Only 2.93Gb usable of my 4Gb RAM?

[kseh]

I have Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit on a Dell n5010 laptop. I purchased this laptop and everything was fine until I formatted it, and for some reason it now shows that only 2.93 of the installed 4Gb are usable. I checked the BIOS and it in fact shows that I have installed 4096mb of RAM as well as in the "System" tab. Is there any way to revert this and get the full amount of RAM working without having to re-format the computer or do anything drastic like that?
I have attached a picture. Any help will be GREATLY appreciated, Thanks.

 

[Wallonn7]

I have Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit on a Dell n5010 laptop. I purchased this laptop and everything was fine until I formatted it, and for some reason it now shows that only 2.93 of the installed 4Gb are usable. I checked the BIOS and it in fact shows that I have installed 4096mb of RAM as well as in the "System" tab. Is there any way to revert this and get the full amount of RAM working without having to re-format the computer or do anything drastic like that?
I have attached a picture. Any help will be GREATLY appreciated, Thanks.

Welcome to SF!
This is probably due to the redirection of ram for video memory...

 

[DocBrown]

Start :ar: System Configuration :ar: Boot

Maximum Memory unchecked ?

Plus some probably used for your Laptop video memory on MB.

 

[kseh]

Start :ar: System Configuration :ar: Boot

Maximum Memory unchecked ?

Plus some probably used for your Laptop video memory on MB.

This is what its set as

 

[DocBrown]

Start :ar: System Configuration :ar: Boot

Maximum Memory unchecked ?

Plus some probably used for your Laptop video memory on MB.

This is what its set as

Leave the box unchecked & reboot, then see what it says.

 

[Petey7]

Uncheck both boxes. The number of CPU box does nothing if it set to the same number of threads as you have (4 for the i3).

 

[kseh]

Start :ar: System Configuration :ar: Boot

Maximum Memory unchecked ?

Plus some probably used for your Laptop video memory on MB.

This is what its set as

Leave the box unchecked & reboot, then see what it says.

This is what it looks like after reboot

 

[DocBrown]

Now what does it say when you look at it in system, like your first snip ?

 

[kseh]

Now what does it say when you look at it in system, like your first snip ?

Holy ish! its now showing this, why is that??

 

[DocBrown]

Now your getting the maximum memory except what is allocated for the onboard laptop video card.

 

[Petey7]

Cool. Thats an improvement. The other 0.2 GHz in probably being used by hardware still. Now I think you should rerun the WEI test. You might see an improvement.

 

[kseh]

Now your getting the maximum memory except what is allocated for the onboard laptop video card.

Is it possible to get those 200mb back or is it a no go

 

[Petey7]

Well, they're still being used technically, and I doubt you will need it. If you took it away from you graphics card or whatever hardware is using it, you will see a general decreases in performance.

 

[kseh]

Cool. Thats an improvement. The other 0.2 GHz in probably being used by hardware still. Now I think you should rerun the WEI test. You might see an improvement.

:O whats WEI

 

[Petey7]

The score you see above your system specs. Its grayed out because you need to rerun it. Click the number, then click re-run assessment.

EDIT: click the link beside the number, not the number itself. Sorry bout that.

 

[kseh]

The score you see above your system specs. Its grayed out because you need to rerun it. Click the number, then click re-run assessment.

EDIT: click the link beside the number, not the number itself. Sorry bout that.

Ohhh gotcha, so if i checked those two boxes again the (number of processor and the maximum memory) would my RAM drop again? I thought having those boxes checked helped the performance as well as startup, i might be wrong

 

[Petey7]

That is a common mis-perception that I believed at one time as well. I found it was actually better to leave both unchecked. Most people say it doesn't matter at all. Either way, the best think to do is leave them alone. They are only meant to be used for debugging purposes, which you aren't trying to do.

 

[kseh]

That is a common mis-perception that I believed at one time as well. I found it was actually better to leave both unchecked. Most people say it doesn't matter at all. Either way, the best think to do is leave them alone. They are only meant to be used for debugging purposes, which you aren't trying to do.

Well that I didn't know. I always tried to get into msconfig and uncheck all unnecessary startup applications, then go into the Boot option and check those 2 boxes, hoping my computer would run or even start any faster.

 

[DocBrown]

Windows Experience Index

 

[kseh]

Thanks for all the Help!! Any tips on how i can make win 7 a bit faster?