Vista shows only 3 of 4 RAM GB

[Jay Cee]

I just bought a new Vista Ultimate HP desktop PC (HP a6385l). Upgraded RAM
from 2 to 4GB (there are four slots) but Vista shows only 3GB. Took the PC
back to the dealer where they tried all permutations possible (one by one,
two by two, three, four, etc) of the 4 memory sticks, including putting new,
other brand ones. To no avail. Is this a Vista bug? Is the PC defective? I
called HP Customer Service but they offered no help. It's on a one-year HP
warranty so I intend to try again though I fear HP will blame Vista and
vice-versa (the PC is sold blank of O/S, Vista is bought separately). Vista
and the additional 2GB RAM where installed at the dealer but the PC was
delivered home where I only found out about the problem. And, yes, the four
1GB RAM show up in the basic equipment list on the black screen (they showed
it to me, I don't know how to summon it). Any comments?

 

[Apply_Directly_To_Forehead]

Vista uses about 3GB of RAM in a 32 bit system. The remaining RAM is used
by Vista, hardware devices like your Video card and BIOS routines. This is
prefectly normal.

Search this forum. This has been talked about many times.

 

[non flammable on WinLin]

this is normal ..

it has bult in ETR technology.. (Eat The Ram)

 

[non flammable on WinLin]

You are STUPID, the "extra" ram is not "used" at all

the memory space cannot be addressed and its wasted!

That 1 extra gig above 3 just sits there doing nothing.

What would a video card do with the RAM anyway you dork? It has its own
ram..
or the nic card or the sound card .?

Your stupid suggestion means this:
When you have 3 gigs of ram.. the hardware does not seem to use any of that
available 3 gigs.. when you add 1 more to go to 4 all of a sudden all the
hardware remembers to eat ram because it needs to use it? LOL

How pathetic you are.... and stupid.. very stupid... seems something that
frank would say..

Oh I am hostile with you because you are DORIS, aka
SPANKY DE MONKEY, AKA BILL YANAIR aka
A thousand other stupid names and you keep saying FYI that is VERY
irritating.. IDIOT FOOL RETARD!

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

The system memory that is reported in the System Information dialog box in
Windows Vista is less than you expect if 4 GB of RAM is installed:

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

Understanding Address Spaces and the 4GB Limit - [H]ard|Forum:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1035670

 

[forty-nine]

You are STUPID, the "extra" ram is not "used" at all

the memory space cannot be addressed and its wasted!

That 1 extra gig above 3 just sits there doing nothing.

What would a video card do with the RAM anyway you dork? It has its own
ram..
or the nic card or the sound card .?

Your stupid suggestion means this:
When you have 3 gigs of ram.. the hardware does not seem to use any of that
available 3 gigs.. when you add 1 more to go to 4 all of a sudden all the
hardware remembers to eat ram because it needs to use it? LOL

How pathetic you are.... and stupid.. very stupid... seems something that
frank would say..

Oh I am hostile with you because you are DORIS, aka
SPANKY DE MONKEY, AKA BILL YANAIR aka
A thousand other stupid names and you keep saying FYI that is VERY
irritating.. IDIOT FOOL RETARD!

Actually, Apply isn't stupid.
My Geforce 6800 has 256MB on each...yet will still use 700something MB
shared system memory

 

[ray]

I just bought a new Vista Ultimate HP desktop PC (HP a6385l). Upgraded RAM
from 2 to 4GB (there are four slots) but Vista shows only 3GB. Took the PC
back to the dealer where they tried all permutations possible (one by one,
two by two, three, four, etc) of the 4 memory sticks, including putting new,
other brand ones. To no avail. Is this a Vista bug? Is the PC defective? I
called HP Customer Service but they offered no help. It's on a one-year HP
warranty so I intend to try again though I fear HP will blame Vista and
vice-versa (the PC is sold blank of O/S, Vista is bought separately). Vista
and the additional 2GB RAM where installed at the dealer but the PC was
delivered home where I only found out about the problem. And, yes, the four
1GB RAM show up in the basic equipment list on the black screen (they showed
it to me, I don't know how to summon it). Any comments?

