4.00GB (2.87GB usable)

Gavin "shels"

What's the craic with this? I've upped the max virtual memory, etc... but nothing is changing, how do I get more usable memory? I'm aware I can't use the full 4GB. Running on a 32 bit Windows 7 btw.

yoyo

Gavin shels wrote: »

What's the craic with this? I've upped the max virtual memory, etc... but nothing is changing, how do I get more usable memory? I'm aware I can't use the full 4GB. Running on a 32 bit Windows 7 btw.

Integrated video will reserve a portion of the RAM, some other devices may also do this

Nick

kippy

Pretty much what yoyo said.
You'd probably have to buy a dedicated graphics card (can be got pretty cheap) and disable the onboard graphics to free up the RAM, although I am not sure would this even increase the available RAM to be honest.

yoyo

kippy wrote: »

Pretty much what yoyo said.
You'd probably have to buy a dedicated graphics card (can be got pretty cheap) and disable the onboard graphics to free up the RAM, although I am not sure would this even increase the available RAM to be honest.

Around 3.78??GB is the norm for 4gb in a 32bit OS to be usable. Other dependencies will lower this count

Nick

kippy

yoyo wrote: »

Around 3.78??GB is the norm for 4gb in a 32bit OS to be usable. Other dependencies will lower this count

Nick

Yeah, I'm aware of that.
Was pointing out that if the OP got a dedicated graphics card, in theory, the onboard shouldnt have to reserve any RAM and as such he should have more usable RAM for other things.
I'm not 100% sure if this works in practice however.

deconduo

kippy wrote: »

yoyo wrote: »

Around 3.78??GB is the norm for 4gb in a 32bit OS to be usable. Other dependencies will lower this count

Nick

Yeah, I'm aware of that.
Was pointing out that if the OP got a dedicated graphics card, in theory, the onboard shouldnt have to reserve any RAM and as such he should have more usable RAM for other things.
I'm not 100% sure if this works in practice however.

Even getting a dedicated gpu won't help here as he has 32bit windows. The maximum amount of usable memory is 4gb, which includes graphics cards. So if he got a 1gb card there would still only be 3gb of RAM usable unless he upgrades to 64bit.

kippy

deconduo wrote: »

Even getting a dedicated gpu won't help here as he has 32bit windows. The maximum amount of usable memory is 4gb, which includes graphics cards. So if he got a 1gb card there would still only be 3gb of RAM usable unless he upgrades to 64bit.

That's an interesting take on it.

I was working it out like this:
He has 32 bit Windows 7, 4 GB of ram with 2.87GB usable (I assume he gets this information from Computer properties tab)
32 Bit Windows can address roughly 4GB, with some being reserved for other devices.
Get a 1GB dedicated card and his usable RAM goes from 2.87 to 3.87

I wasn't aware that this maximum upper limit that 32bit can address includes the internal RAM+Whatever RAM is onboard the dedicated graphics card......
Are you 100% sure that this is the case?

Riesen_Meal

kippy wrote: »

That's an interesting take on it.

I was working it out like this:
He has 32 bit Windows 7, 4 GB of ram with 2.87GB usable (I assume he gets this information from Computer properties tab)
32 Bit Windows can address roughly 4GB, with some being reserved for other devices.
Get a 1GB dedicated card and his usable RAM goes from 2.87 to 3.87

I wasn't aware that this maximum upper limit that 32bit can address includes the internal RAM+Whatever RAM is onboard the dedicated graphics card......
Are you 100% sure that this is the case?

Casting my mind back to the Windows 7 lecture, I think he is right.....

That was exactly what I was about to reply to the thread....

Torqay

1. 32-bit Windows can indeed address 4GB of memory. However, the maximum amount of RAM that can be used by the system and applications is 3.12 GB.

2. Don't believe what you see in the System Properties. Run MSINFO32 instead.

3. Run MSCONFIG, go to the Boot tab, click Advanced Options... and clear the box Maximum memory.

kippy

Torqay wrote: »

1. 32-bit Windows can indeed address 4GB of memory. However, the maximum amount of RAM that can be used by the system and applications is 3.12 GB.

2. Don't believe what you see in the System Properties. Run MSINFO32 instead.

3. Run MSCONFIG, go to the Boot tab, click Advanced Options... and clear the box Maximum memory.

Thats not really what deconduo was inferring (I think)
I am ware there are some reality checks in what the machine will actually use.

Monotype

deconduo's correct. 4GB is for everything - graphics cards, BIOS chips and RAM.

It's likely that you have 1GB eaten away by integrated graphics and the rest just by other system uses.
You can usually reduce the amount of RAM used by as graphics in the BIOS setup. That's assuming that you don't have a separate, dedicated graphics card. If you've got an integrated card, you don't need 1GB of RAM for graphics as it's not powerful enough to be using for games that would need that kind of memory. You could reduce it to 512MB or even 256MB and you won't notice much difference while gaining an extra 0.5-0.75GB of RAM.

You can get into the BIOS menu by pressing some key like delete or an F-key soon after you switch the on button on the PC. It usually tells you on the screen which one to press.

