Windows 7 4.00GB RAM (3.25GB Usable)

[nautiqueskier]

@ShortFuse: You're running a Intel 945 which explains the limitation (its got a 32-bit memory controller) but has the additional limitation of reserving 1GB of ram for resource mappings) which gives you only 3GB to play with, and thats before video card ram is taken into account.. I feel your pain (my laptops the same) but unfortunately I don't think there is anything that can be done.

M.F.D.K. from what I can tell has a 32-bit memory controller. As such 256MB is probably taken away for the integrated video card (regardless of whether its enabled or not) although it may be possible to unmap the video card. But I don't know where the other 512MB ram are going (it shouldn't be the dedicated video card)

You can always try removing the discrete card, and running off the integrated one just to see what memory Windows then reports.

The one thing both the problems have in common is they aren't Windows 7 issues. The only reason they're cropping up now is Windows Vista SP1 reports installed RAM to appease manufacturers (SP0 did it accurately though)

[Lowdown]

After I saw the model of your motherboard I looked it up and downloaded the manual. It says it can support a maximum of 4GB of RAM but maybe the northbridge (P4M900 from VIA I think) is only addressing at a 32 bit level. Windows 7 is showing you the same amount of memory available as if you were running a 32 bit OS (I did see you are running the 64 bit version). From the pictures they had posted in the manual I don't see many optioins for memory. I am not sure if there is anything you can end up changing to get the full 4GB to show up.

[nautiqueskier]

According to the manual, you can unmap the integrated video card, you could try that. No guarantees though

[RAID 0]

M.F.D.K

I'm curious as to why (in the attached image) it's saying you only have 4 megs of L2 cache. Do you have CPU-Z or any other program you can screen shot the L2 cache amount?

[Ambroos]

Try, in the BIOS, completely disabling the integrated GPU. It's inactive but I think it's still eating memory.

[nautiqueskier]

I'm curious as to why (in the attached image) it's saying you only have 4 megs of L2 cache.

Intel Core 2 Duo / Core 2 Quad do not have a unified L2 Cache Architecture so its 4MB of L2 cache per core.

AMD's newer Dual and Quad Core Processors have a unified cache, and Intel's i7 has a weird combo of 256KB L2 cache per core and 8M L3 cache shared across all cores

Edited March 4, 2009 by Ames

[RAID 0]

Intel Core 2 Duo / Core 2 Quad do not have a unified L2 Cache Architecture so its 4MB of L2 cache per core.

AMD's Dual and Quad Core Processors have a unified cache, and Intel's i7 has a weird combo of 256KB L2 cache per core and 8M L3 cache shared across all cores

If it was showing the amount of cache per core, it would be showing 2 megs.

Intel Core 2 Duo / Core 2 Quad do not have a unified L2 Cache Architecture so its 4MB of L2 cache per core.

The Q6600 has 2x 4MB L2 cache. I just thought it was weird it's only showing half of the amount, that's all.

[nautiqueskier]

Sorry, probably should've worded that better. Its probably showing the amount of cache available to each core

Because 2 cores share a cache, each core can access 4MB of L2 cache.

Just my guess though

[M.F.D.K]

I'm back chaps, thanks for all your input. Its not important but nevertheless it should not be ignored and of course its not Windows 7 problem. I will try switching to Integrated GPU and see what I get, but as some of you have read the manual its pretty clear its the motherboard problem.

Here is a CPU-z screenshot

[RAID 0]

I'm back chaps, thanks for all your input. Its not important but nevertheless it should not be ignored and of course its not Windows 7 problem. I will try switching to Integrated GPU and see what I get, but as some of you have read the manual its pretty clear its the motherboard problem.

Here is a CPU-z screenshot

Thanks. Like I said, I was just curious. :blush:

[M.F.D.K]

Thanks. Like I said, I was just curious. :blush:

No worries mate

:cool:

Here is a screen shot running on integrate graphics, 64MB video on board, basically the numbers have gone from 3.25GB to 3.43GB

Edited March 4, 2009 by M.F.D.K

[BENdage]

Hi guys

I was trying to solve this same problem myself over the last few days and managed to fix it on my system so thought I'd suggest my fix to you.

Mine happened after I installed new Ram. When I had previously had 4x1gb 800mhz sticks it had picked it up as 4gb ok. I then switched to 2x2gb 1066mhz and it said only 3.25 usable. I found that the problem had been that while I'd been using my old ram I'd gone into msconfig and gone to the boot tab and clicked advanced. In there I'd set the maximum available memory to 4096. This had worked fine with the old ram but with the new max available memory was showing as 0. To correct the problem I went back the general tab on msconfig and selected Normal startup and rebooted. When the system came back on all 4gb was usable again.

I dont know if yours will be the same issue but I thought I'd suggest this fix since I dont seem to be the only one with this problem.

:)

[Brandon Live Veteran]

Err, don't ever change that msconfig setting. The default will always use the max amount of RAM possible. The setting only exists to simulate a LOWER memory system (for debugging purposes).

[theragu40]

Hi guys

I was trying to solve this same problem myself over the last few days and managed to fix it on my system so thought I'd suggest my fix to you.

Mine happened after I installed new Ram. When I had previously had 4x1gb 800mhz sticks it had picked it up as 4gb ok. I then switched to 2x2gb 1066mhz and it said only 3.25 usable. I found that the problem had been that while I'd been using my old ram I'd gone into msconfig and gone to the boot tab and clicked advanced. In there I'd set the maximum available memory to 4096. This had worked fine with the old ram but with the new max available memory was showing as 0. To correct the problem I went back the general tab on msconfig and selected Normal startup and rebooted. When the system came back on all 4gb was usable again.

I dont know if yours will be the same issue but I thought I'd suggest this fix since I dont seem to be the only one with this problem.

:)

Sorry for gravedigging this, but I registered just to say thank you for this solution. I had messed with this setting awhile back in msconfig while troubleshooting some stability issues with a Phenom 9600 and Windows 7 64 bit. Basically I was getting random bluescreens. Manually setting maximum RAM to 4095mb and underclocking the 9600 to about 2.1ghz did the trick. However, that was not an acceptable solution for me, so I bought a PhenomII 920 to replace the 9600. After I installed it Windows 7 wanted to reassess my experience score, which is when I realized I was being short-shrifted on my RAM. I did some searching, found this thread, and was able to resolve my problem. Thank you so much!