I am trying to understand how to make windows 7 to read my 4 gig of memory I have installed. It tells me that 4 gig is installed but only using 2 gig. I don't understand why it says that 2.00 GB usable? Can anyone help with this issue?
Thanks so much for any responces....
I believe your operating system is 32-bits which supports up to 3.25 GB of memory. If you want to use all of 4 GB, you will have to do a clean install of 64-bits version of Windows 7 =)
Hello billyc247, welcome to Seven Forums!
If you have integrated graphics some will be dedicated to that.
Hello Billy, and welcome to Seven Forums.
As Ted posted, if you do have an onboard integrated graphics chip, then some of your RAM may be set in the BIOS to be allocated for it. Even if you have added a separate graphics card later.
If not, then double check using the tutorial below to make sure that the Maximum memory box is unchecked. If that still does not help, then check the Maximum memory box and select all available memory (highest number) to see if it will use all memory afterwards.
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ndows-7-a.html
Hope this helps,
Shawn
Hey thanks to all of you for the help in this problem. I am running windows 7 32bit with no onboard graphics. I am running SLI on a Evga 790i mother board, with q6600 over clocked to 3.0gz. I tried to do some changing with the msconfig, but that didn't work. I think I will format and reinstall the 64 bit and see if things change then.
I will keep you updated on my process. The reason I didn't install the 64bit before was it said my system was not setup for 64bit. Is there something I need to change in the bois in order to be able to install the 64bit of windows 7??
and again.. Thanks for help in this..
Nice to know there is somewhere to get some good answers to questions...
Billy
Billy,
Not always, but with an amazing frequency, the problem you are seeing is due to an improperly seated memory chip.
Remove chips, reseat chips, problem gone?
If not, then one possible cause is that one of your memory chips is bad.
Leave you first two gigs in. Boot up. Probably all will be welll.
Remove that two gigs and put in the other two into the slot where you just removed the working memory.
If doesn't work, then you've a bad chip.
If does work, leave that memory there and put the rest back in.
Maybe this time they are correctly seated.
SLI ?
What video cards?
Do they have 1 gig of VRAM each? :)
Graphics controllers do not need to be "integrated" to use up RAM. Every bit of your one or more video cards needs it's own RAM address space which on 32 bit means taking it away from the 4 gigs you have installed. Moving to 64 bit verion of W7 is the only way to fix it.
OK - Since the system says there are 4 gigs installed, then your RAM is seated properly and you don't have a physical issue.
The crux of the matter is your 32 bit version of Win 7.
In a computer all bytes in the memory system need a unique name. This is called an address. For example, if you have 2 GB of main memory, then there are 2147483648 bytes of RAM in your machine, each of which require an address for the operating system to communicate to it. To give these all an address you need 31 bits to do it. Now, if/when you have 32 bits, you can name 4 GB (2 bytes to the 32nd power = 4GB).
This is why the total addressable space available in a 32 bit OS is 4GB – the OS runs out of addresses and cannot communicate/locate any more bytes of memory because of that.
You may think ”Hey, 4GB of address space… 4GB of RAM… What’s the problem” The problem is that memory isn’t the only thing needing an address. If you install a total of 4GB worth of RAM, the system will detect/use/display less than 4GB of total memory because of address space allocation for other critical functions, such as:
- System BIOS (including motherboard, add-on cards, etc..)
- Motherboards resources
- Memory mapped I/O
- Configuration for AGP/PCI-Ex/PCI
- Other memory allocations for PCI devices
Different onboard devices and different add-on cards (devices) will result of different total memory size. e.g. more PCI cards installed will require more memory resources, resulting of less memory free for other uses.
This limitation applies to most chipsets & Windows XP/Vista 32-bit version operating systems. Again, this is a limitation of the Operating System not having enough address space to allocate to the system *and* the RAM. Not allocating address space to devices renders them inoperable. Not allocating addresses to RAM simply results in the unaddressed section not being used in an otherwise fully functional computer. Therefore the OS designers assign RAM last.
If you install a Windows operating system, and if more than 3GB memory is required for your system, then the below conditions must be met:
1. A memory controller which supports memory swap functionality is used. The latest chipsets like Intel 975X, 955X, Nvidia NF4 SLI Intel Edition, Nvidia NF4 SLI X16, AMD K8 and newer architectures can support the memory swap function.
2. Installation of Windows XP Pro X64 Ed. (64-bit), Windows Vista 64, or other OS which can provide more than 4GB worth of address space.
Note: Windows Vista 32bit SP1 and newer versions will display the installed amount of RAM, regardless of how much is accessible. This is a display change only.
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