Can't see all my memory - not a 4GB limit problem.

I have an old HP A1030N with a PGTD1-LA (Goldfish3) motherboard and a P4 3GHz HT processor. I have an Audigy Soundblaster something-or-other sound card and an NVidia GeForce 9400GT video card. I'm running Windows 7 32-bit Ultimate.

For a long time I've been running with 1.5GB DDR2 RAM (2x256 + 2x512). I recently talked myself into upgrading, and grabbed (2) 1GB modules. Installing those with my previous 512's should give me 3GB, but I'm being told that I have only 2.37GB available.

Where's my other 600+ MB and how do I get them? Re-install?

I've Googled plenty, and all the problems I see discussed refer to the infamous 4GB/32-bit limitations. I know all about that, and I don't see where any of that applies. My motherboard supports up to 4GB RAM installed. My 3GB and the gigabyte on the video card should still fall within that limitation.

It seems that a portion of your RAM is still being set aside for probably your graphics card. Other possible users of memory are
System ROM
APIC(s)
Integrated PCI devices, such as network connectors and SCSI controllers
PCI cards

marsmimar said:

It seems that a portion of your RAM is still being set aside for probably your graphics card. Other possible users of memory are
System ROM
APIC(s)
Integrated PCI devices, such as network connectors and SCSI controllers
PCI cards

OK, fair enough. I'm not entirely sure how all that works, so I have to accept it's possible.

However, with 1.5GB RAM, I got to see and use the full 1.5GB. Why am I losing out now? How can I get it back? Can I?

From what I can remember, this total installed vs. available memory issue has to do with something called memory re-mapping. Not all systems (mobos and BIOS) support re-mapping. This Microsoft KB article goes into a bit more detail:

The usable memory may be less than the installed memory on Windows 7-based computers

marsmimar said:

From what I can remember, this total installed vs. available memory issue has to do with something called memory re-mapping. Not all systems (mobos and BIOS) support re-mapping. This Microsoft KB article goes into a bit more detail:

The usable memory may be less than the installed memory on Windows 7-based computers

I suppose that could be the case. BIOS does, in fact, detect all the correct memory in their slots:


While Everest Ultimate running inside Windows does not:

You could also take a look at the built in Resource Monitor. It may give a better picture of how your system is allocating your RAM.

Resource Monitor

ken9122 said:

Just a guess, but it may not like the 2 different type memory sticks. try removing the 2 512meg sticks and see if it sees all of the 2gig memory.
Ken

More like 3 different makes. I see two from Spectek, and 1 each from Samsung and Patriot.

Check what Doc posted first, then if that doesn't to it try it with the two 1 GB sticks as Ken suggested. If it sees and uses all 2 GB, then try it with the two 1 GB sticks and one of the 512 MB sticks and see if the full 2.5 GB is available. If it is swap the one 512 with the other and test again. You can also try putting the sticks in the slots like this,

1 GB - 1 GB - 512 MB - 512 MB
or
512 MB - 512 MB - 1 GB - 1 GB

and see if a different slot combination will get all 3 GB usable.

P.S. One small niggle, neither your video card nor the sound card are PCI-E, they are both PCI only,

Motherboard Specifications, PTGD-LA (Goldfish3) - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

Thanks for all the ideas - I'll try them out and post back with my findings.

stormy13 said:

P.S. One small niggle, neither your video card nor the sound card are PCI-E, they are both PCI only,

Right right... did I say otherwise?

EDIT: Oh, OK - my profile thingy. I'm not sure why that was there. I must've been dreaming that day or something.