Only 2GB of 4GB Ram is usasble ?

I am using Alienware M17x with 4GB of RAM Installed but only "2 GB is usable". I have done the AM test at startup and it says 4096 MB OK.

Can anyone tell me the reason behind it and how to fix it.

Thanks

 

Do you have different memory to test?

Johnkss had explained before that this can happen if the proc is not seated correctly.

 

Are you using a 32-bit or 64-bit OS?

 

Thanx Mate, I am using 32-Bit OS

System is showing "4 GB (2GB Usable)"

I will try to reinstall the memory.

I also wonder if my other problem has anything to do with this as well

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=460909

 

you should be getting 3-3.5gb usable in 32bit os, I have read in other posts that you have to enable the other 1-01.5gb in a option somewhere, it gets disabled for some reason.

 

Its a limitation of the 32bit os to be capped around 3ish GB.. You can enable it for the OS to see the full 4GB but it wont use it.. If you want more you have to swap to 64bit

 

32bit is limited to 4GB. It's a Windows "issue" if someone sees less.

 

If on boot your bios is showing 4gb , then try the fix below i found on the net.

 

No, 32-bit is limited to 3.5gb.
Its showing 2gb for you because its disabled. Follow the posts above mine to enable it

 

If you're using 32-bit OS and have a 1GB+ GPU then only 2GB of your 4GB is usable. That sounds about right.

If you want to use lots of system RAM and a dedicated GPU with lots of RAM then you have to switch to a 64-bit OS that can address all that memory.

 

Thanks a lot to all of you ..

System Shows 4GB at startup ... and in 'msconfig' the box is unticked.

I guess it is time to shift to 64 bit

 

A 32-bit OS can only address 4 GB. 32 bit address = 4 GB. But the OS needs to map some address space for other resources, integrated graphics for example. Thats why you can only access 3 - 3.5 GB of memory at best. It's a physical limitation of the 32-bit OS.

 

2^32 = 4,294,967,296

4,294,967,296 / (1,024 x 1,024) = 4,096

The 32bit limit IS 4GB.

 

correct, and for reference:

 

The 32 bit OS is the problem. It can only address/map up to 4GB of memory. That includes Video card memory, various caches, registers, etc.. So if you have two video cards in there with 1GB of memory each, the OS will only be able to address ~2GB of your System RAM anymore (4GB - 1GB - 1GB = 2GB). It should actually be a little less. So this is likely what's happening in your case.
Even if you didn't have video cards in a 32 bit OS and programs wouldn't be able to use the entire 4GBs.

Use a 64 bit OS instead.

 

LOL, only microsoft could have thought of introducing artificial limits into the Os O_O.