HP Compaq DX2300 - Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, all ram not usable

[Coilaman]

I got this problem. 4GB RAM installed, 2.75GB usable with 64-bit Windows 7. I have a PNY GT240 (512MB GDDR5) graphics card installed. My installed BIOS version is 1.08 from May 2007. I know there were a few more updates issued after that one. The 1.14 is the latest update for my machine, according to the HP support website.

However, that site lists Vista 32-bit and XP operating systems as the supported ones. No word about Windows 7. Should I update the BIOS? It would be nice to have all 4GB usable by Windows 7 64-bit because I use Adobe CS 5.5 Design Premium software on this machine and I really need all RAM memory I can get.

Thank you very much for your help.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I would not risk flashing the BIOS using Windows 7 (even 32 bit) as it is not a supported operating system for flashing the BIOS using the windows based flash.

I looked at the BIOS setup manual and I don't see an option to update the BIOS directly from the BIOS menu using DOS flash files.

No, I would not risk it at all.

The reason you are not seeing all 4 GB of memory with your system is due to the system board's maximum capacity of 4 GB of memory (2 x 2GB).

If the motherboard had 4 slots and could address up to 8 GB of memory, you would be able to utilize all 4 GB that you have installed.

The chipset can address up to 8 GB of memory but again with a max capacity of 4 GB limited by the motherboard, the rest of your memory is being reserved for hardware/video.

There is a video memory setting in the BIOS you can change, but I do not know if that will make any difference since you have an add-on video card.

Paul

[Coilaman]

"There is a video memory setting in the BIOS you can change, but I do not know if that will make any difference since you have an add-on video card."

Do you know where that setting is?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Please see the BIOS setup guide at the link below and refer to page 5.

http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00872978/c00872978.pdf

MAX DVMT Allocation

Specify the size of DVMT/system memory to allocate for video memory:

●

64MB

●

128MB

●

224MB

Paul