Every time my computer boots up, it counts up all my RAM (which in and of itself is weird because it should only do when new RAM is installed.) It tells me I have 256 megs. I have a gigabyte. In the “My Computer” properties, it tells me that I have a gigabyte, so why does the startup count get it wrong?
In any event it’s not actually affecting my computer’s performance whatsoever, and it’s not really a problem, just weird. What’s causing it?
A first step would be to go into the BIOS at startup and see what is reported there. That is what really matters.
How would it know new RAM has been installed unless it counts every time it is powered up?
On my comp, the RAM that it shows while booting is the amount of RAM in my video card. If you have a video card with 256 MEG of RAM, that might be what it is showing.
The “RAM count” at startup is not really a count at all - it’s a self-test.
Your PC can determine the size of the RAM modules installed in it without counting every byte.
In relation to RAM count, this can be disabled on a lot of different motherboards. In the bios, look for Quick Boot, or Quick Startup. With either of these enabled, the RAM count test is usually disabled and it will just show you the size of the RAM right away. A RAM count isn’t necessary to determine new memory, it’s only a test.
OK, this is what’s happening then. It’s only been doing this since I installed a Geforce 7600 card.
t-bonham, what I meant is that I have only noticed a display of the RAM count when new RAM is installed.