Weird memory discrepancy on my computer. (1 Viewer)

[Jacob_St]

I bought a Dimension 8100 P4 computer last August and Dell seems to be wrong about how much RAM it can hold. It's supposed to have only two DIMM slots but there are four. The first two slots have memory in them and the other two have blank cards in them. I'm told by DELL reps that I can only upgrade to 512MB so I bought two 256 sticks from MWAVE to upgrade from 128 to 512. I decided to take the two blank cards out after the upgrade and slip in the two original 64mb cards. The computer recognizes this extra memory and says I now have 640K. If the computer recognizes the memory then it must be using it right?

 

[Iain Lambert]

Assuming you mean Megabytes, and not k, then this all sounds fine. If the memory is listed as there in the Windows System Information then its going to get used. What I suspect has happened here is that Dell have upgraded the motherboard from one with two slots to four slots on the Dimension 8100 series, and the recommendation was for the old motherboard.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

There is another possible solution, but you'll have to search for it.

Windows currently has a default memory maximum of 512mb. There is a setting to change it in one of the Windows files.

Drat! I wish I could remember which one it was.

Glenn

 

[Jacob_St]

Ooops! Don't know why I put k instead of mb! Ian, that's what I thought too but the rep I talked with on the phone knew I had four slots but said I could still only upgrade the board to 512.

Glen, I think you are probably on to something about a Windows ME ceiling on RAM memory. That might have been what the Dell rep meant.

 

[Paul S Gregory]

I think it's a myth that Win98 can only use 512MB but doing the following may be helpful.

Run SYSEDIT

In the SYSTEM.INI file add the following line to the 386 ENH section:

ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1

Win98 will now wait untill the RAM is %80 full instead of the default %40 to begin using virtual memory.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Run msconfig.exe. It is in the system directory. Tab on General, and then advanced. Change the memory limit to the correct amount. Cross your fingers and reboot!
Glenn

 

[Jacob_St]

Glenn, I did what you said but the memory limit feature isn't even checked. It is greyed out and reads 640 which is my current amount. Dell must have a made a mistake when they shipped out my computer and slipped in the wrong motherboard. Good news for me; bad news for them. I like that!