Memory Gap on Scenic 500

[Andrew]

Scenic 500<BR>Phoenix BIOS V4.06 R1.01<BR>Type 1120 Mainboard.<P>I'm dealing with a Scenic 500 containing 64M of RAM of which only 63M is visible to Windows. I assume this means the "memory gap" at 15M is active. I've consulted the BIOS manual and that shows two possible ways of reinstating the memory at 15M, but neither way is actually offered by the BIOS screens on the PC. I've worked my way through all of them and there don't appear to be any settable memory related options at all!<P>Am I just being particularly dense here, or is there some other enabling switch that has to be set before the "memory gap" controls become visible?<P>Is it possible for someone to have "locked me out" of the memory settings screens?<P>Have I lost the plot completely?<P>Regards, Andrew.

[Binary]

The most likely explanation is that the internal videocard has been set to take 1 Mb of internal memory. This is the minimum setting and is absolutely normal.

[Andrew]

Thanks for the suggestion. I always knew I didn't like the idea on-board graphics with shared memory. Is there any way of confirming that this is really where the memory has gone? Is it a BIOS setting, an on-board jumper, or does it just alocate however much is required for the resolution/colourdepth settings specified in Windows?<P>This is my first real run-in with on-board graphics so I'm a bit in the dark about how they're normally configured.

[Data]

Your mainboard is equipped with the Intel 810 chipset.<P>please have a look on the following URL: <A HREF="http://channel.intel.com/business/products/chipsets/dvmt_white.pdf?iid=PCG+devside&" TARGET=_blank>http://channel.intel.com/business/products/chipsets/dvmt_white.pdf?iid=PCG+devside&</A> <P>Best regards,<BR>Data.<BR>

[Andrew]

Thanks Data, that makes clear exactly what I didn't really want to know. The owner of the PC in question is going to be most upset (he's just that his 64M machine can't run a 64M game. I wonder if it is common practice for games to assume that the entirety of the system RAM is for their private use? Are his family going to have to be VERY careful what they buy him for Christmas?