I have 3GB of RAM installed but the system only reports 2814MB

  • Thread starter Thread starter Shade00
  • Start date Start date
S

Shade00

3GB RAM on Vista 32-bit Home Premium and system info is only reporting
2814MB. The motherboard bios is recognizing all 3GB and the memory has tested
fine when only 1GB or 2GB is installed on it's own. The memory is all the
same - Corsair - same product line and everything. Vista OS is up to date and
I am using the latest bios for my motherboard. I will paste the system specs
here.... (Any idea what could be going on here?)

OS Name Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium
Version 6.0.6000 Build 6000
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name (i removed this)
System Manufacturer System manufacturer
System Model System Product Name
System Type X86-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz, 2400 Mhz, 2
Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Phoenix Technologies, LTD ASUS P5NSLI ACPI BIOS Revision
1401, 5/29/2007
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.0.6000.16386"
User Name
Time Zone Eastern Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 2,813.75 MB
Available Physical Memory 1.76 GB
Total Virtual Memory 6.64 GB
Available Virtual Memory 5.65 GB
Page File Space 4.00 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

Name NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0295&SUBSYS_C6363842&REV_A1\4&36AAE60&0&0010
Adapter Type GeForce 7950 GT, NVIDIA compatible
Adapter Description NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT
Adapter RAM 256.00 MB (268,435,456 bytes)
Installed Drivers nvd3dum.dll,nvwgf2um.dll
Driver Version 7.15.11.6375
INF File oem27.inf (nv_NV3x section)
Color Planes Not Available
Color Table Entries 4294967296
Resolution 1680 x 1050 x 59 hertz
Bits/Pixel 32
Memory Address 0xC6000000-0xC8FFFFFF
Memory Address 0xB0000000-0xBFFFFFFF
Memory Address 0xC7000000-0xC7FFFFFF
I/O Port 0x0000A000-0x0000AFFF
IRQ Channel IRQ 16
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\nvlddmkm.sys (7.15.11.6375, 7.27 MB
(7,625,088 bytes), 10/4/2007 6:14 PM)

Any idea what is going on here?
 
The Video card and possibly other devices are sharing some of your system
memory.
Its all normal.
 
My video card has dedicated memory. Plus, when there are 2GB installed it
reports 2GB is installed. Wouldnt these other devices need memory when only
2GB is in the machine? Would upgrading to 3GB really cause my video card with
dedicated memory (as denoted below) and other devices to suddenly need almost
500MB of RAM to operate?
 
No. At 3GB you are starting to enter the address range being reserved for
hardware and system by the BIOS.

With less than 4GB installed the system addresses are offset into the user
space by the memory manager and marked to prevent user programs from writing
there. When that is done only the system software is loaded into ram that
is currently needed. At 2GB you have some system software using up user
space and you can see that without running any applications a certain amount
of memory is already being used.

With 4GB installed the system addresses exist, maximum system software is
loaded into memory at the system addresses in upper ram and no offset is
done by the memory manager, but the space is hidden from user programs
because the mm is no longer protecting them. That is why you suddenly seem
to be missing some ram.

Your video card (and other hardware) has memory reserved by the BIOS for
buffering in the upper range of addresses once those addresses refer to
installed memory. This is different than what the memory on the video card
is used for.
 
So, this is how I understand it now. With 3GB of RAM installed Vista 32-bit
offloads memory used by devices and some drivers from the memory manager (and
therefore from the allocated user memory) and sets them up outside of what it
now makes available to "user" system resources. For instance, even though my
video card has 256MB of dedicated memory Vista is still going to "shadow"
that much again, plus some other stuff from the bios and other misc crap.
hehe So, in turn, it only reports the 2814 MB of memory even though there is
3072 MB installed. Why in the world dont "they" just patch the OS so that it
shows 3 GB as being installed and then report more of it as used? Do "they"
think we dont have enough to deal with out here already? I mean, how many
questions would that save us? People dont like paying for things just so they
can get it home and be told they dont really have it. Even if it is some kind
of prank. Anyway, thank you for the explanation. =)
 
Shade00 said:
Why in the world dont "they" just patch the OS so that it
shows 3 GB as being installed and then report more of it as used? Do "they"
think we dont have enough to deal with out here already? I mean, how many
questions would that save us? People dont like paying for things just so they
can get it home and be told they dont really have it. Even if it is some kind
of prank. Anyway, thank you for the explanation. =)
Click to expand...

They provide that patch with SP1
 
As Jorgen says, SP1 is changed to report installed ram instead of user ram.
Personally, I prefer the present method because the change will not make any
more ram available. All it does it report it differently. I would just as
soon know what the user space really is in a simple way.
 
Kewl. Thanks for the info everyone. I suppose it is just a preference thing,
although it will be a lot easier for me to explain to people now that I know
what is going on... and I suppose it will be a lot easier for me in general
with SP1 since I probably wont even be getting the questions... I hope.
Again, thanks for your time. =)
 
Back
Top