Memory Upgrade: "2.00 GB Usable"

[ArtShapiro]

I decided to upgrade one of my two T60p machines to be equivalent to the other by going from 2GB to 3GB of memory. The other one, a Win7 x32 machine, has been running fine with one 2GB and one 1GB DIMM. This one, a Win7 x64 machine, had been running with two 1GB DIMMs. So I replaced one of the 1GB DIMMs with a newly-purchased 2GB guy.

Well, it didn't go as smoothly as expected. I even removed the working memory from the other one to report that for every combination of 1GB and 2GB DIMMs, the BIOS reports the correct value, as does Windows, but then it (Windows) always reports "(2.00 GB usable)" when the combination is 3GB or 4GB.

In the first T60p, every combination - I didn't bother with 2+2 on the 32 bit machine - correctly reports 2 GB or 3 GB, with no reduced "(x GB usable)" assertion.

So right now, the new 2GB DIMM and one of the 1GB DIMMs is happily sitting in the first T60p, which I've put back together. The other one is sitting with the palmrest off while I try and figure out what in creation is going on.

Any theories out there? It would be one thing if the correct total memory wasn't recognized by the BIOS or acknowledged by Windows, but that isn't the case. But this "(2.00 GB usable)" has me stumped right now.

Art

[basketb]

maybe it's what is described here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978610

[ArtShapiro]

maybe it's what is described here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978610

Bingo!

Well, I had utterly no familiarity with that MSCONFIG "Boot" option to constrain memory - sure enough it was set to 2048K.

We're happily running with 3 gigs now - your message was very appreciated!

Art