Vista does not see all of RAM

I am using Home Premium and recently increased my desktop memory from 2GB to
4GB. The BIOS sees each of four motherboard slots with 1.024GB and reports a
total of 4096GB. System information reports seeing only 3.325GB. Can
someone please tell me what is going on? Is Vista not using all the
available memory?

No, it is not using all of the memory since it has to reserve memory
address space for I/O controllers that have their own onboard memory and
also which sometimes need shared memory to transfer data.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us

"Barrie" <Barrie@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:F69F0AEA-4D97-4954-B2E1-3E4E79A799DD@xxxxxx

>I am using Home Premium and recently increased my desktop memory from 2GB
>to
> 4GB. The BIOS sees each of four motherboard slots with 1.024GB and
> reports a
> total of 4096GB. System information reports seeing only 3.325GB. Can
> someone please tell me what is going on? Is Vista not using all the
> available memory?

Thank you. This is a little embarrassing as, since I posted this question, I
have found another thread that answers it very well. My apologies to all.

"JW" wrote:

> No, it is not using all of the memory since it has to reserve memory
> address space for I/O controllers that have their own onboard memory and
> also which sometimes need shared memory to transfer data.
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us
>
> "Barrie" <Barrie@xxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:F69F0AEA-4D97-4954-B2E1-3E4E79A799DD@xxxxxx

> >I am using Home Premium and recently increased my desktop memory from 2GB
> >to
> > 4GB. The BIOS sees each of four motherboard slots with 1.024GB and
> > reports a
> > total of 4096GB. System information reports seeing only 3.325GB. Can
> > someone please tell me what is going on? Is Vista not using all the
> > available memory?

>

32 bit will only "see" that amount.


--
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"Barrie" <Barrie@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:F69F0AEA-4D97-4954-B2E1-3E4E79A799DD@xxxxxx

> I am using Home Premium and recently increased my desktop memory from 2GB
> to
> 4GB. The BIOS sees each of four motherboard slots with 1.024GB and
> reports a
> total of 4096GB. System information reports seeing only 3.325GB. Can
> someone please tell me what is going on? Is Vista not using all the
> available memory?

Unless your using a 64 bit version of Vista thats all its ever going to see.

"Barrie" wrote:

> I am using Home Premium and recently increased my desktop memory from 2GB to
> 4GB. The BIOS sees each of four motherboard slots with 1.024GB and reports a
> total of 4096GB. System information reports seeing only 3.325GB. Can
> someone please tell me what is going on? Is Vista not using all the
> available memory?

Hello!

"Barrie" <Barrie@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:F69F0AEA-4D97-4954-B2E1-3E4E79A799DD@xxxxxx

>I am using Home Premium and recently increased my desktop memory from 2GB to
> 4GB. The BIOS sees each of four motherboard slots with 1.024GB and reports a
> total of 4096GB. System information reports seeing only 3.325GB. Can
> someone please tell me what is going on? Is Vista not using all the
> available memory?

http://www.dansdata.com/askdan00015.htm


Roman

Now come on people if you really dont know the answer then dont post a reply with a guess. I have the exact same issue with 32bit Vista except I upped from 1 to 2gb. Now you are going to tell me it will only see a max of 1gb. Hardly think so DXDIAG sees 1600mb ram system usage is 646mb of that however it states the memory installed is only 1024mb. I have 2 sticks of Crucial 6400 DDR2 1gb each. I am running an ASUS M2N-E which will run a max of 4GB. The bios boot up reads 2gb so it has to be yet another glitch with Vista. Anyone know the real answer to this let me know you can keep the guesses to yourselves.

Originally Posted by roman modic

Hello!

"Barrie" <Barrie@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:F69F0AEA-4D97-4954-B2E1-3E4E79A799DD@xxxxxx

>I am using Home Premium and recently increased my desktop memory from 2GB to
> 4GB. The BIOS sees each of four motherboard slots with 1.024GB and reports a
> total of 4096GB. System information reports seeing only 3.325GB. Can
> someone please tell me what is going on? Is Vista not using all the
> available memory?