Many (most?) motherboards over-allocate the PCI hole. The Asus P5B takes 1088MB, leaving only 3008MB (2.93GB) usable. The best I've seen is on a Dell Inspiron 1720 laptop, which only allocated 256MB, leaving 3.75GB usable.

You will never be able to use the full 4GB on a 32-bit Windows client OS (post XP SP2). The only viable option is to go 64-bit.

Gavin "shels"

Cheers for the replies, will look into doing the BIOS solution, plan on upgrading in October (when hopefully places start flogging Windows 7 like they did with Vista).:cool:

Gavin shels

Gavin shels wrote: »

Cheers for the replies, will look into doing the BIOS solution, plan on upgrading in October (when hopefully places start flogging Windows 7 like they did with Vista).:cool:

If you can get hold of a 64-bit Windows 7 disc you could reinstall with your existing key. The 64-bit version will take the same key.

Torqay

kippy wrote: »

Thats not really what deconduo was inferring (I think)
I am ware there are some reality checks in what the machine will actually use.

I didn't reply to deconduo's post.

Gavin "shels"

Karsini wrote: »

If you can get hold of a 64-bit Windows 7 disc you could reinstall with your existing key. The 64-bit version will take the same key.

Roughly how much extra RAM would I gain? See if it's worth the hassle of backing up everything and getting a disc.

Monotype

Gavin shels wrote: »

Roughly how much extra RAM would I gain? See if it's worth the hassle of backing up everything and getting a disc.

You'd gain all of it less the amount that you have for graphics memory.
If you installed a dedicated graphics card, you'd get the full 4GB.

I'd first check see how much is taken for graphics. You can check in the BIOS or using the system information tool.
Go to the start menu -> Type in msinfo32
Go down to components -> Display
It should tell you there on the right hand side.

Gavin "shels"

So I'd get 4GB minus the 256mb used for the graphics if I went to a 64 bit?

Torqay

Gavin shels wrote: »

So I'd get 4GB minus the 256mb used for the graphics if I went to a 64 bit?

In theory, yes.

But a 64-bit operating system is using more memory than a 32-bit, so you while you gain about 900 MB RAM, more memory is required to run the 64-bit operating system.

Microsoft system requirements for Windows7: 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)

Monotype

Hmm... 256GB? I thought that it would be more that you could claw back from shared memory by reducing it in the BIOS.
At only 256GB, it's hardly worth your while reducing it.

Installing a 64-bit OS seems the best solution, although it means installing all your programs again and backing up the data that you want to keep to external storage/another drive.

deconduo

Just as an fyi, your 32-bit license key is valid for the 64-bit version as well, so the only cost really is the time spent backing up and reinstalling all your programs and documents.

Monotype

Another possible solution is to update the BIOS on your motherboard. Some newer versions have been less wasteful in 'throwing away' memory addresses.

It's pretty easy these days to update the BIOS as many manufacturers have a windows program to do it for you or you can put on a flash drive and it a key and it sorts it out. Just be careful as you can also make your motherboard useless if your PC loses power/gets switched off or if it gets corrupted in the process. It should only take two minutes though.

Gavin "shels"

Monotype wrote: »

Another possible solution is to update the BIOS on your motherboard. Some newer versions have been less wasteful in 'throwing away' memory addresses.

It's pretty easy these days to update the BIOS as many manufacturers have a windows program to do it for you or you can put on a flash drive and it a key and it sorts it out. Just be careful as you can also make your motherboard useless if your PC loses power/gets switched off or if it gets corrupted in the process. It should only take two minutes though.

Any tutorials on how to do this? Seems easier than installing 64 bit.

Torqay

Go to the manufacturer's website, download the latest BIOS update (usually an executable file to be started within Windows). However, this wouldn't get you anywhere. You have 2.87 GB od physical memory available, add to the the 256 GB allocated to your GPU and you have exactly the 3.12 GB possible with 32-bit Windows. Newer integrated graphics chips use dynamic shared memory allocation, yours is fixed.

And wheater you really gain anything from 64-bit Windows is questionable. A 64-bit OS and 64-bit programs require a lot more memory. As you can see from the minimum system requirements, Microsoft suggests 1 GB more for 64-bit Windows. With 4 GB RAM total, it doesn't make much of a difference whether you're using 64-bit or 32-bit Windows.

Gavin "shels"

Torqay wrote: »

Go to the manufacturer's website, download the latest BIOS update (usually an executable file to be started within Windows). However, this wouldn't get you anywhere. You have 2.87 GB od physical memory available, add to the the 256 GB allocated to your GPU and you have exactly the 3.12 GB possible with 32-bit Windows. Newer integrated graphics chips use dynamic shared memory allocation, yours is fixed.

And wheater you really gain anything from 64-bit Windows is questionable. A 64-bit OS and 64-bit programs require a lot more memory. As you can see from the minimum system requirements, Microsoft suggests 1 GB more for 64-bit Windows. With 4 GB RAM total, it doesn't make much of a difference whether you're using 64-bit or 32-bit Windows.

Cheers, for the hassle it's worth I'll just stick out this piece of crap until next month when I'll hoping get myself a new laptop, otherwise it will be reinstalling the OS and starting with a clean computer minus all the crap I've built up on it.