Some time ago, programs like DE (darkengine) said that my 512MB stick is 511MB. After I got another 512MB stick, I have 1022MB according to LCDsmartie, 1023MB according to DE, and 1024MB/1,00GB according to Windows. Is there something wrong with my 512MB stick, is this normal, or is it some setting in BIOS? Nothing is wrong with my pc, everything works fine, but I find this a little odd. Has anyone else seen this before?
Something wrong with my RAM stick?
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Nothing to worry about I think, it could be bios that uses a piece of memory for shadowing or similar and then doesn't report that piece of memory. This incombination with how the programs calculate the kbytes.
For example take one megabyte (1024*1024 bytes)=1048576 bytes
Let's say bios or the system itself uses a little of it for interrupt tables etc and only reports 950000. If you use integer division you end up with:
950000/1048576=0 MBytes (the rest of 950000 is lost in division)
So lets say you have two MegaBytes:
(950000+1048576)/1048576 = 1 MByte (the rest of 950000 is lost in division also)
Perhaps some software take the rest into account by doing a modulo after division, or use doubles or floats and then rounds up to the closest value.
There is also the possibility that windows reports one value when software asks, and the bios another. But as you say its nothing to worry about.
For example take one megabyte (1024*1024 bytes)=1048576 bytes
Let's say bios or the system itself uses a little of it for interrupt tables etc and only reports 950000. If you use integer division you end up with:
950000/1048576=0 MBytes (the rest of 950000 is lost in division)
So lets say you have two MegaBytes:
(950000+1048576)/1048576 = 1 MByte (the rest of 950000 is lost in division also)
Perhaps some software take the rest into account by doing a modulo after division, or use doubles or floats and then rounds up to the closest value.
There is also the possibility that windows reports one value when software asks, and the bios another. But as you say its nothing to worry about.
Mine does the same thing and everything is pretty solid. Booting up it says 383 but System Properties and DxDiag report 384.
If it was crashing or causing other problems I'd be worried but since you said everything is fine, no need to worry.
Snakebite: How much faster are things running after upgrading to 1g? Just wondering as I ordered some dual Mushkins 512 to replace my off-brand 384.
If it was crashing or causing other problems I'd be worried but since you said everything is fine, no need to worry.
Snakebite: How much faster are things running after upgrading to 1g? Just wondering as I ordered some dual Mushkins 512 to replace my off-brand 384.
Lentoman: I see, no need to worry then ^^
I've noticed that the pagefile usage is a bit lower, and starting programs that uses a lot of memory is a bit faster than before. I first noticed this when starting photoshop for the first time after upgrading. I don't think it's a huge difference, but you'll probably notice it more easily if you're upgrading from 384 MBom3gablue said:
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One other, do you think your system could be sharing the memory with something else? I know you have a geforce 4 card, so I would think you disabled any onboard video if you have any...It's just a thought, that's really the only thing I can think of...
I don't have onboard video. btw, there is a "Memory Hole At 15-16M" settign in the bios, which is set to disabled. There's no info about it in the my mobo's manual. Anyone knows what this settings does? I think there's a description in the bios, but I'm too lazy to reboot just to check it
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SnakeBite said:I don't have onboard video. btw, there is a "Memory Hole At 15-16M" settign in the bios, which is set to disabled. There's no info about it in the my mobo's manual. Anyone knows what this settings does? I think there's a description in the bios, but I'm too lazy to reboot just to check it
Leave it disabled. This setting reserves 1MB in the memory for ISA's cards use (some ISA cards require exclusive access to this 1MB block). Since ISA cards are long gone (it's unlikely that you have one), just leave this disabled to not waste 1MB.
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