I recently got 4 sticks of G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)to replace my previous 4 sticks of G SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) RAM and when I click on properties on My Computer it says I only have 3.25 GB installed (I don't OC). I checked to see if they were fit snug into my motherboard (ASUS M3A78-EM which is capable of up to 8GB of memory) and it still says 3.25) Is there something I need to change in BIOS or something I'm missing?
Upgrade your OS. You are at the maximum RAM for XP 32 bit. No normal 32bit operating system can use more than 3 to 3.5g of ram due to the 32bit address bus limitations.
If you can afford then no doubt w7 64bit is the way to go it's basically a really flash version of xp,failing that then 64bit xp is the other option or you could always use a 32bit version of any free linux distro or a 64bit version,look to distrowatch for the list of what's available,you can test run them once burned to cd-rw (dvd versions are "normally" <(air quotes) for extra lang packs),don't expect the cd burned test to perform as well as if it was installed you'll see what i mean if you decide to go ahead,linux will dual boot with xp so no need to wipe hdd clean EDIT:Reason i mention 32bit linux is it's faster than xp 32bit much faster
