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I have installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64. In System Properties, Windows tells me I have 4Gb RAM but only 3Gb is usable, displayed in the following format:
Installed memory (RAM): 4.00 GB (3.00 GB usable)
Previous to this installation, I had Vista Ultimate x64 installed and that always showed 4GB and all of it was usuable. What is it about Windows 7 that has changed this? If this is indeed a problem caused by BIOS settings, I have not altered them in any way so does this mean that Windows 7 changes the BIOS settings at the point of install?
I do not believe this to be related to some memory being allocated to my Graphics Card, it already has 512MB of dedicated memory. Why would Windows 7 assign it another 1GB of RAM, giving me a total of 1.5GB graphics memory? As I said, this was NEVER a problem on Vista Ultimate x64.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Hello AshK86,
Thank you for posting on Microsoft Answers Forums.
Can you list what model motherboard, processor and graphics card you are using? The “Hardware or BIOS reserved” is pointing towards the type of motherboard you have. I know you said you didn’t see this with Vista, but let’s make sure we rule it out just in case.
Regards,
Edgar
Microsoft Answers Support Engineer
Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.
Hi Chewwit,
your VIA chipset only supports 4GB of RAM. It must support more than 4GB to use the whole 4 GB.
André
"A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code" CLIP- Stellvertreter http://www.winvistaside.de/
I have a similar problem.
My System is:
Asus A8V-x
AMD 64 FX60
4GB RAM
Radeon HD 3850 (AGP)
SATA RAID array (mirror)
When I first installed windows 7 64bit (my xmas present) it blue screened on me repeatedly never completing installation. It took me 2 days to work out disabling the hardware memory hole option in the bios allowed this to complete. This restricted me to ~2.75 GB of accesible memory. I have tried a number of tricks, most interestingly the max memory tip above, but I cannot get windows 7 to access the whole 4 gb. I now can obtain the following solutions:
Hardware memory hole disabled = 2.75 Gb usable, ~1.25 hardware reserved
Hardware memory hole enabled & msconfig boot utility 3800 (i.e. less than 4Gb sans AGP aperture) = 2.5 Gb usable ~1.5 Gb hardware reserve
Hardware memory hole enabled & msconfig boot -> no limit = BSOD
Hardware memory hole enabled & msconfig boot -> no limit & safe mode = 4Gb memory usable, but no graphics
Interestingly the blue screen of death always refers to atisysmag as the faulty memory reference. Reinstalling graphics drivers (latest 9.12 version) has had no effect whatever the memory hole setting.
Any thoughts?
Chewwit
It does not have the memory remapping feature in BIOS.
Hi Dave,
if it doesn't support memory remapping you can't use the 4GB.
André
"A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code" CLIP- Stellvertreter http://www.winvistaside.de/
AMD64 is the 64-bit architecture itself not really referring to AMD processor there.
Intel first came out with true 64 bit platform named IA64 or itanium
AMD instead chose a backward compatible 64-bit platform widely known as AMD64, which became the popular 64bit platform (intel also followed)
MaxSumesh
