Hi all got a question for you. I just updated my ram to 4gb. The computer says I have 4gb of ram but the system monitor says 3. any idea why this is happening?
thanks for your time.
vista SP1 32bit

32bit operating systems are limited to utilizing / allocating a maximum of 4096MB (4GB) worth of overall system memory -- Including video RAM.

If you would like all your RAM to be usable, you will have to upgrade to an operating system with 64bit architecture. Also note that you must have a processor which supports 64bit.

yeah, 500mb is locked away for the system when you run 32 bit vista, so you wont see it. That brings you down to 3.5 gigs, then your video card is probably stealing 500mb for shared memory bringing you down to 3gb, this is all normal stuff.
Windows runs fine that way.

Normal vista usage takes about a gig, so you have about 2 gigs plus virtual memory to play with, you should be just fine, and you should hear less hard drive chatter than before you put in the 4 gb

First thanks for all the info. I'm a nube at this so how do I check to see is my notebook is 64bit capable and second how do I upgrade. Is this something I can do?

Virtually every machine purchased within the last few years is capable of running a 64-bit OS. You'd have a tough time finding a new computer that wasn't.

Anyway, the disparity between the 4.0GB installed and the 3.0GB available for use is caused by the hardware's own addressing needs. Depending on the specifics of your hardware, somewhere between 0 to 1GB of address space is already allocated by the time the OS boots (it's "claimed" by the hardware if you like), so that part of the 4.0GB installed is masked and inaccessible. (It's got absolutely nothing to do with virtual memory, whoever mentioned that.)

It's unlikely you'll ever notice a performance degradation unless you work with very large files in Photoshop or AutoCAD for example. Going over to 64-bit is a fair amount of effort to reclaim that memory.

Thanks for the information, I do work with large files on this notebook 700mb and up. It might be good to at least look in to a change to 64-bit but I'm not sure how to start. Is there a tutorial on this site. I did a quick look and did find any.