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View Full Version : RAM not showing correctly in Dxdiag?

rob-beddall
09-25-2008, 09:58 AM
hey,
yesterday I installed 2x 1Gb DDR Dimms. I already had 2x 512mb DDR Dimms installed, bringing me up to a total of 3gb of RAM.
The problem is that on start-up and in Dxdiag it only shows as having 2.5Gb (shown in mb though)
Does this mean that for some reason one of my old Dimms has stopped being recognised?

My MOBO is a ASUS A8N-i, and the 2x 512mb Dimms are seated in the primary slots. (by that I mean they are still in the slots that they were in when the computer was delivered)

I have run an online RAM scanner and that says I have 3Gb installed.

I'm very confused by this. but obviously I want to be getting the maximum amount of RAM that i can.

What could be causing this problem? and is it a problem or is it just a windows thing?
Are there some tests I can do to make sure everything is working as it should?

hope you can be of some help to a complete noob :D

cheers
Vashner
09-25-2008, 03:20 PM
I would not worry about it. Normally you should not mix module sizes. Your lucky it's even working properly. If you need more memory or get blue screens then you'll probably want to get an exact match set 2x1gb that you just installed to bring total of 4x1gb.
rob-beddall
09-25-2008, 03:48 PM
thanks for the reply.
It seems strange that the site i used for the online check would actually recommend that i install another 2 gb without removing the original dimms :\

just have to wait until next payday now then i guess :D

cheers
imashination
09-25-2008, 08:38 PM
What gfx card do you have? your gfx card memory will often be deducted from the available memory. Plus some motherboard just flat out only ever report 3.5 gigs as a maximum, add this with the gfx card thing and you might have the problem.

Sometimes, in the bios, you will find a setting to choose how much space to allocate to the gfx card, even for real nvidia/ati cards, check it isnt cranked to something silly.
rob-beddall
09-27-2008, 06:18 PM
hi,
the gfx card is a nvidia 9600 GT. with 512mb of memory.
I looked in the bios and i couldn;t find any such setting but i did notice that it says...

Installed memory = 3gb
available (or useable) memory = 2.5gb

smells fishy to me.

ta
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09-27-2008, 06:18 PM
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