Rcvd Outlet X410, only Recognizes 3G RAM

I received my "scratch and dent" XPS 410 today. I couldn't find any
scratches or dents on it.

There is a problem that I can't figure out. Google may be my friend
but I thought I'd ask here too.

The system has 4G RAM. Vista reports 3G RAM. I opened the case and
there is 4G RAM.

I took 1G RAM out. On bootup, I had to hit F1 because system said RAM
changed. Even though I took 1G RAM out, and even though a RAM change
was detected, Vista still reported 3G RAM.

As expected, I put the 1G RAM back, the system reported a RAM change,
but Vista still reported 3G RAM.

Any help / insights are appreciated. Thank you.

Journey wrote:
I received my "scratch and dent" XPS 410 today. I couldn't find any
scratches or dents on it.

There is a problem that I can't figure out. Google may be my friend
but I thought I'd ask here too.

The system has 4G RAM. Vista reports 3G RAM. I opened the case and
there is 4G RAM.

I took 1G RAM out. On bootup, I had to hit F1 because system said RAM
changed. Even though I took 1G RAM out, and even though a RAM change
was detected, Vista still reported 3G RAM.

As expected, I put the 1G RAM back, the system reported a RAM change,
but Vista still reported 3G RAM.

Any help / insights are appreciated. Thank you.

You're not alone, lots of same troubles;
scroll about half way down this Dell blog to a Lionel Menchaca about
this problem.
http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archi...1/27/3782.aspx
also from MS.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888137/en-us

On Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:04:00 -0500, Journey wrote:

There is a problem that I can't figure out. Google may be my friend
but I thought I'd ask here too.

Well, I did some Googling, and there are a ton of threads out there
about Vista recognizing less than the 4G of RAM.

Here's the best link I found. Even though the OP specifies XP Pro, it
seems to refer to 32-bit MS OS's.

http://tinyurl.com/27mxru

3G is enough for me but I am a little disappointed. The link talkes
about PCI devices taking up memory, even though a video card, for
example, has onboard memory (which mine does).

I didn't buy the PC for the RAM though. I'm happy with the 2.4Ghz
Core 2 Duo with 4M cache which was a main criteria for choosing it.

A few more issues with the shipping product that others have reported:

- The initial boot doesn't work (at least for some users). It asks
whether to boot normally or go into "Repair Mode (recommended)". Too
bad Dell ships some computers that start that way.

- The ATI Radeon X1300 Pro driver is way out of date and causes
pop-up errors to appear. In order to stop them, just install the
newest software (called Catalyst) from the ATI site.

On Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:04:00 -0500, Journey wrote:

I received my "scratch and dent" XPS 410 today. I couldn't find any
scratches or dents on it.

There is a problem that I can't figure out. Google may be my friend
but I thought I'd ask here too.

The system has 4G RAM. Vista reports 3G RAM. I opened the case and
there is 4G RAM.

I took 1G RAM out. On bootup, I had to hit F1 because system said RAM
changed. Even though I took 1G RAM out, and even though a RAM change
was detected, Vista still reported 3G RAM.

As expected, I put the 1G RAM back, the system reported a RAM change,
but Vista still reported 3G RAM.

Any help / insights are appreciated. Thank you.

On Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:04:00 -0500, Journey wrote:

I received my "scratch and dent" XPS 410 today. I couldn't find any
scratches or dents on it.

There is a problem that I can't figure out. Google may be my friend
but I thought I'd ask here too.

The system has 4G RAM. Vista reports 3G RAM. I opened the case and
there is 4G RAM.

I took 1G RAM out. On bootup, I had to hit F1 because system said RAM
changed. Even though I took 1G RAM out, and even though a RAM change
was detected, Vista still reported 3G RAM.

As expected, I put the 1G RAM back, the system reported a RAM change,
but Vista still reported 3G RAM.

Any help / insights are appreciated. Thank you.


Ok, this is my help.
Let me take it off your hands and let me worry about it g.

i wouldnt worry about it.
i have the same problem with 4gb ram in an optiplex running XP.
has nothing to do with vista. it even does this on my xp-64 bit.

i think i read somewhere that any one program can only address 3mb or
so. if you run a program like everest, it properly reports 4gb
installed. perhaps the OS knows how to use it.

