Why doesn't all the memory show up in Task Mgr.

[SacredHeart]

I have Vista Home Premium running on my HP DV6000 Laptop. The total
memory I have is 4GB as shown by the System properties. But when I
open Task manager it only shows 3GB (3061MB) about 2000 Cached? Why
is there a discrepency? My video Memory is only 256MB. Anyone have any
idea?

 

[Colton]

SacredHeart,

It would be better if you would exagerate with exact values, instead of giving estimating; that way we might can see if
there is a memory leak in a program somewhere. We have to know the exact amount so that we can look for common memory hogs to
invest our time in to see if it could be consuming that amount of memory.

--

Colton, PHP/VB6/HTML/CSS/Javscript/IIS/Apache
OS: Vista Home Premium x86 SP1
Location: NC, USA

- http://explosion.debug-inc.com
- (e-mail address removed)
- AIM: Trouncing

*Please include that you recieved my contact information from the newsgroup, or your message will be ignored.

 

[SacredHeart]

Hmm, Sorry if I wasted anybody's time on this...I see this was a known
issue as I guessed that there should be a logical explanation.
However it is not a limitation of Hardware as 32 bit address space
can access all of 4GB memory. (2^32-1=4GB). The issue is as I can now
surmise is that the hardware has to fit in the same memory space (like
BIOS, Video, PCI-Express, PCI resources). Therefore the OS has to
borrow that last Gig to allocate for Hardware Resources.

 

[Tim Slattery]

That's strange, My System Info shows exactly 4 gig of ram. It also shows
total physical memory in use and the total available which adds up to 4
gig or ram. I don't know what all these other people are talking about/

One of the things that was changed in SP1 was the way Vista reports
memory. It now will report 4GB, if that's what you have installed. But
it still has to allocate address space to video memory, BIOS, etc, and
system RAM gets what's left over. Despite the "4GB" display, it still
can't use more than 3.25 to 3.5 GB.

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

One of the things that was changed in SP1 was the way Vista reports
memory. It now will report 4GB, if that's what you have installed. But
it still has to allocate address space to video memory, BIOS, etc, and
system RAM gets what's left over. Despite the "4GB" display, it still
can't use more than 3.25 to 3.5 GB.

I know SP1 affects how it is displayed on System Info, but does it also
change how it is shown in Task Manager? Just curious since I don't have
a 4GB machine to look at...

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

That's strange, My System Info shows exactly 4 gig of ram. It also shows
total physical memory in use and the total available which adds up to 4
gig or ram. I don't know what all these other people are talking about/

It changed with SP1, and it now reports the entire amount that's
installed, rather than the amount usable, which is always less that
4GB for 32-bit Vista or XP.

In my view, the change that was made so that the entire amount is
reported was a bad mistake. Its result is that people get confused.

 

[Sorken]

It changed with SP1, and it now reports the entire amount that's
installed, rather than the amount usable, which is always less that
4GB for 32-bit Vista or XP.

In my view, the change that was made so that the entire amount is
reported was a bad mistake. Its result is that people get confused.

Well, theres alot of theese issues. DXDiag in XP x64 reports a Core2Duo
E8600 as a Xeon cpu. Right click My Computer > Properties always shows cpu
speed as FSB*Default Multiplier where default multiplier should be the
actual multiplier used instead of default.

An easy way would be to just change it again to show amount of available ram
and then show amount of USABLE ram next to it.

 

[Hugh Jeego]

You think that the task manager showing 4gig (or more if installed) when
that is what is actually sitting in the ram slots is more confusing to a
person who just wants to use the machine and not learn the machine than the
same person knowing they have 4gigs in the machine and the task manager
saying 3gigs?

I have to disagree with you there. In my experience with a real lot of users
from barely able to find the power switch to those who are reasonably
competent, they ALL expect to see the computer telling them that the amount
of ram they think is there in fact IS there. Users often confuse the size of
the hard drive with ram on their machine. A very common thing. So seeing the
task manager say one thing and the systems properties say another would be
cause for them to take the machine back claiming that the supplier did
something wrong.

 

[+Bob+]

It changed with SP1, and it now reports the entire amount that's
installed, rather than the amount usable, which is always less that
4GB for 32-bit Vista or XP.

In my view, the change that was made so that the entire amount is
reported was a bad mistake. Its result is that people get confused.

Sorry, but you're incorrect. Task Manager should show ALL the memory
installed. Nothing is more confusing to users than buying a machine
with a stated memory amount (or upgrading) and then seeing that amount
not reported.

The correct thing to do would be to show all memory, then provide some
summary detail as to how it's used. Simple, anyone can understand it,
and the numbers would add up.

Of course, with the dumbing down that Vista got in many areas, I'm
surprised that it's not like the defragger with a simple message "you
are not currently using all of your system's memory".

 

[Poutnik]

Sorry, but you're incorrect. Task Manager should show ALL the memory
installed. Nothing is more confusing to users than buying a machine
with a stated memory amount (or upgrading) and then seeing that amount
not reported.

TM IMHO shows only memory it can see = available memory.
It intention is not to be HW diagnostic tool.

If part of memory address space is mapped to anything else.....

 

[+Bob+]

TM IMHO shows only memory it can see = available memory.
It intention is not to be HW diagnostic tool.

If part of memory address space is mapped to anything else.....

Then it should show this:

Total Memory installed: xxxx
Memory dedicated to hardware: xxxx
Memory available to software: xxxx
Memory currently in use: xxxx
Memory unused: xxxx

Simple enough, satisfies everyone.

 

[Hugh Jeego]

TM IMHO shows only memory it can see = available memory.
It intention is not to be HW diagnostic tool.

Not exactly right. If some driver stuffs up and the computer is suffering,
the first thing most people do is load the task manager to kill it. The
intention may not BE to be a diagnostic tool but tell Johnny User that.

Quite simply, the task manager should basically report total ram as does
system properties.