I have 4 gb ram but computer displays 3 gb?

[Kritzo]

I have 4 gb ram on my computer but it displays 3 gb, is there any way making the last gb work? I'm pretty dumb when it comes to computers.....
I heard from my friend that this is some sort of blockage Vista uses.
I have 2x2 and not 1x3 blocks in computer (just incase you think that it's one of the block theres broken)

(i don't know if the is the right forum)

 

[G36E]

Snag Everest from Lavalys and check with that.

 

[Kritzo]

says exactly 3069 gb RAM. Im pretty sure theres nothing broken in it. I mean, how can a HALF RAM block be broken?

I use a Vista laptop

 

[G36E]

Integrated graphics? Failing that, is your copy of Vista 32bit?

 

[Cyborg Eastern European]

...is your copy of Vista 32bit?

My money's on that.

 

[Mage246]

That's almost certainly the problem. 32-bit Vista can't handle more than 3 gb RAM, if you wanted to use 4 gb you should have upgraded to 64-bit Vista.

 

[Kritzo]

I'm pretty sure i have 32 bit vista. Can i upgrade to 64 bit free legal? If not what would the price be like?

Thanks all for answers i really appreciate that (mispelled)

 

[Cyborg Eastern European]

Going 64-bit can have...undesirable consequences.

 

[Sheriff-murder]

No you can't upgrade it for free, and you have to pay the full prize for a new OS.

They went by the campaign that you could upgrade it for a small fee, but removed the feature as soon as people started buying the 32bit, including myself. It pissed me off.

 

[bobsters34]

I have 5gb displayed(I have 6gb) and I'm running on 32 bit vista

 

[Sheriff-murder]

That lists all installed ram, (dunno why it doesn't show the last one to you) not usable ram.

Check the total physical ram on the task manager instead.

 

[TyrannicWolf]

I had the same issue and I run 32-bit Vista. There is a system command you can enter for the system to run on all RAM. I'll see if I can find it again.

 

[Sheriff-murder]

Forcing it to run all the ram is glitchy or does nothing (just looks like it does). A 32bit system can due to mathematical reasons not run more than 3.3gb ram

 

[Pharaoh Llandy]

I have 4 gb ram on my computer but it displays 3 gb

You're probably using a 32bit system, like me, rather than 64bit. The difference being that it was my conscious decision to use 32bit, whilst yours was most likely a humourous mistake.

 

[TyrannicWolf]

Meh, can't find it, and like Sheriff said, it probably wouldn't work. I never really used it.

 

[Archonsod]

It's down to address reservation. Hardware reserves specific addresses for the BIOS, PCI Bridge and similar hardware, with the result that Windows cannot use the full 4Gb, hence sees only the remainder. You get the same issue with 64 bit CPU's too, unless the chip supports memory remapping (AMD chips usually do, Intel chips usually don't).

As for memory limitations, 32 bit CPU's can't see more than 4Gb, but that's purely because no 32 bit CPU was manufactured which supported memory remapping. It's quite easy to overcome via OS trickery, but there's not much call for that outside of the server market.

 

[Varric]

So it's true that vista basically uses 1gb ram to even run?
Mine's fine

 

[Sheriff-murder]

As i previously said, that counter is fake. Changed by microsoft in SP1 to satisfy all the untech-gurus that were whining about vista not using their ram.
You know, lot's of people who don't know too much about computers just by the best they can get, especially RAM since it is cheap. In vista, ram got visible to those people, that they started to realize it was a waste or they immediately blamed the OS (As always!). So they changed it to show the installed ram instead of the used ram.

 

[Archonsod]

So it's true that vista basically uses 1gb ram to even run?

No, it's actually got a smaller memory footprint than XP. It's pre-caching which makes it look like it uses a lot of RAM. Though why people think lower RAM use is a good thing is beyond me.

As i previously said, that counter is fake. Changed by microsoft in SP1 to satisfy all the untech-gurus that were whining about vista not using their ram.

Erm, no it isn't, and considering having it reporting 1 Gb less was responsible for most upgrades to 64 bit I doubt Microsoft would have changed it

 

[Mage246]

Well, some apps are pretty inefficient about memory use, or have memory leaks. So in those cases I can see why you might want to see less memory usage, especially if you don't have that much. But honestly, if we're talking about 3 gigs of RAM, you have more than enough for almost anything.