First, just a warning...I write long posts and they are very detailed. But this one is guaranteed  to challenge you.

I have an MSI K8MM3-V motherboard that is Vista Basic compatable. It runs an AMD Athlon x64 processor at 3200 Mhz, 2 GB's of Kingston RAM, an NVidia GeForce 7600 256MB graphics card, a Creative Audigy SE sound card and a Coolmax 550 watt power supply. I run Vista Basic x64 on my machine.

I just recently bought my Vista DVD. The first time it was installed was on a motherboard different from the one I am currently using. Right after I installed Vista, I downloaded all of my Windows Updates. I then proceeded to install Service Pack 1. I believe SP1 was not available at the time for download frrom Windows Update, so I downloaded it manually.

Right after SP1 was finished installing, it rebooted and showed a screen that said installation was successfull. Also, everything seemed to working fine. Then by chance I right-clicked My Computer and clicked Properties to view basic information about my computer. Then I saw it! My memory was listed as being 16.0 GB's, when in reality I only run 2 GB's!!!

I immediately called Microsoft and over the course of the next few days, I must have talked to about 5 different technicians. No one could solve the problem. Finally, out of desperation, I called one more time and lucked out by getting a tech with some insight.

He figured out that the reason I was getting this misreading of the RAM was DUE to an incompatability between SP1 and my Realtek onboard audio. See listing:
http://vista123.net/content/vista-sp1-driver-incompatibility-issues-still-unresolved

So he first had me disable my Creative sound card, then go into the BIOS and enable the onboard audio. Right after Windows rebooted and the desktop came up, Vista recognized the NEW hardware and installed a driver for the onboard audio. Then even Windows Update downloaded an update, though I found out later that wasn't even needed.

I now checked in the System window again and it showed the correct amount of RAM as being 2GB's. Problem solved and I even sent the techinicians manager a letter of praise for the young man who figured out the problem, after so many others didn't.

Next, for one reason or another, I think it's because either my motherboard was failing (it was an ABIT) or I discovered that it was not Vista-compatable. (ABIT never was able to tell me if it was or not) I changed MOTHERBOARDS and put in the MSI M8MM3-V, which I knew for sure was Vista-compatable.

I went through the whole process again and installed SP1. Once again, it listed me as having 16.0 GB's !!!. So, once again, I called Microsoft and the technicians tried to fix the problem. This time , they could not. But this was a different motherboard and I found out that my onboard audio was not RealTek, but VIA AC 97 Enhanced Audio, though I didn't know that at the time.

To make a long story short, the Microsoft entry-level technicians had such a hard time trying to find a solution to this, that my support ticket finally escalated up to the higher tier technicians. They were all ready to start looking into the problem, but I found out my PCI slots on the motherboard were dead, so I had to send it back to MSI for repairs, So I was never able to take advantage of dealing with more expert technicians.

The last thing I told them on the phone was that as soon as I get my board back from MSI and load Vista and Sp1 again, I would call them. We also briefly discussed the issue and they assured me that the at least the incorrect displaying of my RAM wasn't hurting anything, That is was just a cosmetic issue. He even said that when he deals with me next time that he might even be able to fix the problem by editing the registry.

So I just recently  got the motherboard back from MSI and everything is working fine. I  loaded Vista, then downloaded all of my Windows Updates. But this time, instead of immediately installing SP1, I decided to do a little research. My hope was that, if it was indeed a driver issue, that maybe I could fix it myself first, then install SP1 and then I wouldn't have the probem.

And I had found out that the reason SP1 was not available to certain customers through Windows Update is because Microsoft could detect when there was a driver incompatability issue. I just wish they had a tool you could download to tell you excactly which driver it is that's causing the problem.

But I was unable to find any updated drivers or drivers that worked. And like I mentioned, I had now discovered that my onboard audio was VIA AC 97, not Realtek, so I tried going to the VIA website and I thought I had found an upddated driver. It said it was for the audio chipset in the southbridge. Even the numbers matched what was in my manual.
But it didn't work or change anything. It still showed 16 GB's.

