Windows 7 ram shown in system properties

[gary43]

i have 1 gb of ram installed.
in system properties it shows as 5gb (1 gb useable) what does this mean?

 

[tblount]

I would have to guess that it means you have found a bug. .... or you have ram on a video card or it thinks it found ram somewher else. probably something in your bios you can change or fix with a new flash. I've never read of anyone else noticing extra memory reported.... maybe you have a ramdrive setup ?

 

[gary43]

no, no ram drive or usb being used as ready boast.
it just shows as i have posted?
have installed win7 on couple of other machines and shows correct

 

[tblount]

no, no ram drive or usb being used as ready boast.
it just shows as i have posted?
have installed win7 on couple of other machines and shows correct

Apparently it's not causing a problem.. In the words of John Lennon: "let it be."

 

[tjdavid21444]

Similar, but opposite, problem with RAM displayed

I am having a problem similar to the one in this thread, however mine is the opposite situation. The property page says 4.00GB installed and 2.87GB usable. I am running 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium on 64-bit hardware, with 4GB RAM installed and a Intel Core 2 Duo CPU (2.53/2.53). Property sheet attached. Any thoughts?

 

[tblount]

2nd person this AM w/ less "Usable" than what is in the machine & 64-on-64. I still do not feel the OS is @ fault. I would suggest contacting Support from the specific PC manufacturer(s) if these are no altered or home-built PCs.

Drew

Probably something in the bios needs to tweak because windows 7 uses features in a processor to run much more efficiently and take advantage of new technology. I had to flash my bios so that Win 7 could use the multi-thread technology more efficiently. I wish I knew if that Phonix bios that boots window 7 in 10 seconds ... would work on my mother board. I hate to wate a full 58 seconds for Windows to reboot. I could have given at least two people incorrect advice in that time.. haha

 

[tjdavid21444]

It's a home built

Like you, I am inclined to believe it's something other than the OS causing this. It's a home built PC. Someone from Microsoft (free forum) replied suggesting I check the BIOS to see if there are any settings in there which allow/restrict OS use of full memory. It's worth a shot. But the other disturbing thing about dealing with microsoft (I know, there's plenty) is that their support site, which checks for eligibility for a limited number of free incident reports, is telling me that the OS isn't activated. As you can clearly see from my screencap, it is. I blanked out the product ID on the image, as well as the machine names, to protect myself.
Thank you for your reply.
Tim

 

[tblount]

ACTIVE? Just doesn't make any sense.... why would Microsoft limit your memory during any "evaluation" period? Isn't that like a car dealer having you test drive a car that has the high gear disabled? If the car only could get up to 30 .. you would not buy it.

Is there still a way to display the memory check when a computer starts? I haven't checked in years but I remember all computers went through a visible memory check at bootup. They probably still do ... but just don't display the screen.

Poke around in your bios menu and try some different memory related settings.. you can always change it back to factory default... in fact, this is the first think I would do... clear my cmos or change to factory default settings in the bios menu. Reboot and see it it still reports incorrect memory.

 

[tjdavid21444]

Not saying the activation has anything to do with the memory

I may have confused you on this one. I didn't mean to imply that the activation status had anything to do with the memory issue. What I was saying was that I was trying to get free assistance from Microsoft's support site, and they have you fill out a form to verify whether you qualify for a free incident. The form includes the Product ID from that page I sent you. When I filled out their form and submitted it, the message came back that I did not qualify for free support until I activated the product, which I already had.

Sorry for the confusion.

 

[tblount]

I was trying to get free assistance from Microsoft's support site, and they have you fill out a form to verify whether you qualify for a free incident. The form includes the Product ID from that page I sent you. When I filled out their form and submitted it, the message came back that I did not qualify for free support until I activated the product, which I already had.
.

I've always found my time was better spend with Google and reading message forums and sometimes Microsoft docs.. but Microsoft is seldom help because if they actually KNEW a fix for a problem they would implement it rather than trying to teach the world some kind of hack work-around.

I fear you have jumped through all these hoops only to reach a part time college student who will tell you to get a new computer.

 

[tjdavid21444]

Sad. But. True.

Too true, too true.

 

[epk1950]

Gary & TJ what exactly are you guys running as a PC all in full specs, compare each others, find the problem if it is hardware issue.
Processor:
RAM:
Motherboard:

 

[tjdavid21444]

Not sure I am clear on your wording

I don't mean to be insensitive here, but EPK, I don't understand the wording of your statement/question. Perhaps some punctuation would help it a bit.

