Only 2.75GB Useable RAM...

[PowerPie5000]

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone here can help me with a slightly irritating issue! I upgraded a friends OS from Windows XP to Windows 7 64-bit and also added an extra 2GB RAM (making the total 4GB). The system BIOS detects all 4GB perfectly fine and Windows 7 can see 4GB, but it shows up as only 2.75GB useable . I've tried checking/unchecking the max mem option in msconfig with no luck. I also can't see any memory remapping options in the BIOS setup and the PC has a dedicated GPU.

It's an old Compaq SR1000 series PC (SR1639UK) with the following specs:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ cpu (2.2ghZ)
4GB PC3200 DDR RAM (4x1GB)
Dedicated 512MB Geforce 210 GPU (PCIe)
250GB SATA HDD
DVD/RW optical drive (IDE)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

The resource meter shows 1282MB is apparently reserved for hardware which seems a bit strange!







Any help is much appreciated. Cheers!

[grayg1]

You must still have the integrated / onboard graphics enabled in the BIOS

[GoNz0]

I think it is a limitation of that old motherboard. lots of threads if you google it and not much of an answer, because there isn't one.

[PowerPie5000]

You must still have the integrated / onboard graphics enabled in the BIOS

There's no option in the bios to enable/disable the onboard GPU. The onboard video was never used to begin with as this model was shipped with a Geforce 6200 years ago (which eventually gave up).

I think it is a limitation of that old motherboard. lots of threads if you google it and not much of an answer, because there isn't one.

I'm starting to think this too. The motherboard is an OEM MSI board. Model MS-7184 (Amethyst-M).

[grayg1]

Update your BIOS and the option should be added http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...47958&sw_lang=

[PowerPie5000]

Update your BIOS and the option should be added http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...47958&sw_lang=

I updated the bios to version 3.47 a while back and it didn't add any extra options that i can see.

[grayg1]

I updated the bios to version 3.47 a while back and it didn't add any extra options that i can see.

Bah, have seen someone on another forum claim updating the BIOS added the option

[grayg1]

Could also try http://uk.msi.com/product/mb/RS480M2.html#/?div=BIOS
Looks like the same board and if you download the BIOS it's called "7093" and HP refer to the motherboard as MS-7093/MS-7184

Worth the risk? (could brick the motherboard if it goes wrong)

[wolfsSpirit]

that's not much ,
But i have 16 GB in my system and have only 14,94 available ( pretty annoyed by that)
I am still not sure if it is because of bios settings , in my bios there's an option to reserve extra memory to my graphic card etc , i raised the memory to high (not max) so that may be the culprit and reason why i only have 15GB available instead of 16.
So check your setting inside your bios if you have enabled options that reserve memory for HD , GPU etc.

[mightymouse]

sounds to me like a shared memory with the gpu, i think some on-board gpus used to not have much memory and therefore shares with the ram

[PowerPie5000]

It's using a dedicated GPU and there are no options in the bios regarding shared memory, video memory or memory mapping etc. It must be some kind of BIOS limitation.

[Biscuit]

http://www.offtek.co.uk/ram-memory-2...1000/mid106391

http://www.mrmemory.co.uk/memory-ram...Desktop~SR1000

http://www.upgradeable.com.au/hp-com...-2gb-max-.html

A lot of these upgrade memory sites seem to suggest that the physical memory limitation for the system is actually 2GB

[mikeo01]

Check out the maximum memory support in MSConfig, Boot tab on Advanced Options.

BIOS could be locking it out as some said, OEM can do this
Physical board limitations as Biscuit pointed out.
Any I/O devices on your motherboard that could be reserving it?

Also go Control Panel > Performance Information Tools > Advanced Tools (it'll be on left hand side on Windows Index Scores, Advanced).
"Generate System Health Report", "System Information". Delve into the event logs, see if anything fishy comes up about RAM. Give you an idea.


Although it is probable your system doesn't support more than 2GB RAM properly; from the links Biscuit provided

[wolfsSpirit]

It just reminds me my old system only supports 2GB memory on the board , i did install 4 GB but because of the bios limitation it would only give 2 GB of the 4G.
The only option was to find a 3th party hacked and adjusted bios that raised the limit to 4GB.

[grayg1]

http://www.offtek.co.uk/ram-memory-2...1000/mid106391

http://www.mrmemory.co.uk/memory-ram...Desktop~SR1000

http://www.upgradeable.com.au/hp-com...-2gb-max-.html

A lot of these upgrade memory sites seem to suggest that the physical memory limitation for the system is actually 2GB

They also state the motherboard only has 2 slots, so this is not the right model. My guess is there is more than one SR1000.
The link I pasted earlier to HP's website was to the exact model the OP said (SR1639UK) and on the specs page it says 4 slots, the OP is using 4 RAM sticks.

Like I said earlier you can you can try flashing to MSI's own BIOS but it is a risk.