On a home server I have 4* 1 Gig memory cards (ASUS PSL02 Motherboard)

But the American Megatrends BIOS setup utility at startup shows  (Main menu)

System memory
Total : 3072 mB
Appropriated 0mb
Available 3072 mb

There seems to be no way to get it to recognize the full 4 Gigs?

Any ideas? Why would the BIOS have no way to reset the memory size to 4 gigs (ie it displays 3 gigs  at startup with no way to correct it.

I read a while back about issues related to an apparent limit on 'user-usable' RAM. With Win XP it is pointless installing loads of RAM when the OS only 'allows' you to use 3 Gb. The rest is reserved for the system. This article might help: http://members.cox.net/slatteryt/RAM.html

Dickiesam

I also have an ASUS Motherboard.      P5QL/EPU. which takes up to 16 GB memory.

In the USER GUIDE that came with the Motherboard, it says :-

Due to the memory address limitations on 32 - bit WINDOWS OS, when you install 4GB or more memory on the Motherboard, the actual usable memory for the OS can be about 3 GB or less.
For effective use of memory, we recommend that you install a 64 - bit WINDOWS OS when having 4 GB or more memory installed on the MOTHERBOARD.