In any case, I have taken photos of screens within the BIOS setup. One of them shows:

Total: 4096MB
Appropriated: 1152 MB
Available: 2944 MB

Internal Video is set to disabled, so I don't know what the "Appropriated" number means. Appropriated by what?
I have attached the 2 screen pictures.

Thanks,

Tim

 

[epk1950]

Ok. seems to be for the two of you, having the similar problem,
Post the model & make of your Motherboard & Memory.
TJ, compare Your hardware with Gary's"see when he will reply with his", see if you 2 have the same motherboard. etc. "compare".

 

[tjdavid21444]

Thanks

I understand what you mean now. The thing is, gary's original problem is that he his Windows 7 is seeing more memory installed than he really has. He only has 1 GB installed, and his Windows 7 says 5 installed, 1 usable. Mine shows 4 installed (which is correct) but only 2.87 usable. You can see from the pics of my BIOS that something is "appropriating" about 1.2 GB of the installed memory, but I can't figure out what it is.

 

[epk1950]

TJ, Found a article that this guys is Having the same issue but here it is bud, Maybe or not a solution but someone else that is experiencing the same issue?

Problem.
Link Removed
Solution Maybe that might shed some light in some way? or give a general idea what might be needed as I dunno if you have an after market cooler installed etc.
Link Removed

edit:
I wondering if you have tried shutting down, kill power by the PSU switch, pull the PSU power plug from psu, pulled the cmos battery out, then the memory "remember which stick went where", reset the cmos for 30 secs to a minutes with the cmos jumper, put cmos jumper back into position, install the cmos battery, install the memory sticks opposite of how they came out, plug her back in, flip the psu switch on, boot her up and see?

 

[finurlix]

I have had the exact same problem since day one using Vista / Win 7 RC / Win 7 Pro. 4GB installed, 2.87 usable.
Today (thanks to the sevenforums) I finally found an answer.

Seems my problem is this part: "Note When the physical RAM that is installed on a computer equals the address space that is supported by the chipset, the total system memory that is available to the operating system is always less than the physical RAM that is installed"

Seems I have to upgrade my motherboard.

(Note: in the following info from Microsoft, replace \"4 GB\" with \"X GB\" depending on how much RAM you have. Replace \"Windows Vista\" with \"Windows 7\")

For Windows Vista to use all 4 GB of memory on a computer that has 4 GB of memory installed, the computer must meet the following requirements:

• The chipset must support at least 8 GB of address space. Chipsets that have this capability include the following:
  • Intel 975X
  • Intel P965
  • Intel 955X on Socket 775
  • Chipsets that support AMD processors that use socket F, socket 940, socket 939, or socket AM2. These chipsets include any AMD socket and CPU combination in which the memory controller resides in the CPU.
• The CPU must support the x64 instruction set. The AMD64 CPU and the Intel EM64T CPU support this instruction set.
• The BIOS must support the memory remapping feature. The memory remapping feature allows for the segment of system memory that was previously overwritten by the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) configuration space to be remapped above the 4 GB address line. This feature must be enabled in the BIOS configuration utility on the computer. View your computer product documentation for instructions that explain how to enable this feature. Many consumer-oriented computers may not support the memory remapping feature. No standard terminology is used in documentation or in BIOS configuration utilities for this feature. Therefore, you may have to read the descriptions of the various BIOS configuration settings that are available to determine whether any of the settings enable the memory remapping feature.
• An x64 (64-bit) version of Windows Vista must be used.

Contact the computer vendor to determine whether your computer meets these requirements.

Note When the physical RAM that is installed on a computer equals the address space that is supported by the chipset, the total system memory that is available to the operating system is always less than the physical RAM that is installed. For example, consider a computer that has an Intel 975X chipset that supports 8 GB of address space. If you install 8 GB of RAM, the system memory that is available to the operating system will be reduced by the PCI configuration requirements. In this scenario, PCI configuration requirements reduce the memory that is available to the operating system by an amount that is between approximately 200 MB and approximately 1 GB. The reduction depends on the configuration.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605

 

[gary43]

hope this has answered some questions.
but think my original question was hijacked !....lol
my issue was that i have 1GB ram installed but it shows as in screen shot. (5GB RAM/1GB USABLE)
think its just picking some other info from bios up?
as installed on several machines now and had this also on another machine.
its not a problem at all, was just curious.