I appreciate yours thoughts, but RAM doesn't care if its being loaded full of information or accessed from an OS that is running on a hard drive, a CD, a USB stick, etc. RAM either works or it doesn't. It can be read and written to, or it can't. It can be addressed, or it can't. I believe this is an OS issue, but anyone that could provide any hints on how to prove or disprove that would be appreciated. Thanks!
Oh, another note, the 4GB of RAM is detected in the BIOS.