Ask Dan: What's with the 3Gb memory barrier?


Roman

What you are seeing is the amount memory available for user programs.

There are two of you using the computer; you and the computer.

The max address range for x86 is 4GB. The upper addresses are used by the
system and hardware buffering. When you have 4GB that range is hidden from
user programs to prevent user programs from writing there.

When you have less than 4GB installed, say 2GB, the system area addresses
are offset into the user area by the memory manager, but by that time the
available user addresses have already been determined so you see the full
2GB of ram installed. The memory manager then marks the offset addresses to
prevent user programs from writing there.

The bottom line is that the full 4GB is in use; by you and the computer.

Vista SP1 will change what is reported on the system properties page and you
will see 4GB where you are now seeing 3.325 GB. That is just a change from
reporting the memory available for user programs to reporting the physical
ram installed. The change will not make any more memory available to user
programs. The change in what is reported is being made because the number
now being reported is so widely misunderstood that MS has given up on its
usefulness. The change is not a "fix" but a change in reporting.

I prefer the present method of reporting because it tells me something
useful; how much memory I can use. Reporting installed ram may be more
understandable to a lot of folks but then they are going to wonder why they
can't seem to use all that memory. It's a devil's choice for MS on which to
report, but I wonder why they simply don't report both on the system
properties page.

"roman modic" <modicr@xxxxxx-it.com> wrote in message
news:OFKIvtKKIHA.4272@xxxxxx

> Hello!
>
> "Barrie" <Barrie@xxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:F69F0AEA-4D97-4954-B2E1-3E4E79A799DD@xxxxxx

>>I am using Home Premium and recently increased my desktop memory from 2GB
>>to
>> 4GB. The BIOS sees each of four motherboard slots with 1.024GB and
>> reports a
>> total of 4096GB. System information reports seeing only 3.325GB. Can
>> someone please tell me what is going on? Is Vista not using all the
>> available memory?

>
> http://www.dansdata.com/askdan00015.htm
>
>
> Roman
>

Vista x32 will report different amounts of RAM depending on how you have your computer set up. If a user has 4 GB of RAM installed and a basic video card with say around 256 MB of video RAM windows will probably show between 3-3.25 GB of RAM available because the total amount of memory windows will see is 4 GB system wide. That includes video RAM, any memory attached to the motherboard, CPU cache, and then lastly your DDR RAM cards. Now if you take the same computer and upgrade your video card to say 2x512 video cards so a total of 1gb of video RAM. The amount of RAM windows will report then would drop to between 2-2.25 GB of RAM, due to your increase in video RAM. The BIOS will report all of the RAM installed because the BIOS is running in a 64 bit mode and is not limited to the 4 GB restriction on a 64 bit ready motherboard. If you wish to utilize all of the RAM installed in your computer I would suggest reinstalling windows using the 64 bit kernal.

This has been gone over so many times in this and the XP newsgroups that I
hope the discussion doesn't start up all over again. There just isn't
anything left to say about it.

"Ozymandias" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:92e3fbfb72827e8d7be9036654f6ecc0@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

>
> Vista x32 will report different amounts of RAM depending on how you have
> your computer set up. If a user has 4 GB of RAM installed and a basic
> video card with say around 256 MB of video RAM windows will probably
> show between 3-3.25 GB of RAM available because the total amount of
> memory windows will see is 4 GB system wide. That includes video RAM,
> any memory attached to the motherboard, CPU cache, and then lastly your
> DDR RAM cards. Now if you take the same computer and upgrade your video
> card to say 2x512 video cards so a total of 1gb of video RAM. The amount
> of RAM windows will report then would drop to between 2-2.25 GB of RAM,
> due to your increase in video RAM. The BIOS will report all of the RAM
> installed because the BIOS is running in a 64 bit mode and is not
> limited to the 4 GB restriction on a 64 bit ready motherboard. If you
> wish to utilize all of the RAM installed in your computer I would
> suggest reinstalling windows using the 64 bit kernal.
>
>
> --
> Ozymandias