Yes - this question was asked and answered yesterday. If you would take
five minutes and browse this group would find the answer several times.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I just bought a new Vista Ultimate HP desktop PC (HP a6385l). Upgraded RAM
from 2 to 4GB (there are four slots) but Vista shows only 3GB. Took the PC
back to the dealer where they tried all permutations possible (one by one,
two by two, three, four, etc) of the 4 memory sticks, including putting new,
other brand ones. To no avail. Is this a Vista bug?

No,

Is the PC defective?

No.


I
called HP Customer Service but they offered no help. It's on a one-year HP
warranty so I intend to try again though I fear HP will blame Vista and
vice-versa (the PC is sold blank of O/S, Vista is bought separately). Vista
and the additional 2GB RAM where installed at the dealer but the PC was
delivered home where I only found out about the problem. And, yes, the four
1GB RAM show up in the basic equipment list on the black screen (they showed
it to me, I don't know how to summon it). Any comments?

All 32-bit versions of Windows (XP as well as Vista), even though they
have a 4GB address space, can only use *around* 3.1GB of RAM. That's
because some of that space is used by hardware and not available to
the operating system and applications. The amount you can use varies,
depending on what hardware you have installed, but is usually around
3.1GB.

 

[Apply_Directly_To_Forehead]

No Douche Bag, you are stupid. Just plain stupid. Don't want to believe?
Then don't. Go F yourself. Just FYI

 

[Apply_Directly_To_Forehead]

And you have Bend Over Technology. Better get the lube.

Just FYI

 

[Jay Cee]

Thanks, Ken, and thanks to Andre too. Yes, I should have scrolled down a
day, but I did use "search" and the search box gave no results. You'd think
that the dealer (biggest IT store in the capital and the country) and HP
Customer Service could have told me about this RAM address limitation. And
buyers should be told to upgrade the initial 2GB by only 1GB for this
particular PC (top HP model here, by the way).

I'm buying another similar PC in a couple weeks for a different location.
Out of curiosity I'll upgrade again to 4GB. Probably a waste, then, of
1GB...(about $30).

 

[non flammable on Vista]

I have seen this again and again from you.. YOU ARE CRAZY and belong in a
mental institution...
TO SAY THE LEAST!

You roam around this newsgroup posting stupid things, but when someone
INSULTS you like you deserve so much
you then try to find ALL his-her posts and add stupid replies with more
trash..

YOU ARE SUCH A MORON DORIS!

Stupid is ok.. but you are darn right EVIL

 

[non flammable on Vista]

I have seen this again and again from you.. YOU ARE CRAZY and belong in a
mental institution...
TO SAY THE LEAST!

You roam around this newsgroup posting stupid things, but when someone
INSULTS you like you deserve so much
you then try to find ALL his-her posts and add stupid replies with more
trash..

YOU ARE SUCH A MORON DORIS!

Stupid is ok.. but you are darn right EVIL

 

[non flammable on Vista]

smart, so if you have only 512 mb ram, then suddenly you see the vid card
using mora ram than you have? LOL

you are stupid.. well you wouldnt be lovin vista if you were not!

 

[non flammable on Vista]

start reading and stop talking
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1035670


your saying sh*t anyway... plus you like vista and that makes you even less
nice

 

[Chris Game]

That's because some of that space is used by hardware and not
available to the operating system and applications.

This kind of statement causes the confusion shown in other posts.
The obvious question following the above is: why does this not apply
if I have 2GB installed? The point seems to be that this is a memory
mapping space issue for 32-bit systems, the lost memory is not used
as such, after all the video memory is on the video card (or should
be)!

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

 

[forty-nine]

smart, so if you have only 512 mb ram, then suddenly you see the vid card
using mora ram than you have? LOL

you are stupid.. well you wouldnt be lovin vista if you were not!

I have 2GB , so your little made up lie isn't applicable.
Stop basing what you "know" on the latest article you've read.