Journey wrote:
I received my "scratch and dent" XPS 410 today. I couldn't find any
scratches or dents on it.

There is a problem that I can't figure out. Google may be my friend
but I thought I'd ask here too.

The system has 4G RAM. Vista reports 3G RAM. I opened the case and
there is 4G RAM.

I took 1G RAM out. On bootup, I had to hit F1 because system said RAM
changed. Even though I took 1G RAM out, and even though a RAM change
was detected, Vista still reported 3G RAM.

As expected, I put the 1G RAM back, the system reported a RAM change,
but Vista still reported 3G RAM.

Any help / insights are appreciated. Thank you.

On Mar 14, 6:04 pm, Journey wrote:
I received my "scratch and dent" XPS 410 today. I couldn't find any
scratches or dents on it.

There is a problem that I can't figure out. Google may be my friend
but I thought I'd ask here too.

The system has 4G RAM. Vista reports 3G RAM. I opened the case and
there is 4G RAM.

I took 1G RAM out. On bootup, I had to hit F1 because system said RAM
changed. Even though I took 1G RAM out, and even though a RAM change
was detected, Vista still reported 3G RAM.

As expected, I put the 1G RAM back, the system reported a RAM change,
but Vista still reported 3G RAM.

Any help / insights are appreciated. Thank you.

I'm disappointed, I thought Vista would have overcome this limit. It's
been an XP bug since forever.

It won't be but a few more years before the photoshoppers will ALL
want more than 4gb of Ram. And Even some games will demand it.

On 15 Mar 2007 01:04:10 -0700, "
wrote:

On Mar 14, 6:04 pm, Journey wrote:
I received my "scratch and dent" XPS 410 today. I couldn't find any
scratches or dents on it.

There is a problem that I can't figure out. Google may be my friend
but I thought I'd ask here too.

The system has 4G RAM. Vista reports 3G RAM. I opened the case and
there is 4G RAM.

I took 1G RAM out. On bootup, I had to hit F1 because system said RAM
changed. Even though I took 1G RAM out, and even though a RAM change
was detected, Vista still reported 3G RAM.

As expected, I put the 1G RAM back, the system reported a RAM change,
but Vista still reported 3G RAM.

Any help / insights are appreciated. Thank you.

I'm disappointed, I thought Vista would have overcome this limit. It's
been an XP bug since forever.

It won't be but a few more years before the photoshoppers will ALL
want more than 4gb of Ram. And Even some games will demand it.


Not to rain on your parade but should photoshop require more than 3gb
ram to run on MS, how will it know how much ram is required if it
can't run on MS to begin with? Am I missing something (I am not a
programmer) or is this a contradiction? That said, I think if the OS
limit is still imposed, authors will be forced to write tighter code
to work around the problem for a while (kinda like the 640k limit
years ago) which to me isn't a bad thing because I think a lot of
programs run slower due to bloated code.

On 15 Mar 2007 01:04:10 -0700, "
wrote:

As expected, I put the 1G RAM back, the system reported a RAM change,
but Vista still reported 3G RAM.

Any help / insights are appreciated. Thank you.

I'm disappointed, I thought Vista would have overcome this limit. It's
been an XP bug since forever.

It won't be but a few more years before the photoshoppers will ALL
want more than 4gb of Ram. And Even some games will demand it.

There is a lot of information out there, much of it conflicting, even
by the experts. Some of it says that Vista still benefits from the 4G
by improving system processes. Others note that PCI devices map to
memory.

Microsoft isn't very clear on its knowledgebase and in tech support
communication to individuals. In one tech. response, the MS rep said
that it was a "marketing decision".

In one of the knowledgebase articles, MS gives a command that can be
executed. There is no boot.ini with Vista as I understand it, and the
command lets Vista use the 4G RAM. This is contradictory though to
info. about PCI mapping to memory. The MS article doesn't give a
command to set it back in case there are problems.

As a side note, I often research something until I get just enough
information to make it useful. In this case, I got just enough
information to determine that I don't want to be in the population of
users who spend their life energy on something that isn't addressed
clearly anywhere. I'll just use what I have and enjoy it rather than
bemoan that Vista might not be making use of all the RAM.

It's a different story though for someone making a new purchase or
deciding whether or how much RAM to upgrade their system with.

