How can my computer run XP on 49.66+MB of Physical Memory?

Question

I noticed my HP Pavilion XL866i was running very slow so I went to Start->Programs->Accessories->Systems Tools->System Information. After a short loading period here's what it said for memory:

Total Physical Memory 255.48MB
Available Physical Memory 49.66MB....this number changed to 54.57MB while I was preparing this question.....I did it again and it shows 54.18MB of Available Physical Memory......?

What has happened to my memory? And how could a computer running Windows XP Home with SP2 run on that.

I went to Crucial Memory and scanned my memory.....it said this computer can hold a maximum 512MB of memory in two slots; 256MB per slot...........but it shows both of slots empty!!

What's going on? How can I verify what I have without going into the case and looking. Besides, even if it has one stick of 256MB SDRAM it must be bad or something. Help!!

BYW, System Information shows my Total Virtual Memory as 2.0GB and Available Virtual Memory as 1.96MB.

Answer 1

No your RAM is not bad. If you READ it says 54.18MB of AVAILABLE RAM basically that is the amount not being used by windows. You are using up the other 200 MB of your RAM.



It would be a really good idea to upgrade your RAM to 512 Crucial.com shows 2 slots empty just to tell you that you have 2 slots its not showing you what you currently have.



It's really easy to open the side panel and look to make sure u have 1 256 stick and not 2 x 128 sticks. Just take out 1 or 2 screws from the side panel and look in there. If you really are against it you can download CPU-Z and it will tell you what you have in each slot.



http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php



Good Luck HTH.



Then you'll have to buy 2 x 256 MB sticks of RAM.



Note to Wuddersup: You thieving lil bastard! You wrote your first section then saw what I said and copied all of my answer to yours word for word. What a piece of crap you are! BITER!

Answer 2

Windows use a lot of Memory, if you only have 256mb, it wil be used up quite easily depending on what you are doing.



When the amount of RAM available becomes low, windows turns to Virtual Memory, a space on your hard drive that windows use like a memory.



When windows is dependent more on virtual memory, it can slow down your system because it reads and writes to the hard drive often.

Answer 3

It looks like you have one stick of 256MB for memory (RAM). However, your computer is using 200MB of that for processes (programs).



It would be a really good idea to upgrade your RAM to 512 Crucial.com shows 2 slots empty just to tell you that you have 2 slots its not showing you what you currently have.



It's really easy to open the side panel and look to make sure you have 1 256 stick and not 2 x 128 sticks. Just take out 1 or 2 screws from the side panel and look in there. If you really are against it you can download CPU-Z and it will tell you what you have in each slot.

Answer 4

Windows isn't running on 46.66 MB of memory. It is the reason you only have 46 MB of memory left. It is using the other 210 MB of memory