Hi

Your built in video is taking from the system ram also

that is the part you are missing !

Good Luck

Dear C3PO,

 

A belated Happy New Year!:smileyhappy:  It is good to hear from you again.  I hope you have been well.

 

Thank you for the reply.  However, I would like to know if 1982 mgs the usual amount of RAM you have access to when you use 2 gbs in Vista?  (I want to make sure I did not mess anything up.)

 

Also, I read RAM can only be installed in pairs in the Dell Dimension.  Should not the original pair of 512 mgs worked with the new pair of 1 gbs? 

My XPS 420 has 3 gigs of ram. 2 X 1gb, 2X512mb, so yours should work.

If they are in matching pairs, I can't see why they wouldn't work. And as far as what you have access to, it can differ.

My 2gig system on my laptop shows 1924 or something like that (and I have a 256mb dedicated video card, so it's not the video card taking the 124mb). But my 3gigs on my desktop shows 3060. So who knows. And for me, I can not forsee a situation where that 66megs would make that much of a difference.

Good morning Eskymi,

 

Thank you for the information, it was very helpful.

 

God Bless you,

 

Nissi1

Hi eskymi

You are so wrong on this !

The E 521 does get all of its video ram from the system ram

because the video is built on the motherboard it is not a separate video card .

You can go to the bios and select a video setting of 16,32,64,or 128 mgbs

and subtract that from your ram and that will be the missing ram {pure and simple} !

But

if you have a separate video card some of them will not take from the system ram

because it is on the video card and does not need the ram from the system !

 

Nissi go to the bios and check if you are using 16,32,64 or 128 mgbs

subtract that from your system ram will see what i am talking about !

And yes your original ram should have been matched to the new ram you bought

or it may not work right !   

Good Luck

In the bios setup under video, there are 2 settings: auto and on-board /agp-pcie card (or something to that effect).

If it is set to auto: bios automatically reserves system ram for on-board video, regardless if you have a dedicated card or not. factory default is 64mb

If set to on-board/agp-pcie card: if you have dedicated video card installed the bios over-rides auto detect and you get you 64mb system ram back

 

Hey C3po5,

 

What I meant in my post was that he should show 3 gig as it sounds as if they are matching pairs.  So the 3 gigs should function properly.  Sounds like his system wasn't workign with 3, but I can't see why it should not.  If they are matching pairs.

 

And as he was concerned about only showing 1982, instead of 2048, I was pointing out on my machine the E1705 that I only show 1924, rather than 2048, but my card is a dedicated card, so that doesn't necessarily account for the missing 124megs.  I wasn't implying that his computer did not use system ram as video ram.  I was just showing that it's nothing to be concerened about as my machine doesn't show all the ram yet it isn't sharing.  Or at least it shouldn't be.  Know what I mean?

 

Good morning C3po, Eskymi and Kpo127,

 

Again thank you for your help.  However, as the saying goes, "it is all Greek to me!"  I do not (yet) know what the "bios" mean but I do understand what was written about the video card.  My computer has an integrated video card.

 

However, to update, I correctly installed the 2 512 mbs and all is well.  So now I have 3 gbs which shows up as 3006 mbs.

 

Further, I will also take this time to express how grateful I am for this forum.  I have learned so much in the year I have had my computer by reading the advice all of you have unselfishly taken the time to give.

 

May God continue to bless you and your loved-ones.

 

(Mrs..) Nissi1