Not able to use all 4GB of ram

[intelfan00]

I have 4GB of ram installed on my pc but after installing my Nvidia PNY Geforce 9500GT 1GB GPU my pc now says I have 3GB of ram usable instead of the full 4GB it use to have, and my GPU now says it has 2GB physical memory to use instead of its 1GB its meant to have. I am running Windows 7 32bit and wanted to know how to stop it ram shearing with my GPU as I really want it to have the full 4GB back usable is there a way to fix this?

 

[mickey megabyte]

hi supernova, and welcome to sevenforums,

unfortunately you are never going to get to use your full 4 gigs ram with 32 bit windows. it just isn't possible.

 

[Mark]

You should have Gone for x64 if you wanted to use that much memory, there is no other way around it and as far as your Graphics card goes with sharing memory, it's not dedicated so it will only use it if it needs to and as you have 1Gig of dedicated graphics memory it would be highly unlikely that it would need to share any of your system memory.

The fact that it says you only have 3GB usable has nothing to do with your Graphics card using the other Gig, in fact the memory your Graphics card is sharing from is the remaining usable 3GB of system memory the fact is the extra 1GB is not usable at all and that is because of the limitations of running 32bit, the maximum total amount of RAM it can handle is 4 Gigs and that includes Graphics Memory.

 

[intelfan00]

I have tryed the 64Bit version and same thing happens on that to as it is ram sharing.

 

[lenovowin7]

wat's the max your bios can take. check up .

 

[Tews]

If you're sharing system RAM with video, it doesn't matter which version you install... a-b=c

 

[intelfan00]

the max my pc can take is 4GB Ram and in the sytem spec it says 4GB but 3GB usable.

 

[H2SO4]

the max my pc can take is 4GB Ram and in the sytem spec it says 4GB but 3GB usable.

What output does your machine produce from running BCDEDIT on an elevated (run as admin) command prompt?

 

[intelfan00]

the max my pc can take is 4GB Ram and in the sytem spec it says 4GB but 3GB usable.

What output does your machine produce from running BCDEDIT on an elevated (run as admin) command prompt?

I have not used BCDEDIT befor so i am not 100% sure what you want me to do?

 

[H2SO4]

the max my pc can take is 4GB Ram and in the sytem spec it says 4GB but 3GB usable.

What output does your machine produce from running BCDEDIT on an elevated (run as admin) command prompt?

I have not used BCDEDIT befor so i am not 100% sure what you want me to do?

Right-click the CMD.EXE (command prompt) short-cut.

Choose "run as admin". If you get a security prompt, click "Yes". You should now see a command prompt (white text on a black background).

Type "BCDEDIT" without the quotes. Look at the output.

I'm interested in whether the word "removememory" is mentioned anywhere. If so, that may be at least contributing to your problem, especially if the same condition was present during your machine's 64-bit days when you observed the same "missing RAM" symptom.

 

[intelfan00]

What output does your machine produce from running BCDEDIT on an elevated (run as admin) command prompt?

I have not used BCDEDIT befor so i am not 100% sure what you want me to do?

Right-click the CMD.EXE (command prompt) short-cut.

Choose "run as admin". If you get a security prompt, click "Yes". You should now see a command prompt (white text on a black background).

Type "BCDEDIT" without the quotes. Look at the output.

I'm interested in whether the word "removememory" is mentioned anywhere. If so, that may be at least contributing to your problem, especially if the same condition was present during your machine's 64-bit days when you observed the same "missing RAM" symptom.

i just tryed it and there was no mention of "removememory" i can upload a screen shot of it needed.

 

[H2SO4]

i just tryed it and there was no mention of "removememory" i can upload a screen shot of it needed.

No need. I trust your ability to read

It is not particularly suprising that you've only got 3GB "usable" out of 4GB "installed" while running a 32-bit OS. That is quite common. Depending on the specific hardware, some of the memory addresses which would otherwise be used to describe RAM locations need to be allocated for hardware needs instead.

There is another, completely unrelated mechanism that's sometimes (mis)used to limit the amount of memory, and that's what I was aiming to check with the BCDEDIT command. Obviously, there's nothing there to see.

 

[intelfan00]

i just tryed it and there was no mention of "removememory" i can upload a screen shot of it needed.

No need. I trust your ability to read

It is not particularly suprising that you've only got 3GB "usable" out of 4GB "installed" while running a 32-bit OS. That is quite common. Depending on the specific hardware, some of the memory addresses which would otherwise be used to describe RAM locations need to be allocated for hardware needs instead.

There is another, completely unrelated mechanism that's sometimes (mis)used to limit the amount of memory, and that's what I was aiming to check with the BCDEDIT command. Obviously, there's nothing there to see.

Thanks for all the help. so theres nothing i can do to get back the ram then as it all looks right and 64bit version has the same happen to it as well?

 

[logicearth]

So far it appears anyone with a Geforce 9000/8000 series or whatever, it will allocate shared memory regardless of x86 or x64. Appears to try and get to 2 GB, dedicated VRAM + RAM.

Every reference to people losing RAM like this most seem to have a Geforce 9000 card. And it doesn't matter with platform they use x86 or x64. For example this person has a Geforce 9800 GTX+ and running x64: http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/30806-7-25gb-ram-usable.html, and this one has a Geforce 9800 GT: http://www.sevenforums.com/performa...ndows-7-showing-far-less-ram-than-should.html

 

[LPDad]

Very strange. My (Custom Built) system is using an gForce 8800 GTX and I am showing as usable ALL of my 8 GB installed system memory (4 x 2 gb sticks).

 

[H2SO4]

Very strange. My (Custom Built) system is using an gForce 8800 GTX and I am showing as usable ALL of my 8 GB installed system memory (4 x 2 gb sticks).

I really don't think it's got anything to do with the video card. The reasons for the OP's descrepancy under x64 would need to be separately investigated once/if they reinstall. Right now, they're apparently on a 32-bit build and it's all just guesses.

 

[intelfan00]

Very strange. My (Custom Built) system is using an gForce 8800 GTX and I am showing as usable ALL of my 8 GB installed system memory (4 x 2 gb sticks).

I really don't think it's got anything to do with the video card. The reasons for the OP's descrepancy under x64 would need to be separately investigated once/if they reinstall. Right now, they're apparently on a 32-bit build and it's all just guesses.

I have had both 64 and 32 bit windows 7 and vista on my pc all 4 OP systems have had same problem all showing 4GB ram but only 3 usable so I know it has nothing to do with it being on a 32 bit OP system. And I have clean installed them all every time to be sure it wasn’t the old OP system causing a problem.

 

[torrentg]

You'll never get 4 GB on 32 bit.
64 bit is another story however.
If you really want that 4 GB, you must use x64. Not sure how to help you on that once you are x64. But you do need x64.

 

[intelfan00]

You'll never get 4 GB on 32 bit.
64 bit is another story however.
If you really want that 4 GB, you must use x64. Not sure how to help you on that once you are x64. But you do need x64.

If i put 64bit back on how will that help me get 4GB usable wen it hasnt done b4 as its alot of hassle reinstalling everything if its just gona be the same as it was

 

[torrentg]

Think of it like this:

If you stay on 32 bit, there is absolutely 100% chance that you will never see 4GB usable.

If you change to 64 bit, then you do have a chance of that happening.

32 bit=impossible
64 bit=possible

Of course, it's your choice which OS you want to use. And for you to decide if it's worth moving to 64 bit to have your chance.

In my opinion, since it didn't show before as 4GB under x64, I'd say it's a chance not worth taking and be happy if you're satisfied with x86 otherwise.