Why is win7 x64 not recognizing my 4GB of memory?

[blackrain]

I just installed win7 x64 and when I open up system properties, it says there is 4.00GB of memory installed but it also says that there is only 3.20 GB of "available physical memory". Does that mean that windows isn't recognizing all 4GB of memory? I thought this version was supposed to be able to do that?

 

[lxskllr]

Check BIOS for an option called memory remapping or something similar, and enable it. You're correct. It's showing 4gb with only 3.2gb usable.

 

[blackrain]

I will check for that option, or something similar to it. By the way, my motherboard is a Biostar TA790GX 128M. If someone has this mobo or has an idea exactly what setting I need to change in the BIOS let me know.

 

[Arik5405]

are you using the onboard video?

 

[lxskllr]

 

[dennilfloss]

Isn't what's missing the memory reserved for devices like your video card, etc...?

 

[lxskllr]

Isn't what's missing the memory reserved for devices like your video card, etc...?

Shouldn't be with a 64bit O/S. The only thing that would cause that is memory used for integrated gfx. I didn't think to look at that on his board, and I'm not in front of my main computer now. .8gb is a lot of gfx memory though :^/

 

[bigboxes]

I would go with lxskllr here. I once built a WinVista x64 machine for a customer and I had to enable memory remapping in the bios of an ASUS Rampage II mobo to get Windows to use all 4gb of ram. In the future, it will be no big deal as all machines will be 64bit. I have a i7 920 with Win7 and never had to do that.

 

[Nothinman]

Isn't what's missing the memory reserved for devices like your video card, etc...?

No, otherwise Windows wouldn't see the full 4G there at all. When main memory is used for onboard video it's completely gone and not even Windows sees it. When it's just lost because the physical addresses got used for MMIO and such, Windows knows that it's there and unusable.

 

[blackrain]

I went into the BIOS and found the memory remapping setting. It was enabled. Is it possible that "available physical memory" is less than 4GB because system resources are using that memory? I don't understand what the term "available physical memory" means under the windows "system info" utility.

 

[blackrain]

Shouldn't be with a 64bit O/S. The only thing that would cause that is memory used for integrated gfx. I didn't think to look at that on his board, and I'm not in front of my main computer now. .8gb is a lot of gfx memory though :^/

I do have integrated video, but I am using a dedicated ATI 4850 video card. By the way, I am not sure if I disabled it completely or not in the BIOS (or how to do that?).

Also, one other thing that I noticed in the BIOS. Plug n Play is set to "BIOS" rather than "O/S". Not really sure what that should be set to and why.

 

[Scotteq]

Check to see did a memory limit get manually set, and un-set it: Click the Start orb, and type in msconfig. Right click the msconfig app to run it as Administrator. That brings up the configuration utility. Click the Boot tab, and then click the Advanced Options button. In that window, there is a setting for Maximum Memory - Make sure the checkbox for it is clear (not checked), then reboot your computer.

 

[lxskllr]

Check to see did a memory limit get manually set, and un-set it: Click the Start orb, and type in msconfig. Right click the msconfig app to run it as Administrator. That brings up the configuration utility. Click the Boot tab, and then click the Advanced Options button. In that window, there is a setting for Maximum Memory - Make sure the checkbox for it is clear (not checked), then reboot your computer.

^^^

I think this is on the right track. Just for kicks, it looks like you disable your onboard gfx here...

 

[blackrain]

^^^

I think this is on the right track. Just for kicks, it looks like you disable your onboard gfx here...

The checkbox was clear for memory limitations for the msconfig utility. I checked the BIOS and the onboard gfx were disabled. What next? What is your "Available Physical Memory" for comparison?

System info reads:
Installed Physical Memory 4.00GB
Total Physical Memory 4.00GB
Available Physical Memory 3.32GB
Total Virtual Memory 8.00GB
Available Virtual Memory 7.21GB
Page file size 4.00GB

Let me know if you want me to post a screenshot of the system info utility window.

 

[lxskllr]

Mine shows 8gb. I'm not sure what to check next. Maybe try Scotteq's suggestion, but check the box, reboot, then uncheck it, and reboot again.Stupid question... You're sure you installed 64bit?

 

[Salamander]

I have Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit with a D975XBX2 motherboard. I have 6GB of installed memory, and it shows 4.63 GB available memory. I have on-board audio disabled. I also have the processor (E6700) overclocked from 2.66 to 3.2.

