Win reporting wrong video card memory

[sinistar]

I've had this Nvidia Geforce2 MX400 64mb card for awhile now, and while upon bootup it displays 64mb, my display settings within windows always only shows it as 32MB. I tried updating the drivers and that made no difference. This was in Advanced Server 2000, but now the same thing happens in plain ol' XP Pro. The only thing I can think of is that it's a 4 AGP card and my AGP slot is only 2, but why should this effect the video MEMORY? Perhaps there is a technological explanation I do not know of. The card is supposed to work fine in a 2 AGP slot, I would have just expected the performance to suffer.

Nvidia's site is useless.

Any ideas?

If it simply is cos I don't have a 4 AGP slot, well whatever then... I really need a complete upgrade anyway!

I really need a laptop... and a new job. Now I'm rambling.

[ECA]

Ya,
32megs have gone by-by..

I have a 2xagp board and an 8x card, and it works great.
Your bios is only Posting the card and telling you WHAT the PNP says.
Video ram goes out in groups, mostly.

[sinistar]

Well how much ram does your 8x card have and how much are you getting with your 2x slot?

[ECA]

128 meg and 128 meg

Some Video cards do this:
Do you see a video card display when you first boot, and it checks itself??

[sinistar]

ECA, you really make me scratch my head in wonder sometimes ;)

[ECA]

Good, does it FEEL good, or do you have lice?

SOME video cards do a SELF check when they FIRST start.
They even show there OWN video screen on boot, then go to the bios loadup. It will tell you a few things about what it has.

ALOT of cards dont do this at all.

Lets put it this way.. I have seen and been around long enough to see graphics cards with less then 1k.
Best one i saw had 1meg and displayed 1024x768 graphics, and thats about 15 years ago.
Nothing is NEW, its just a RE-invention of the same thing.

[sinistar]

my first dos machine had CGA....

but my point was that in your first reply you seemed to say that because I had 2xAGP for a 4xAGP 64MB video card, 32MB, or half, can no longer be utilized.

Yet, with your own system, with an 8xAGP card in a 2XAGP slot, you're able to take full advantage of all 128MB on your card.

so, there's some missing logic there... and I couldn't figure out how you're trying to explain things.

BTW, the first thing I see in POST is the video card info of 64MB.
and I happen to have a couple certifications here and there.. so I just wanted to make sure of this thing is what I expected it is, and not something I could actually fix if possible. otherwise I'm content to deal with it, cos my 750mhz cpu can't play the latest games anyhow :(

[ECA]

no i said..
32 megs went by-by....ITs GONE, wasted, TOAST, your card is failing.
The PNP post only tells the system what type of card is there, it dont check the Video ram.

OK, as you said it does a vid check from the card. I would think there MAY(dont really think so) be a error in the hardware.
Do you know how to HEAR the system cache the video?
IF you do, then load up a pic and listen. Different sizes, past 32 meg. BMP is great for this. Try as large as you can. even resize them and save them in BMP.
OK, display them with NO other progs running.
IF you hear The HD activity, then theres a good chance you have TOPPED the Video, and windows is cacheing the video to the HD.