Ok so my system is about 6years old now altho still going strong.
Anyway i want to upgrade the RAM as the system was a 512mb when bought and haven't changed it to date.
Did have a look and im sure each stick was a Samsung 258mb each.
So i have run the System Scanner on Crucial website but its come up with an unexpected result.
"Maximum Memory Capacity: 4096MB
Currently Installed Memory: 4.125GB
Available Memory Slots: 2
Number of Banks: 4
Dual Channel Support: No
CPU Manufacturer: GenuineIntel
CPU Family: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.06GHz Model 2, Stepping 7
CPU Speed: 3058 MHz
Installed in pairs of modules. "

So According to this i have 4gb of memory installed , yet on the diagram on the left it shows "
Currently installed memory:

128MB
DDR PC3200
4GB

EMPTY

EMPTY


Each memory slot can hold DDR PC3200,DDR PC2700 with a maximum of 1GB per slot.*"

So by that it has 1 stick of 3200 , 128mb and a 4gb stick of something .
What are the likely causes?
Messed up sticks of Ram?
Bad system scan?

If you get cpuz it will show you how many sticks you have and how big each one is.
And wow! 6 years!! thats long.

I highly reccomend cpu-z. I tried the crucial website and it was accurate for me. Maybe your system confused their software. cpu-z should do the trick, if it doesn't let us know! Hope that helps.

The scanner requires
JavaScript enabled
--it uses ActiveX
Anti-Virus/Popup blockers can interfere.
Panda IS 8... blocked part of the default settings for my PC.
The scantool is downloadable.

Looks like it may actually be 5 years not 6 lol . been to long probably but does everything i need it to.
Anyway used the CPu-Z and seems to read correctly.
Apparently its Siemens DDR 3200 , 256mb in slots 1 & 2 .
So next Q, whats my best options to upgrade ?
Have read that no more then 3gb is required at max , but is it worth going that high?
Mainly used for surfing/photoshop/some movie editing etc .
[based in UK aswell if that makes a difference]

We don't know if you can support 3gb or not, do you know your motherboard model (or if this is a brand name PC, the computer model)?

Oh dur , It can support upto 4gb.
Believe when i have done a scan before that it stated 4sticks of 1gb , so i presume i can only use sticks of 1gb .
Its a Medion system, but the motherboard , according to CPUz , is :
Micro-star international co ltd
Model : MS-6764

1) my opinion : 4 gigs is overkill = wasted money
2) 32 -bit versions of Windows only recognizes slightly over 3 gigs... this is coded in and can't be changed. If you install 4 gigs... the rest can be used by hardware -- but it won't be seen by Windows.
3) You can go with a 64-bit OS... but then drivers become an issue. M$ claims they should be "backward compatible"... but this does not always work.
64-bits will be the standard eventually but it will take some time for every maker to get onboard.

So really if i get a 2gb kit that should be more then enough for wat i would want without going overkill

Yeh 2gb sounds fine. If you need to run a lot of large applications, you could always consider 3gb.