Amount of Memory Detected by POST and NTDETECT.COM Differs

 Last reviewed: March 15, 1995
Article ID: Q127158
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows NT operating system version 3.1
  • Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server version 3.1
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 3.5
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server version 3.5

NTDETECT.COM detects slightly less memory than the power on self-test (POST) does.

This is by design. Before NTDETECT.COM loads, some of the memory is used by the initialization of the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL). The difference in memory detected by POST and NTDETECT.COM varies from platform to platform (Intel, MIPS, Alpha and Power PC).

KBCategory: kbhw
KBSubcategory: nthw ntboot
Additional reference words: prodnt 3.10 3.50 ram rom bios cmos ntldr

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Last reviewed: March 15, 1995
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