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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.
K, I found a solution... weird though...
I was using MSCONFIG to make sure windows started with all four cpu cores (i.e. msconfig / Boot / Advanced Options / number of processors).
I guess I also selected use max memory option as well.
In windows Resource Monitor 1026 MB was set aside for "Hardware Reserved"
I unselected the "use max memory" and now Win7 reports the full memory and the Hardware Reserved dropped to zero.
Hope it helps someone else.
Doesn't work for me. I've got both boxes unchecked, and it still says "4.00GB (3.00 GB usable)
I have a Compaq 6910p notebook and Windows Ultimate 64bit. (PC Info below)
OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Version 6.1.7600 Build 7600
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name hidden by me
System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
System Model HP Compaq 6910p
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7300 @ 2.00GHz, 2001 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Hewlett-Packard 68MCD Ver. F.0A, 9/13/2007
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7600.16385"
User Name hiddenbyme
Time Zone Eastern Standard Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 3.00 GB
Available Physical Memory 1.42 GB
Total Virtual Memory 6.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 3.63 GB
Page File Space 3.00 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
I would love to have an answer to this.
Dave
DaveC
Have Dave,
which Mainbaord do you have? Which chipset does it have? Did you enable the Memory Remapping fetaure inside the BIOS?
André
"A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code" CLIP- Stellvertreter http://www.winvistaside.de/
Dave, try selecting "use max mem" and reboot then unselect "use max mem" and reboot... see if that works
