Physical RAM not showing true value

Greetings! First time on this forum Hope to get some help from anyone please.

I am running Windows 7 64-bit. I recently upgraded my RAM from 4GB to 8GB. Upon restarting windows...checked Task Manager....it shows that I still have 4GB.

I ran Resource Monitor....this is what it reads:

Hardware Reserved - 5129 MB
In use - 986 MB
Modified - 76 MB
Standby - 419 MB
Free - 1581 MB

Available - 1765 MB
Cached - 1302 MB
Total - 3063 MB
Installed - 8192 MB

So...I did install the modules properly. I just don't understand why my "physical" memory is still what it used to be and not 8GB. Please help. thank you

Try this. Open msconfig (run/msconfig) and click on the Boot tab then on the Advanced options button. Make sure that the 'Maximum memory' box is not checked.

WOOHOO!!!! That's it! The maximum Meomry box was checked...I just unchecked it and reboot system. Now it shows I have 8GB. Thank you very much for your help Roban

I'm glad it worked for you M8.

Hi logicearth! Someone told me by checking "number of processors" it would speed up my system. I realize now this is only for debugging and testing. Thanks for the advice. Unchecking it now:)

What you did is like the old /3GB switch in the Windows XP x32 boot file witch told XP "Hey look stupid you have more ram." I have seen this problem alot with Windows 7 on intel mb runing 6 sticks of ram.

The /3G switch also exists for Windows 7 32 bit and works the same way. It is just in the BCD now.

In a 64 bit version of windows the switch isn't implied, but meaningless. An application can address more than 3GB of virtual address space on a 64 bit system.

Boot Configuration Data. Windows Vista and Windows 7 replacement for the boot.ini in windows XP. It is less accessible and more cryptic than the simple text file in Windows XP. In it the /3G functionality goes under the guise /increaseuserva