Usable Ram?

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Sinned wrote on 2012-09-12 01:36

Before we begin, I'd like to say that I'm not very experienced in computers so I may require being bludgeoned on the head a few times.

I recently upgraded my ram from 2gb to 4gb (the most this computer can handle according to the manuals/specifications/etc.) but for some reason, it can only use 2.87gb instead of 4gb.

In which case, anybody know how I can "fix" this?

[Image: http://i.imgur.com/ixI7Z.png]
Knightmehre wrote on 2012-09-12 01:46

sounds like you've got windows 32 bit instead of 64
Kenny? wrote on 2012-09-12 01:47

The 1.13gigs of ram you're missing are going towards keeping the motherboard running, the background services, all of that stuff. The usable ram is what you can actually use on applications and whatnot.
Windows has tons of background things it has to also do to keep the computer itself working, and it's using that 1.13G of ram for it.

Quote from Knightmehre;950046:
sounds like you've got windows 32 bit instead of 64

64bit windows doesn't mean it won't use some RAM for other things. I've seen 64bit that doesn't have 100% usable ram
Sapphireoath wrote on 2012-09-12 01:48

Because your on a 32-bit version of Windows, it will only be able to use up to around 3.1GB. 2.87GB is probably due to some being allocated to hardware/system/etc.
Only way you can "fix" it is by installing 64-bit.

Edit: God damnit, ninja'd 2 times while typing D:
Knightmehre wrote on 2012-09-12 01:50

Quote from Kenny?;950047:
The 1.13gigs of ram you're missing are going towards keeping the motherboard running, the background services, all of that stuff. The usable ram is what you can actually use on applications and whatnot.
Windows has tons of background things it has to also do to keep the computer itself working, and it's using that 1.13G of ram for it.

64bit windows doesn't mean it won't use some RAM for other things. I've seen 64bit that doesn't have 100% usable ram

32bit shows how much of the total ram can be used while 64bit does not so that's def 32bit
Yoorah wrote on 2012-09-12 01:51

I'm guessing you have integrated graphics, which takes some of the RAM for itself? Depending on the chip, it should be possible to adjust how much RAM it uses. I can do that in my motherboard's BIOS.

PS. The 32 vs 64 bit thing is a pointless argument, as it has nothing to do with this. xd And his screenshot says it's 32-bit, so I don't see why there's some debate going on about it up there...

Here's mine, running on 64 bit:

[Image: http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/1738/yooram.jpg]

[Image: http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/4466/yoopcm.jpg]

I guess my integrated GPU is smarter about how it allocates RAM for itself by default. Did you mess with your iGPU's settings?
Sapphireoath wrote on 2012-09-12 02:01

Quote from Knightmehre;950051:
32bit shows how much of the total ram can be used while 64bit does not so that's def 32bit

(besides the fact it says 32-bit under Installed RAM :P)
Sinned wrote on 2012-09-12 03:50

This is interesting, I am using an integrated graphic card so that may be part of it (going to upgrade around black friday sales \o/)

Otherwise, I think the only other thing I messed with was allocating resources to my integrated graphic card in the BIOS which I completely forgot about until now.
Thanks for the info.