• ×
    Information
    Windows update impacting certain printer icons and names. Microsoft is working on a solution.
    Click here to learn more
    Information
    Need Windows 11 help?
    Check documents on compatibility, FAQs, upgrade information and available fixes.
    Windows 11 Support Center.
  • post a message
  • ×
    Information
    Windows update impacting certain printer icons and names. Microsoft is working on a solution.
    Click here to learn more
    Information
    Need Windows 11 help?
    Check documents on compatibility, FAQs, upgrade information and available fixes.
    Windows 11 Support Center.
  • post a message
Guidelines
The HP Community is where owners of HP products, like you, volunteer to help each other find solutions.
Archived This topic has been archived. Information and links in this thread may no longer be available or relevant. If you have a question create a new topic by clicking here and select the appropriate board.
HP Recommended

My HP Pavilion Elite HPE-250f desktop is supposed to have 8GB of RAM factory installed, but the control panel only shows 4GB. When I run diagnostics with the Support Assistant software it says everything is working fine but also shows only 4GB of RAM. I've had the computer for several months now and the warranty recently expired. In the past I noticed it said 4GB and thought I must have purchased a computer with only 4GB, but it always seemed odd to me. I looked up the specs online and it says the HPE-250f has 8GB, and it also says 8GB on the box it came in. I have not made any modifications to the computer, and have never opened the cabinet. I am hesitant to open the cabinet, but don't feel I should have to pay a lot of money to figure this out.

 

HP Pavilion Elite HPE-250f

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
HP Recommended

It took me a few tries - and months of frustration - but I resolved the issue by very carefully removing the memory cards, gently cleaning the slots and cards, and firmly reseating the cards. It has been several months now but the memory issue has been resolved. I did have serious problems, as noted in this thread, with catastrophic failure of the graphics card and failure of the HDD. I read on several posts that this particular graphics card was problematic, so I upgraded to a Radeon HD 7700 series. I got the Core Edition, which has 2GB of memory vice only 1GB. No problems since.

 

As for the hard drive failure, that was a disaster! I replaced the 1TB HDD with a 512GB SSD, but it kept getting infected with a rootkit that I could not clean off. I tried rootkit and virus cleaners from several software companies with no joy. Not even the top products from companies like Kaspersky, McAfee, Sophos, BitDefender, and the like. I reformatted the drive several times but the hook kept coming back. Finally I brought the computer to a friend who is an IT professional. He said the rootkit probably resides in the commercial cloning software (Acronis True Image HD)  that came with the SSD. We loaded the operating system without using Acronis and haven't had any problems since then! I also installed a WD Blue 1TB HDD and rebuilt the directories so that all the libraries (Documents, Pictures, Videos, etc.) are on the hard drive while the system is installed on the solid state drive. The upgrades were worth every penny! Now my 5-year-old HP desktop works great and the performance is very good even by today's standards. Startup times are much faster, too.

View solution in original post

9 REPLIES 9
HP Recommended

Hi,

 

Shut down the PC.  Tap away at f10 as soon as you start the PC to enter the Bios Menu - on the first page, you should be able to see the ammount of physical ram installed.

 

Regards,

 

DP-K

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

****Click the White thumb to say thanks****
****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
****I don't work for HP****


Windows Insider MVP

HP Recommended

OK, I tried F10 and it shows slot #s 1 & 2 as Not Installed, and #s 3 & 4 each show 2048 DDR3 SDRAM. Now I don't know whether I hould open up the cabinet to see if they are just not seated properly or if I should go back to the Navy Exchange where I bought it and try to convince them to help me. The warranty has expired, but once I break the seal I have no way to prove the RAM wasn't there to begin with if it's physically absent.

HP Recommended

Hi:

 

I think you could try bringing it back to the Navy Exchange store where you purchased it with the seal intact and they can verify you did not get what was specified and what you paid for.  It wouldn't hurt to call them and ask before lugging it back in. Maybe they will give you a price adjustment and you can buy 8 GB of memory to go with the 4 Gb you already have.

 

Your PC should have come installed with 2 x 4 GB of memory with 2 memory slots empty because that model can be upgraded to 16 GB of memory. The fact that it has 2 x 2 GB of memory for 4096 MB leads me to believe someone really screwed up when they installed the memory in that PC. 

 

When you open the case, I guarantee you won't find any loose memory in there.

 

BTW, I bought my first ever PC at the Navy Exchange at NAS Oceana back in January of 1995.

