Memory not shown

[chrisc56]

I just put together a new PC with 4 G of RAM, but windows only indicates 3.25Gb of RAM.
MOB intel D945GPM
Processor 3.2 GH
4 ULTRA DDR2 ( 1024 Mb each)
Win XP home addition
Any help will be appreciated
Regards
Chris

[TwoRails]

That is normal. There is a lot of overhead that gets used up when you have that much memory, and Windows chokes a little on 4 gig. Also, some motherboards won't read the full 4 gig, either, even though they say they support 4 gig. 3.25 is about right.

[glc]

In order to use all 4 gigs you need a 64 bit OS. 32 bit OS is limited to 4 gigs of addressable memory, and the PCI devices each eat some of that. I've seen anywhere from 2.75 to 3.25 gigs displayed, so you are in good shape with what you have. I'd pull one pair and put it away till you upgrade to a 64 bit OS - and I would not use 64 bit XP, wait for Vista.