I tried the msconfig steps, and that did nothing went into the bios, and could not find an option for memory re-mapping. Any suggestions?

 

[blackrain]

Mine shows 8gb. I'm not sure what to check next. Maybe try Scotteq's suggestion, but check the box, reboot, then uncheck it, and reboot again.Stupid question... You're sure you installed 64bit?

Yes. 100%

Here is a similar problem:
http://www.velocityreviews.com/foru...b-physical-memory-under-windows-7-64-bit.html
http://forums.techarena.in/motherboard-processor-ram/1175521.htm

 

[lxskllr]

From your 2nd link...

Hi

I've solved this problem by doing (almost) what the last guy said:

press windows key + R (runs the 'run' dialog box)
type msconfig
go to boot tab
go to advanced settings
(here's where it's different)
UNTICK BOTH 'no. of processors' and 'max memory'

these both default to the system max anyway so when you untick them then you put no limits in.

I went from 1.5BG available (out of 6!!) to 5.8GB available.... nice.
And now my music software runs like a dream!!

Did you try this? How about BIOS update?

 

[blackrain]

From your 2nd link...



Did you try this? How about BIOS update?

I haven't tried that yet. However, I have some fundamental questions. I originally posted because it wasn't clear whether windows 7 x64 was recognizing all 4GB of memory (it being well known that 32 bit operating systems can't recognize 4GB of memory). The full recognition of 4GB of memory was a big reason I went with x64.

It sounds like you see an issue, but I found a nice summary of the memory allocation (see the link below) in the resource monitor/manager in the task manager.

If I understand this summary correctly, it is showing all 4GB of memory (see indication of 4095mb total available) being recognized by windows and 739mb in use/252mb modified. It shows 3104mb available (which I think comes from 739mb in use and the 252 mb modified being subtracted from the total available 4095mb). The "in use" and modified" allocations appear to be used memory allocations. So my questions are:

1) Isn't the 739mb in use representative of the processes that are shown? Isn't that normal for the running processes to be using some of the available memory?
2) What is "modified"? Does 252mb make sense for processes that are "modified"?
3) Is there a problem here or not, and if so, what is it? It seems like there are no hardware reservations which is what most people seem to be having problems with (i.e., video memory sharing) I don't know what "modified" processes are or why they are using memory, but the 739mb of processes seems normal (err...or not??)

And it seems like the whole 4GB of memory is recognized by and available to windows? Or not?

 

[lxskllr]

I agree with your assessment. It looks like Windows sees, and is using all the memory. Maybe a bug in the quicky report of system properties? Maybe they changed the terminology of System Properties. That would roughly reflect what's showing in your last screenshot barring the usual variance from session to session. I'm a little confused tbh. It may be a coincidence that the amount "missing" is what you're using. If they changed the terminology, it's a crappy way to do it. I wouldn't think they make it that potentially confusing, but you never know :^/

 

[stag3]

i show 4 gigs total
and 3.1 available

because if i go to task manager, the 900 megs is being used up by services/processes

 

[postmortemIA]

i show 4 gigs total
and 3.1 available

because if i go to task manager, the 900 megs is being used up by services/processes

lol, that was obvious, and looks like it is OPs problem.. if he wants more 'available' memory he would need to disable aero and such ...

 

[imagoon]

Might or might not be semi-unrelated... Certain chipsets also can't handle 4 gig because the chipset itself has an internal 32bit memory mapping limit. I ran in to this on certain Dells if I recall from memory the Intel i945 has that limitation. Even with a 64 bit os and 4gig of RAM 3.2 gig only shows and was mentioned on the web also.

 

[Blazer]

Might or might not be semi-unrelated... Certain chipsets also can't handle 4 gig because the chipset itself has an internal 32bit memory mapping limit. I ran in to this on certain Dells if I recall from memory the Intel i945 has that limitation. Even with a 64 bit os and 4gig of RAM 3.2 gig only shows and was mentioned on the web also.

because the chipset is limited to 32 bit, you canot run 64 bit os on partically 32/64 bit hardware.

 

[tcsenter]

System info reads:
Installed Physical Memory 4.00GB
Total Physical Memory 4.00GB
Available Physical Memory 3.32GB

Installed = self-explanatory
Total = how much is addressed/exposed to the OS
Available = "free" memory, not committed/used

IOW, everything is as it should be.