Windows 7: Win 7 64 bit reserving 6+ gbs ram

Here are my specs,

Windows 7 home premium 64 bit
12 gig ram
Nvidia gtx 260
Asus mobo P7H55-M

THE PROBLEM:

I recently received extra ram chips from a friend as a gift (Kingston 4gbs x 2). So I plug that into my computers and ran it, as a result, in properties of computer, it shows total ram as being 12 then it says (5.97 available). Befor I installed the ram, I also noticed that when I had 4 gigs of ram ( 2 x 2 ) it was 4 gbs total, 1.97) available. I've been search for a solution to fix this problem because I am certain no drivers or hardware devices I have require 6 gigs of reserved ram.

solutions I HAVE TRIED:



1.) updated bios
2.) enable memory remap in bios
3.) check/uncheck max mem in msconfig settings
4.) reinstalled fresh windows 7 64 bit

All the above does not worked or worked partially. Anyone else have any other suggestions please? Thanks

Actually it is supposed to do that. Win 7 handles ram differently. It puts ~half of the available ram into memory to speed up the loading of data pages. If that memory were to be needed elsewhere it would be released.

Its not a bug, its a feature.

I checked bios again and even though windows says 12 gigs ram total, in bios it only says 6.111 gigs installed. Something fishy is going on.

Try:

Removing and reseating the RAM

Putting the RAM in different slots

Test it with just the new sticks and see what it shows

Just to provide us with more information, can you please post screenshots of what CPUID shows on the important tabs: CPU, CACHE, MAINBOARD, MEMORY, and then SPD for each of the four DIMM slots (I assume all four DIMM slots are now in use).

You say you have the original 2x2GB cards, as well as the new 2x4GB Kingston cards. Are the originals plus the new ones matched? We'll see from the CPUID images, but were the "gift" cards designated specifically by you as to part number for compatibility in your machine?


Also, if you run Taskmgr and click on the Performance tab and then push the Resource Monitor button and then select the Memory tab and look at the bottom of the screen to show the Physical Memory layout, what does it show (screenshot please?)?

On my 4GB machine (with 1GB ATI HD4850 video card) I show virtually all 4GB as "available". But I show essentially zero as "hardware reserved". What is "hardware reserved" on your 12GB machine? This is BIOS-related, and is tied to the hardware you have in the machine. What is your video card? Any other expansion cards?

(a) From Aida64 (used and free add up to 4GB):



(b) from Taskmgr (in-use and available add up to 4GB):

Ok, here are the screenshots. My video card is an Nvidia GTX 260 896 mb.

This problem has been solved, thanks everyone for helpful suggestions. What happened was I swapped the slots between my 4gb ram chips with my 2 gb ram chips, now I got 12 gigs of available ram out of 12 gigs of available ram. Thanks again!

I've been trying to do research into the obvious problem... namely 6.1GB "hardware reserved". Pretty universal problem, lots of frustration, and not one definitive solution.

I even saw one guy claimed that increasing the vDIMM voltage from 1.50v to 1.65v solved his problem! I think this is normally associated with "overclocking" but I definitely am illiterate on this subject.

Anyway, I do see that everything looks good in terms of the two "gift" memory cards being a match for your original two. But I also see that CPUID says you're running memory as "single channel", which would not be correct. I don't know how your motherboard has the four DIMM slots colored which are usually set up to direct you as to insertion of pairs of memory cards. I know with older machines you put memory into #1 and #3 for "dual channel" operation (assuming they were colored that way), and then you added memory into #2 and #4. Newer boards had you insert memory into #1 and #2, and then #3 and #4. I don't know about your board. Typically two are blue and two are black, or something like that, showing you where the pairs go.

Do you have your 2GB and 4GB cards inserted into the color-matched DIMM slots?

But for sure, the obvious problems and clues right off the top are: (a) 6179 MB hardware reserved, and (b) single channel DDR3 memory mode.


I'm still researching.

Well, we were both working together I guess. Took me 30 minutes of reading on the Interweb to finally post an "update".

Was it that mismatched DIMM slot color pair problem I suggested, where you'd put the wrong memory cards into the wrong slots from where you should have put them?

For my mobo, The slots are
1.) Blue
2.) Black
3.) Blue
4.) Black

Before I put in the 2 new 4 gig rams, my previous old 2 gig rams were in slots #1 and #3. This caused the system to be 4gigs total (1.97 available).

When I first installed my new rams, I put them into slots #2 and #4. This caused the system to be 12gig total (3.57 available). That is when I started looking for solutions. After I reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled windows and updated bios, it went up to 12 gigs total (5.97 available). That is when I posted in this forum and profdlp mentioned to swap around with the ram slots.

My current ram slot setup is:
1.) Blue - 4
2.) Black - 2
3.) Blue - 4
4.) Black - 2

My previous setups were
1.) Blue - 2
2.) Black -4
3.) Blue - 2
4.) Black - 4

and :
1.) Blue - 2
2.) Black - empty
3.) Blue - 2
4.) Black - empty