HP Pavilion 762n accepts more RAM than officially supported

[SteveZap]

Not really having an issue, but thought this was very interesting for this old PC.

For the record, before anyone says I need to upgrade to newer & higher specs, I have modern PC's, one being a 12 core with 48 GB RAM Lenovo.  

[short story]

I  was given an HP Pavilion 762n Windows XP PC. The Ram limit officailly says it can support only 1 GB RAM max (2 X 512 MB sticks). When I got it, it had 2 256 MB RAM sticks installed = 512 MB, (PC2100 266 Mhz memory DIMM).

This PC actually recognizes & uses 2 GB of RAM (2 X 1 GB stick each) with higher spec (PC2700 333 Mhz memory DIMM), rather than the so called supported 1 GB.

[long story]

I installed Steinberg Cubase music software on this PC, I realized it could use more RAM. I looked though my collection of spare RAM sticks on hand. I found a few 1 GB ram sticks on hand, same pin size but higher spec.

I removed the 2 original 256 MB RAM sticks, and installed a 1 GB stick of RAM at 1st. PC then saw, recognized the 1 GB RAM on the slot. I thought each slot could only have 512 MB, so I figure it must mean the total of 1 GB is what they meant.

Then out of curiousity, I installed a 2nd 1 GB stick of RAM, booted up, and the PC see's, recognzes & utilizes the full 2 GB of RAM. 

Win XP Task Manager is showing a much wider graph in the RAM scale, Cubase is not only loading much faster, Cubase's operations are much faster, and various window views are not choking as before. Cubase is using the same amount of ram as before, but there is obviously far more headroom, and RAM left over. I had turned off all effects (reverb, delay etc) on tracks because the 512 GB RAM was getting maxed out, now I can turn effcts back on.

I read online that some PC manufacturers list a max spec, but sometimes updates in hardware etc were made that end up having higher specs than stated.

Now I'm wondering if this PC can actually recognize & utilize if I install 4 GB of RAM, limit under Windows XP (well less actually). Thing is, I don't know if 2 GB RAM sticks are actually made for this type of RAM, for this PC's 2 RAM slots?