Pen wrote:
Journey wrote:
I received my "scratch and dent" XPS 410 today. I couldn't find any
scratches or dents on it.

There is a problem that I can't figure out. Google may be my friend
but I thought I'd ask here too.

The system has 4G RAM. Vista reports 3G RAM. I opened the case and
there is 4G RAM.

I took 1G RAM out. On bootup, I had to hit F1 because system said RAM
changed. Even though I took 1G RAM out, and even though a RAM change
was detected, Vista still reported 3G RAM.

As expected, I put the 1G RAM back, the system reported a RAM change,
but Vista still reported 3G RAM.

Any help / insights are appreciated. Thank you.

You're not alone, lots of same troubles;
scroll about half way down this Dell blog to a Lionel Menchaca about
this problem.
http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archi...1/27/3782.aspx

The Dell link includes the following info XPS700

#
XPS 700 Motherboard Exchange Program

Fri. Mar 09, 2007
Neil Hand, VP Worldwide Consumer Marketing

In late May last year, we launched the XPS 700. Many customers purchased
it, anticipating strong performance along with an upgrade path to future
technology.

At Dell, our number one goal is to delight our customers with our
products and services. As anyone who reads Direct2Dell knows, we did not
do that for some of our XPS 700 customers. On behalf of Dell, I want to
apologize for that. We have taken steps to improve your experience.

So what have we learned from this? First, where the chipset is
concerned, XPS 7xx-class customers want more information on what
features we do and do not support in our implementation. Take a look at
the chipset section of the XPS 710 Tech Specs page. Second, if we do
experience significant delays, it’s important for us to give customers
more detailed insight as to the causes where we can. So, what’s next?
We want to show XPS 700 customers our appreciation for sticking with us
throughout this process—we appreciate your business.

BIOS Update Coming Soon

The current version of the XPS 700 BIOS added Windows XP 64 support and
enabled Intel’s Virtualization Technology (VT). To build on that, we
will publish an update to the XPS 700 BIOS in the next few weeks. After
applying the BIOS update, your XPS 700 will support the following features:

* NVIDIA SLI-Ready (Enhanced Performance Profile) Memory
* BIOS overclocking for the Extreme processors (Reminder:
overclocking can cause system instability and reduce operating life)
* RAID 5
* RAID 1 + 0

The BIOS update cannot enable support for Intel Quad-Core processors.

XPS 700 Motherboard Exchange Program

Since the early days of Direct2Dell, many XPS 700 customers have asked
Dell for an upgrade path. Back in December, Lionel blogged about this,
saying we had not made a decision. That changes today.

To show our gratitude for your patience, we will offer all XPS 700
customers worldwide a choice of upgrade paths to Dell’s next-generation
of XPS gaming motherboards. Now here they a

Motherboard Exchange Options:

* Motherboard exchange AND a discounted quad-core processor: Later
this year, we will offer XPS 700 customers the option to exchange your
original motherboard with Dell’s next-generation XPS gaming motherboard
bundled with a quad-core processor at an 25% discount off our
Electronics and Accessories quad-core processor price at the time of
purchase. This option will be available to XPS 700 customers for sixty
days following our rollout of the motherboard exchange program later
this year. We will make the motherboard and the installation available
to these customers at no cost. To streamline the process, all
motherboard exchanges will be done by Dell-authorized onsite service
technicians. We will offer the processor discount at the time you
schedule your on-site appointment for the motherboard exchange.
Additional pricing details have not yet been determined.

* Motherboard exchange at no cost: Later this year, we will offer
XPS 700 customers the option to exchange their original motherboard for
Dell’s next-generation XPS gaming motherboard. We will make the
motherboard and the installation available to these customers at no
charge. To streamline the process, all motherboard exchanges will be
done by Dell-authorized onsite service technicians.

Since both motherboard exchange options involve a next-generation
product, there are some details I can’t discuss at this point. We will
share more information later this year—appreciate your patience. In that
same timeframe, XPS 710 customers will also have the option to purchase
a parts bundle that includes an upgrade to Dell’s next-generation
motherboard as well as installation service. Pricing has not yet been
determined.

We remain committed to addressing your concerns. In subsequent posts,
Lionel will blog about other XPS 700 customer questions and issues.