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System not recognizing newly installed RAM
I have a Dell Latitude D820, came from the factory with 2GB of RAM, recently installed 2x2GB sticks for 4 GB of RAM.
System recognizes 4GB of RAM installed, but total physical memory is only 2GB. I'm aware that I should only see around 3.3 GB when it is all up and running, but 2GB?
What do I need to do to fix this? I have BIOS A07.
Thanks
EDIT: Here's the System info
OS Name Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Business
Version 6.0.6001 Service Pack 1 Build 6001
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name DD31T2D1
System Manufacturer Dell Inc.
System Model Latitude D820
System Type X86-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7600 @ 2.33GHz, 2333 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. A07, 6/15/2007
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.0.6001.18000"
User Name DD31T2D1\Student
Time Zone Eastern Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 2.00 GB
Available Physical Memory 1.14 GB
Total Virtual Memory 4.23 GB
Available Virtual Memory 3.39 GB
Page File Space 2.29 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
Try each module alone in each socket -- if one module fails to work in either socket, it's bad. If both modules fail in one of the sockets, the socket is bad.
It isn't necessarily true that incompatible RAM would prevent a bootup - sloppy-tolerance (cheap) RAM can cause all sorts of problems. Is this RAM certified to work in a Dell system, or is it not -- worse, is it "Value RAM"?
You cannot adjust those parameters - nor does the chipset in this system support memory remapping. If the BIOS recognizes the memory, Windows SHOULD show about 3G total physical RAM - you won't see all four on this system. If it doesn't, you have a compatibility problem.
And yes, there ARE cases where the BIOS will recognize RAM and Windows wont, and yes, these ARE compatibility issues. I would contact the vendor or manufacturer of the memory.
ejn63
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Posted July 8th, 2009 19:00
Try each module in each socket - if both modules work in both sockets independently, it may be the RAM is incompatible. It will also tell you the other possibilities - that one module or socket may be faulty.