies with preloaded material and operating environment and will be less.

*The total amount of available memory will be less than 4GB. The amount less depends on the actual system configuration. Your graphics solution may use a portion of your system memory to support graphics, depending on operating system, system memory size and other factors.

[RamonGTP]

That's great. If Dell has this disclaimer on their website and someone still configures it with 4GB, then I agree with you 100%. In that case, the blame does infact shift to the buyer.

[ShyguyXPC]

as I mentioned in my last post... or didn't anyone see that?

[Mr. Goodbytes]

Well, in any case I didn't order the 4 gigs because their price was out of this world. However, they have recommendations just before you finalize your purchase, and there is no message indicated. You'd think the message would pop up. Maybe it's the fact that I can build computers (haven't for probably 5 years) that I didn't click on the link "Help me Choose." So, yes, it is there, if you look for it.

[osprey4]

Eventually, you'll upgrade the OS and then all that unused RAM will be at the ready. So what's the difference?

[moggi1964]

From what I have read in the last day you will likelyonly lose .75G of memory. I just did the same thing!!!