 

An Acer. Paid a tidy sum of $1,200 for it + another couple hundred for a printer. It had a 486 66 Mhz processor, 8 MB of memory and a 2x CD drive, and Windows 3.1. People came over to marvel at my top of the line PC.

 

Here's the good news...even if nothing is done to your satisfaction, 4 GB DDR3 chips are cheap.

 

Buy 2 and you'll have 12 GB of memory.  Beats the heck out of 8 MB's doesn't it?  :generic:

 

Paul

HP Recommended

I opened up the cabinet and confirmed there are memory cards in all 4 slots (4X2 I imagine.) I re-seated them and powered up the computer and it still says only 4GB RAM. I'll try talking to the NEX tomorrow, but I don't know if they'll help me since it's been over a year and the computer is out of warranty.

HP Recommended

Okay, it's been three years so here's an update. NEX wanted $150 just to look at it so I decided to live with 4GB. Months later it suddenly started registering 8GB of RAM again. For many months it worked as advertized until the graphics card failed spectacularly. Forums indicate the Radeon HD5570 card is problematic (Striped Screen of Death) so I bought a different card. Still was showing 8GB RAM and then months later it went back to showing only 4GB again. I have reseated the memory cards (4 x 2GB) but it still shows only 4GB. Is anyone else experiencing this problem with the HPE Elite? It's still a good computer in spite of it's age. Specs hold up more than four years after it's introduction. It is annoying that it is equipped with a BluRay drive but no software to watch BluRay discs, but that is a BDA problem not an HP problem. 

HP Recommended

I have this same problem. 8GB RAM and not even 4GB seen by OS.  What a shame. HP used to be one of the USA's great companies.

HP Recommended

Hi could you please provide me the serial and the product number let me have a chk with the spec 

 

 

I work on behalf of HP
Please click “Accept as Solution" if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Click Kudos "Thumbs Up" on the right to say “Thanks” for helping!

I am an HP employee

I am an HP employee
HP Recommended

Serial Number is MXX02002RO

 

Product No. (1P): BK174AA #ABA

 

Computer came equipped with 4 x 2GB DDR memory cards. Test showed slot #1 and 2 empty. I removed each card and cleaned the slots with compressed air, then carefully re-seated the cards. Computer is now showing 8GB RAM again. Time will tell if it will continue to do so.

 

I got an error message saying hard drive failure was imminent and instructed me to backup my files and replace my HDD. I replaced the factory 1TB HDD with a  Crucial MX100  512GB SSD. I used the included Acronis® True Image HD migration software to clone the hard drive directly to the new solid state drive. It appears to work although it warns me that the factory restore partition is full. I don't know if that will become an issue or not. Hopefully the Acronis software made any necessary adjustments to replace the 1TB drive with a 512GB drive.

 

 

HP Recommended

It took me a few tries - and months of frustration - but I resolved the issue by very carefully removing the memory cards, gently cleaning the slots and cards, and firmly reseating the cards. It has been several months now but the memory issue has been resolved. I did have serious problems, as noted in this thread, with catastrophic failure of the graphics card and failure of the HDD. I read on several posts that this particular graphics card was problematic, so I upgraded to a Radeon HD 7700 series. I got the Core Edition, which has 2GB of memory vice only 1GB. No problems since.

 

As for the hard drive failure, that was a disaster! I replaced the 1TB HDD with a 512GB SSD, but it kept getting infected with a rootkit that I could not clean off. I tried rootkit and virus cleaners from several software companies with no joy. Not even the top products from companies like Kaspersky, McAfee, Sophos, BitDefender, and the like. I reformatted the drive several times but the hook kept coming back. Finally I brought the computer to a friend who is an IT professional. He said the rootkit probably resides in the commercial cloning software (Acronis True Image HD)  that came with the SSD. We loaded the operating system without using Acronis and haven't had any problems since then! I also installed a WD Blue 1TB HDD and rebuilt the directories so that all the libraries (Documents, Pictures, Videos, etc.) are on the hard drive while the system is installed on the solid state drive. The upgrades were worth every penny! Now my 5-year-old HP desktop works great and the performance is very good even by today's standards. Startup times are much faster, too.

Archived This topic has been archived. Information and links in this thread may no longer be available or relevant. If you have a question create a new topic by clicking here and select the appropriate board.
† The opinions expressed above are the personal opinions of the authors, not of HP. By using this site, you accept the <a href="https://www8.hp.com/us/en/terms-of-use.html" class="udrlinesmall">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="/t5/custom/page/page-id/hp.rulespage" class="udrlinesmall"> Rules of Participation</a>.