RAM issue

I also have 4Gb installed, but Windows is only recognizing 3.44GB. Why is this?

Datalyss said:

I also have 4Gb installed, but Windows is only recognizing 3.44GB. Why is this?

The standard response: desktop versions of 32 bit Windows (including 7) can address 4GB at most. However, some of these addresses are reserved for other purposes, so that a 32 bit system with 4GB of RAM will always show less than that available. The exact amount will depend on what hardware devices are present.

There are 32 bit server OSes that support PAE (physical address extension) that support more. They don't support 64 bit applications, though, so the limits on individual applications remain.

For a 32bit system it is a problem of address space. As was said, graphics (even if they have their own memory) and some other functions need address space which can range from 0.5 to 1.2GBs. Thus the adddress space available for the RAM that the OS uses is between 2.8 and 3.5GB.

For 64bit systems there is no address space problem because the 64bit win7 address space goes up to 128GBs. It is, however, possible that an integrated graphics uses "shared memory" which takes real RAM away from the OS. For the size of that you have to check the specs of the on-board graphics chip.

Does the bios report 3 or 4 GB?

Have a look in the bios for anything to do with memory hole or memory remapping, and if available make sure it is set to enabled (being an Acer, it may not be there).

My graphics card has 1gb DEDCATED memory

See, that's a bit of information you did not give us before. Would have saved me a lot of typing.

whs said:

My graphics card has 1gb DEDCATED memory

See, that's a bit of information you did not give us before. Would have saved me a lot of typing.

And doesn't make any difference on a 64 bit OS. If that was the case mine would be showing 4 GB installed and 3.5 GB available.