Does the Acer Aspire 5735-733G32Mn have a 3gb limit?

Hi Guys

I've recently posted a question here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=343669 where I received some great help. However I've done a bit more research and I'm starting to fear my notebook may be limited to 3gb by the bios/chipset for some reason. I have just upgraded it from 3gb to 4gb. The bios shows 4gb as the installed amount but memtest in dos mode only shows 3000mb total as does windows task manager.

So it appears the notebook detects the 4gb installed ram but only allocated 3gb.

My question is does anyone know if acer has limited this notebook to 3gb total and if there are any suggestions on getting around this limit?

Thanks in advance

 

I believe VISTA 64-bit will see 4-gig - otherwise 3-gig is all you'll read in a 32-bit environment

 

Thanks for the reply. I'm running Vista 64bit and I don't believe it's a software issue as memtest run in dos mode only reports 3000mb

 

I have 3gb installed in my 5315 with 64bit Vista. My Task Manager shows 3061MB total memory, not 3000MB even. When you upgraded the memory, did you replace both modules or just the one 1gb module? If just the one, do the specs match the one that came with the system? Have you tried switching the modules around? Have you tried putting the 1gb module back in to see if you show more then the 3000MB limit? Have you tried doing the reinstall of the OS? If these things don't work, have you tried calling Acer for support?

Why would Acer limit the amount of memory? Wouldn't it be more likely that you have a defective unit? Either the memory module or the memory controller.

 

I have the exact same problem with Acer Aspire 5735-582G225Mn. It came with 4GB of RAM preinstalled, although model number indicates only 2GB.

It has two SO-DIMM modules of 2GB. One is (probably) stock Nanya DDR2-667, and the other is Apacer DDR2-800. Seller obviously had some spare SO-DIMMs he wanted to get rid of and also make the notebook offer more interesting... Interestingly enough, CPU-ID shows that Apacer module doesn't even have timings for 667 in it's SPD. :S

As Slayer explained, BIOS, CPU-ID and DMI dump utilities report that there is 2x2GB of RAM, but 64-bit Linux and 32-bit XP both report only 2.9GB of physical RAM! :/ O.K. I never expected that 32-bit XP would see all 4GBs but 64-bit Linux certainly should.

I've already reported problem on OpenSUSE forum and several other places but no one has any clue. Apparently, Internet is full of notebook users complaints about exactly the same issue with different brands and models. I guess problem originates in BIOS and it's MTRR mappings.

I've updated BIOS to the latest 1.10 version, but without any results... Acer should issue a proper BIOS update - that is probably the only way to use all four GBs of RAM on that notebook.

 

Has anyone made any progress on this matter?

 

Has anyone ever successfully upgraded any Acer notebook to 4GBs of RAM and being able to see all of in its 64-bit OS?

 

Yes, I've upgraded my Aspire 7720 to 4gb and can see and use all of it with Vista x64.

According to the Acer U.S. website, the 5735 can come with one of 2 different chipsets.

Do you have a Core2Duo or a Dual-Core processor? I suspect that the GL40 Express is the culprit but that's just a guess.

 

Hi Paten!

My notebook has GM45, but nevertheless GL40 should also support 4GB of RAM, while GM45 supports up to 8GB.

Installed CPU is a Core2Duo T5800 (Merom-2M: 65nm, 2GHz/800MHz/2MB).

 

I went to CompUSA today and they had the 5735-6694 with a C2D T6400 CPU and 4GB installed from the factory. I checked the task manager and it showed all 4GB of memory available. So I don't know what the deal is with your laptops. If restoring to factory defaults doesn't make your system recognize all of your memory, then I think you should take it back where you got it or have Acer fix it.

 

It fixed it self automagicaly. I don't know how it happened. It just did! :S

My notebook was actually reporting whole 4GB in BIOS and through DMI dump. I was just that every 32-bit and 64-bit OS (Windows/Linux) reported only ~3GB, no matter what I did. I had tried everything, including BIOS update, but nothing helped.

I suspect that things got fixed when I started dual booting between 32-bit XP and 64-bit OpenSuse. Windows started reporting just a bit over 3GB, and Linux now sees all of the 4GBs. Beets me!

 

I still haven't had any luck with my laptop at all and never received a reply back from Acer.

Marcus that's really strange what does it report in memtest in dos mode? the exact figure of 3000mb is what concerns me most so I'm hoping you can confirm what yours is now showing there.

Mine still reports 4gb in the bios and windows device manager but in task manager and memtest its locked at 3000mb exactly.

Thanks for your assistance paten. To answer the question I believe mine is based on the gm45 and has a c2duo cpu.

Look forward to hearing from you.

 

Another thing the chipset supposedly supports is 800Mhz RAM. Has anyone tried replacing the 667Mhz memory with 800Mhz and check if it runs it at 800Mhz or still at 667Mhz?

As many of us have the 5735 with an 800Mhz bus CPU in them it would be more efficient to have the RAM running 1:1 with the bus. Also as the graphics use system RAM it should improve the graphics performance a fair bit too.

This is all mute if the BIOS still clocks it at 667 though which is why I am curious if anyone has tried to see if the BIOS support 800Mhz RAM or not before I consider trying it myself.

 

Hi , I buy same model ,and found same issue . That's not relate with 32/64 bit system.
I also install Fedora 10 64 bit version got same result , 2.9GB .
finally , I found problem , but I don't know hot to fix/config it.

