RAM Issue

Hey guys,

I have an HP laptop with two 256 MB sticks but only appears as 384 MB ram in Windows XP. I haven't test this in any other operating systems. I'm not even sure if it's an operating system issue for that matter.

I've used PC Wizard 2006 to verify the ram as being two 256 MB sticks. Does anyone have any ideas why it's showing 384 and not 512?

Not sure what vid card you have, but it may simply be that your laptop uses shared memory for video.

Thanks for the reply, ScienceOfSpock. I opened up my ram compartment and only found one 256 MB stick. I have an ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 IGP video card that has 128 MB. Could it be possible that it's displaying 384 MB as memory because it's adding the video card ram and main memory together?

That is the most likely reason yes.

If you ever have a RAM issue like the O/S not detecting it, generaly a good idea to see if you BIOS detects it, if the BIOS does but not the O/S therein lies your problem.

sounds pretty likly to me.

I opened it up, removed the 256 MB stick and the computer failed to boot - apparently it's suppose to have another stick of internal memory (256). Am I correct in my presumption that the computer should be able to boot, given that it had 256 MB internal memory? I replaced the removable memory with 1 GB and it booted fine.

No computer that I know of (within the last 15 years or so) has "internal" RAM.

You obviously have 256mb only,

Your video card memory is 128mb ,


When you use your pc it will store stuf into your 256mb ram stick, and will not use your video card memory, until you play games. Then the video card memory is used to store textures in it when u game,,

You have a 256mb system, and I recommend you up that with another 256mb stick. Windows must take forever to load, and theres probably a lot of hard drive thrashing,

gl buddz,