Windows 7 x64 RAM problem

[Inertia]

hello guys,

I have a problem with my newly purchased 2 gb RAM.

previously I had been using 3 gb of RAM in my Windows 7 Ultimate x64. anything with the RAM was fine. then I have bought a 2gb RAM today, inserted it to the slot of my notebook and switched on the notebook.

in the system properties I saw this.





3.00 of it was usable.

I replaced the memories in the slots, nothing changed.

Then I did some research on this. I read that doing this might help:




it did not. still 3.00 gb usable.


Then I read that I could alter some setting called "Memory Remapping" in my BIOS, but could not fine one in the BIOS. my notebook is a Toshiba A100-011, and it has an Intel chipset.


Then I discovered these;




"hardware reserved"


then I suspected my graphics card and found this:







My graphics card is an external one as you see, and it has 256 mb of separate memory of itself. It was using only 2mb of the system ram when I was using 2 GB ram, but now it takes up a whole 1500 something.

I do not want that and I want to use this amount for normal system works.


So please tell me a way to make all of the 4.00 GB of ram "usable".

Regards

 

[Petey7]

Shot in the dark here. What options do you see when you click "List All Modes"?

 

[Inertia]

I don't think "List All Modes" is relevant, but anyway here is what I see when I click it;

 

[stormy13]

Nothing to do with the video card, and everything to do with the chipset and maximum memory support of the laptop. Specs for the A100-011 in your specs,

Satellite A100-011 - Product Specifications - Toshiba

System memory
standard : 1,024 MB
maximum expandability : 4,096 MB
technology : DDR2 RAM (533 MHz)

This is for Vista by the same applies for Windows 7,

The system memory that is reported in the System Information dialog box in Windows Vista is less than you expect if 4 GB of RAM is installed

When the physical RAM that is installed on a computer equals the address space that is supported by the chipset, the total system memory that is available to the operating system is always less than the physical RAM that is installed. For example, consider a computer that has an Intel 975X chipset that supports 8 GB of address space. If you install 8 GB of RAM, the system memory that is available to the operating system will be reduced by the PCI configuration requirements. In this scenario, PCI configuration requirements reduce the memory that is available to the operating system by an amount that is between approximately 200 MB and approximately 1 GB. The reduction depends on the configuration.

Basically what it means is that the chipset in your laptop only supports up to 4 GB of ram total, but still needs something to use as address space. This means that regardless of 32 or 64 bit on a motherboard that only supports up to 4 GB of ram, 4 GB will never be usable.

 

[Inertia]

wow.

bummer.. wish I knew that beforehand. thanks so much stormy13.