My friend had an emachines. When I put 512mb of ram in it. The system only detected 480mb. I upgraded the BIOS and then it detected the full 512mb.
So you should upgrade the BIOS on your computer. It might help... that is if they havn't been upgraded before.
I have a heavily modified Dell as well. It served its purpose for a few years and then some. Although I will never by a manufactured computer again. Next time I am going completey cusom. The only reason I went Dell is because of thier monthly payment option.