Here is my shared mem:

NVIDIA System Information report
System name:

[Display]
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.20GHz (3193 MHz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista
DirectX version: 10.0
GPU processor: GeForce 6800
ForceWare version: 169.25
Total available graphics memory: 1012 MB
Dedicated video memory: 256 MB
System video memory: 0 MB
Shared system memory: 756 MB <-------------------------------!@#$%
Video BIOS version: 5.41.02.34.15
IRQ: 0
Bus: PCI Express x16
GPU processor: GeForce 6800
ForceWare version: 169.25
Total available graphics memory: 1012 MB
Dedicated video memory: 256 MB
System video memory: 0 MB
Shared system memory: 756 MB<--------------------------------!@#$%
Video BIOS version: 5.41.02.34.15
IRQ: 16
Bus: PCI Express x16

 

[forty-nine]

I don't read any of the garbage you link to.
It's mostly stuff written by some nerdy geek hunched over his mother's PC.
How'd that wind tunnel test go with the "Bozo Bin" ?

 

[Slap]

This kind of statement causes the confusion shown in other posts.
The obvious question following the above is: why does this not apply
if I have 2GB installed? The point seems to be that this is a memory
mapping space issue for 32-bit systems, the lost memory is not used
as such, after all the video memory is on the video card (or should
be)!

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

I'm sure someone can/will correct me on this but...
Note: I don't really know where the video card live but this is just an
example.

It's probably the hardware. For example the Video Card has it's own memory
but for the system to address it it has to be in the 4gb address space.

The manufactures map the address of the cards memory at the top. So what
you have is say, a 1GB machine but really you have a 1GB machine plus
another 512K or so memory on the video card. The system reports 1GB.

So. Go out your front door. Look down the the block. Your house is the
start of memory. The last house on the block is as far as you can see. In
between are empty lots (for memory you see). They know you want to expand
so they put the video memory at the end of the block. You and the op system
can only see that far.

mem start------1GB------2GB------3GB---3.5GB->VidCard<-4GB end of address
space.

So if you now put 4GB in the above machine the system will be able to use
3.5 GB as the last 512Kb is just mirrored because the Video card and *its*
memory live there. It still has to be addressed by the system which can
only see 4GB. The system always did see the 'house at the end of the block'
so to speak.

I'm not sure of the memory map in Intel machines but you also have the Bios
memory that the processor has to talk to. It also resides in that memory
space and takes up part of the last GB

The VidCard probably still lives at the 4GB down address space in a 64 bit
op system but to make it simple it just hops around it and can see the rest
of the installed memory (that would be further down the block so to speak).
--

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Thanks, Ken,

You're welcome. Glad to help.

and thanks to Andre too. Yes, I should have scrolled down a
day, but I did use "search" and the search box gave no results.

No problem. Although there are people in these newsgroups who will
berate you for not having searched for answers before you ask a
question, I'm not one of them. In fact, there are very few new
questions, and if everyone searched and found what they were looking
for, we'd hardly even need the newsgroups at all. I don't mind
answering the same question more than once (I mostly cut and paste in
those circumstances).

By the way, a newsreader (like Windows Mail, which you're using) is
the best way to *participate* here, but when you do search, far and
away the best way to do it is by using googlegroups advanced search at
http://groups.google.com/advanced_search?q=&

You'd think
that the dealer (biggest IT store in the capital and the country) and HP
Customer Service could have told me about this RAM address limitation. And
buyers should be told to upgrade the initial 2GB by only 1GB for this
particular PC (top HP model here, by the way).

Unfortunately the sales people in most of the big-box computer stores
are typically among the *worst* possible sources of information on
computers. They usually aren't hired for their computer skills, but
for their willingness to accept something close to minimum wage. Being
the biggest is far from making them best. In most cases, the smaller
stores have much more knowledgeable people.

I've never dealt with HP customer service, and can't comment on their
skill level, but in general, the skill level of most people at OEM
call centers hasn't impressed me. These people typically read from a
script on their computers; if they can find your issue on their
script, they can help you, but beyond that, they usually don't know
much.

I'm buying another similar PC in a couple weeks for a different location.
Out of curiosity I'll upgrade again to 4GB. Probably a waste, then, of
1GB...(about $30).

The result will be similar--some of the RAM will be wasted. Exactly
how much depends on the hardware configuration, but you can expect to
get *around* 3.1GB (sometimes as much as 3.5GB) usable.

By the way, why do you need so much RAM? How much RAM you can make
effective use of depends on what apps you run, but most people who are
not running particularly memory-hungry apps (such as photo- or
video-editing) will see little or no performance improvement by going
above 3GB.