Please run "msinfo32" in vista, then choose "Components -> display system", you will found the Intel 4 Express use 1.28 GB memory!

 

Oh wow good work on finding that out! so the question is how do we free up all that ram? Am I correct in saying it's all being allocated to the Onboard VGA? I'll check my laptop when I get home to confirm it is reporting the same thing.

 

Actually, I can confirm that sadly msinfo32 is not telling you the whole truth. I have 3GB RAM, reporting 3GB RAM but it still says 1.28GB for graphics adapter. I believe it is reporting the MAXIMUM amount of RAM that the graphics are allowed to use, not the amount it is currently using. However you do give me an idea for what might be going on and how it got magically fixed for someone above.

The Theory
By default the graphics reserve 64MB of RAM for their use. If however you are using a heavy 3D application it can borrow up to 1244MB in addition to that up to a maximum of 1.28GB total (64MB + 1244MB dynamically allocated as required).

My guess is as you had 3GB RAM, it reserved the top most 64MB of RAM for the graphics. When you added another 1GB it did not adjust the pointer which says which section of RAM to use, so it was reserving the same 64MB plus the extra 1GB that is now located AFTER that point. So basically somehow you need to trigger a recalculation which probably happened above by switching between Window, Linux and generally using the computer. This is especially tricky if it is indeed being configured by the BIOS, as we have no options in there to change it manually.

The Solution?
I would think that possibly uninstalling then reinstalling the Intel chipset drivers might also force a recalculation. If you are wary of uninstalling them, just try installing the latest drivers as it might be that once they are upgraded it fixes it too.
They are http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2991&lang=eng. No guarantees obviously but it can't hurt.

Another thing you could try is switching to the Vista Basic theme (I cant remember how as I only have Vista Basic anyway), reboot, then try switching back to the normal theme. Or try running some games, google earth, stuff that uses the graphics to see if it dynamically fixes itself. I am guessing sooner or later it WILL fix itself without you doing anything, but it might take a while. So another option is to just ignore it and hope the problem fixes itself. It may only do so once you have somehow managed to use more than the default 64MB graphics memory and so it recalculates how much you need.

I will be upgrading my 5735 to 4GB shortly, so if I have the problem I will try to figure out how to trigger a fix - if nobody has confirmed any of the above as working in the meantime.

Also remember, I could be completely wrong but it would explain why it magically fixed itself if I am right.

[UPDATE]
I can confirm that the 5735 does indeed support 800Mhz RAM and it makes a significant different to the speed of the laptop particularly the graphics performance. I also had no issues whatsoever upgrading to 4GB, it detected it straight away.


I have another suggestion for how you might get it to detect if you are having problems.

Remove the second (top most) DIMM, bootup into Vista, shutdown, insert the second DIMM again.

That is what I did due to how I upgraded 1 DIMM at a time.

[UPDATE UPDATE]
I have discovered a curious issue. While Vista Home Basic (32bit) is detecting the full 4GB of RAM, I reinstalled 64bit Linux and oddly it is only seeing 3GB. You would think it would be the opposite way around to that.

As it happens I will be using Vista the most so losing 1GB while in Linux is no big deal. It also helps that Linux comfortably runs on 1GB whereas Vista comfortably runs on 4GB. ;-) So Vista needs to see it more badly than Linux does. Still, its very odd.

 

Sorry to dig up a really old thread, but I also had the problem with only 3GB being recognised under 64bit linux, and thought it might be worth reposting the solution here.

For me the problem was solved by updating to bios version 1.10

there's a link for it from Acer's european site:
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_5735.html

(I'd previously tried version 1.08 which didn't fix the problem.)

Incidentally, I can't get the laptop to run the memory at full speed (I've installed 800MHz ram, but it's only being clocked at 667 )

You can check ram speed under linux using:

Code:

sudo dmidecode --type 17

hope this helps someone...

 

That explains why mine sorted itself out as it already had BIOS 1.10 when I bought it. Still was odd how at first it was still reporting 3GB but suddenly fixed itself.

As for dmidecode, its pretty useless. It reports mine as running at 667Mhz too but I ran the Vista performance tool both before and after upgrading to 800Mhz RAM which showed a VERY marked improvement both in the RAM score and graphics score, which is exactly what you would expect from boosting the RAM speed. CPU-Z also clearly points out its running at around 399Mhz with a 1:2 ratio, Dual Channel which basically means around 798Mhz (actual clock speeds are never exact).

I also tried dmidecode on my desktop PC which also reports 667Mhz and more bizarrely type DDR. I am 99.9% sure that machine is running at 800Mhz and I KNOW its type DDR2, as I built that machine from scratch.

The dmidecode man page states:

Bugs
More often than not, information contained in the DMI tables is inaccurate, incomplete or simply wrong.

So quite frankly, dmidecode is a waste of time. You just have to trust its working as its not like Acer included any option to tweak the settings anyway. If it wasn't running at the correct speed your only option would be to try a different brand of RAM but in this case, it more than likely is working perfectly.

 

I updated the bios (when I click F2 at boot it shows the 1.something version as installed) but still only have support for 3 gb of ram in linux (don't know in windows).

 

Ok, s I've update my bios, installed Kubuntu 64 and now it recognizes 3988152! So it's working now!