Then my attention turned to a Creative Labs driver update. Something the company has not really been on top of. I found nothing I thought I could try on their website, but I did find a site that offered updated Creative Audigy drivers for Vista and SP1 that were designed by some guy in Brazil. See web page:

http://www.vista4beginners.com/Windows-Vista-SP1-Drivers-Creative-sound-cards

I tried installing one of those and it did install just fine, even though I got the message that the driver was not signed and all. Still I did not notice any change. Luckliy I had been SETTING system restore points for all of these driver "trials", so I just reverted back to where I was before every time.

But that got me thinking. With my first motherboard, the problem was fixed by uodating the Realtek onboard audio driver. It never had to do anything with the Creative Sound card.
And now I have VIA AC 97 as my onboard audio, though I disable it, and it's not listed on Microsofts list of imcompatable drivers. So I figure, it has to be with the Creative card, but installing an updated driver for that didn't work, so at this point, I was stumped.

At that point, I just decided to go ahead and install Sp1 anyway. I figured, who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and the problem won't show up. But after the SP1 install, it still did show me as having 16.0 GB's of RAM. So, once again, I called Microsoft and this time they, very quickly were able to tell me that they couldn't find any fixes. So it is now going to passed on to the original higher tier technician that I had talked to before. He will be calling me next week.

So here I sit with the problem still at hand and I hate to just sit around. So I've still been trying to find my own solutions while I wait. One thing I did try was to run my Driver Updater Pro, which, like many such programs, will scan your system for outdated drivers.

http://dup.xpctools.com/

I have found out through reviews that many of these types of programs, like Driver Detective are not realy that good and can actually do hard to your system. But I did my research on this one and it seemed to be one of the better ones, though I've never actually used it before yesterday.

When I ran the scan on Driver Updater, it showed that there was an updated driver for my Creative sound card, though where they found that is a mystery to me. The scan also showed that many of my VIA system devices also had out of date drivers, though I know that is not the issue right now.

And I had installed x64 chipset drivers for my VIA chipset when I first installed Vista, so I thought I was covered there. But my techinical expertise, though about average, has never included any knowledge of VIA system devices, what it is they do, or even if they need updated drivers. But like I said, I don't think that has anything to do with my current problem. At least I hope it doesn't!

So that's my story. I just wanted to find out, first of all, whether I should trust these driver update programs. Because right now, that's the only thing I can think of to do, while I sit and wait for Microsoft to call. And I figure this is one of those issues that Microsoft may just not be able to fix and that I may just end up finding a better solution through tech sites like this one.Very informative description.

I'll only make two brief comments - While I had Vista Business on my new HP workstation I attempted to get to grips with it - reluctantly but - gave up and downgraded to XP Pro after applying Vista SP1 ... it produced problems and won't bore you with descriptions but - suffice to say I was not happy.

Re Driver scan progs - I treat them with caution and am ''old school'' in as much as - "if it ain't broke ...."  I applied an updated (supposedly) ATI driver for my Radeon on last machine and it generated troubles .... in the end I rolled back and decided to not go for updates just because they were there - prefering a stable platform which works!

If indeed a device is not performing at best then a driver update can well improve things - but otherwise I don't want to risk it usually.

As for 16Gb RAM being shown - wow, that's a good one!I did not take time to thoroughly read your post so I my comments may miss the target.

I have a Compaq Notebook PC that came with Vista.  For about two months or longer after SP1 was released, Windows updates would not OFFER SP1 to me.  Then, it finally happened. As I recall, it happened after an automatic update from HP for a device driver was installed. 

I suspect you would have been better off to continue searching for driver updates and see whether you finally discovered one that caused Windows Update to finally say - OK, your system is ready for SP1.

Did you visit the motherboard manufacturer's website in search of driver updates?

As far as using a service such as http://dup.xpctools.com/, I really don't know what to recommend, but I think I'd be inclined to try it in your situation. I'd be careful with these driver update utilities.  That xpctools one looks a bit scary, I know driver detective is pretty popular, but requires that you pay for it.  This one is free Link Removed

NOTE: The post is over a year old.Only trust on drivers from AMD as your laptop is of AMD.Stop reviving old threads for no reason.

2nd notice.