question about Windows XP system information

[mrdizle]

I've had the basic white Macbook 13" for three months. I clicked on system information, and it says I have only 480 mb of ram.

does this mean that one of my DIMMs is damaged?

how do i check this on the mac side (i'm new to OSX).

[Paul2660]

XP will almost always show less than the total ram installed, under system information.

Go to Control panel, system and look on that main screen and see how much is shown.

If you have 1GB physically installed and are only seeing 480, yes something is wrong. If you only have 512 and XP is reporting 480 that is typical. Some is always taken by XP and not visable to the system information ram screen.

If you should have 1GB then you can either boot into the mac and check there, or look and see how many dims are in the machine. On the Macbookpro, it comes with 1GB standard, in (1) physical dim. I am not sure on your machine.

Paul c.

[mrdizle]

thanks paul, that was helpful information.

i have a macbook 13" with the basic 512 megs.

on the system information page, it says:

Computer:

Genuine Intel (R) CPU
1400 @ 1.83 Ghz
988 Mhz, 480 MB of RAM
Physical Address Extension

What's the deal with hte 988 Mhz part? a few days ago it was 1.4 Ghz, jumped back up to 1.83 Ghz and now is fixed at 988.

[Paul2660]

I am not sure on the Mhz part, but the 1.83Ghz is the speed of the processor.

It should stay at the 1.83 but there may be something incorrect in how XP is seeing that acutal processer, i.e the intel bus. My Macbookpro will sometimes boot up as a single processor running at 100% in XP, and it's a Core Duo 2.16.

Paul C.

[zarmanto]

Genuine Intel (R) CPU
1400 @ 1.83 Ghz
988 Mhz, 480 MB of RAM
Physical Address Extension

What's the deal with hte 988 Mhz part? a few days ago it was 1.4 Ghz, jumped back up to 1.83 Ghz and now is fixed at 988.

Actually, Windows is reporting exactly what it can use; your computer uses shared memory for video display instead of a dedicated video card with its own memory. 512MB of total memory minus 32MB used for video display leaves you with 480MB of remaining memory for the OS and applications.

As for that second processor speed listed next to the RAM: That's the current operating speed of the processor. A number of things can impact that number, such as the settings in your Power Options control panel, whether you're running off of AC or battery, and whether or not you're running a program which is processor intensive enough to cause the machine to switch gears, such as a video game.