Only 2463MB RAM from a 4GB RAM?

Hi,
I got my F3Ka ASUS 4GB RAM that I found last week, I just got them and installed the RAM, thanks to the person who posted how to do it, made it easy for me. Here is a screen shot of what I have:




I know that ASUS said this computer holds 4GB of RAM and that is why I was concern to why this is happening.

Thanks in advance.

 

Hi, I'm not sure what ASUS said but in order to recognize 4GB of RAM, you need to verify the following:

0. The hardware is able to address it (not only accept it, there is frequent confusion and manufacturers are often misleading in this respect)
1. The BIOS supports it.
2. The OS supports it. To address the full 4GB it needs to be a 64bit OS, which yours clearly is not, however, a 32bit OS should still address roughly 3.5 of it, out of which some will be allocated for I/O.

So, if 0. and 1. are satisfied you should see around 3GB in your system. Are you sure that F3Ka satisfies 0. and 1.?

In any case, two things to do firstly:
Make sure your Vista is up to date.
Update BIOS to latest version.

See what RAM your computer lists afterwards.

 

How do I update the BIOS? Vista should be up to date, I do all the updates whenever they come in

 

Have a look at my signature

 

The BIOS does not have anything to do with the OS. Its a separate entity of its own.
Yea take a look at E.B.E's signature

 

Haha didn't know I am that blind. I checked with ASUS, the only BIOS they had was back in 09/04/07. I just bought this laptop last week so there is really no BIOS to update and windows is already up to date. What now?

 

The F3 is the budget line up for the Asus notebooks.... Maybe its limited to that hardware wise?

 

That was my first (zero-th so to say) concern

 

Well...In case he missed it

 

I am confused now, so why did it say Supported Memory - 4GB if that is not true?

 

First of all, we have not determined it is not true. It might just be a peculiarity of your machine or OS or software.

Second of all, as I've said, there is a difference between the hardware accepting 4GB memory, and being able to address it. "Support" is a vague term which can mean both.

This is easily solved with a call to ASUS support. Ask them clearly: is the mainboard on the F3Ka able to address the full 4GB of RAM, or not?

Edit: I've checked the asus.com and it says that it should address all the RAM.
"DDR2 667 MHz SDRAM, 2 x SODIMM socket for expansion up to 4GB SDRAM
*Up to 1GB may not be available with 32-bit operation systems depending on system configuration."

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=5&l2=26&l3=316&l4=0&model=1826&modelmenu=2

So I suspect some other limitation (OS hotfixes missing, or perhaps an incompatibility with the particular type of RAM you are using).

 

I know that a 32bit version of Windows will only be able to "see" around 3.25GB of memory, but just under 2.5GB is rather odd, and definitely not a problem with the OS.....

I'd say its maybe the GPU stealing memory from the system, but the F3Ka has a dedicated GPU, so it shouldn't be doing that...

 

Asus promises support for more memory with the next BIOS update, whenever that is.

 

So can you confirm it is a BIOS limitation?

 

Maybe you graphic card used those memory as turbo cache?

 

Possible. But isn't the system properties supposed to report the TOTAL memory available, before caches, applications, etc. have taken their share of it? At least that's what it does in XP...

 

No, memory allocated for the GPU is not included in the System properties RAM in XP....Like, if you look on a GMA 900 or GMA 950 notebook with 1GB RAM, it will say it has only 0.99GB memory, since there is 32MB taken by the integrated graphics to run the display, and on the X200m based machines, if you have it set to take 128MB of system RAM for the GPU, it will show only like 896MB memory.

However, it shouldn't be doing this on the F3Ka, since it has a dedicated graphics card with its own VRAM....

 

Stupidly enough, the low addressed RAM is due to graphics card caching. The Radeon HD 2600 has half a gigabyte of its own memory but the current BIOS allocates an additional 1GB of memory for graphics.

 

Hmm. I think my GeForce 7400 Go also has this feature which adds system RAM to VRAM when needed (whatever nVidia calls the feature) and my WinXP still reads 2GB of RAM, which I have.

Of course, this is under desktop work so no need for supplementing VRAM, but still... having varying numbers subtracted from the reported system RAM, depending on the GPU load, can really be confusing.

 

I didn't even know there was a second page on this, I was waiting for a reply looking at the first page the whole time.

Anyways.. after reading all of your posts, it seems that you are all arguing about the graphics taking all the RAM, but I mean I have 4GB and 2.4GB is just too odd . It is not possible that this is taking a full GB of ram (cause a 32bit OS will only go to 3.5GB as you guys said) I will call up ASUS and ask them though

 

Just closed the line, for all of you who wanted to know what happened. They said that the resources that the OS is using holds some of it and the built in Video RAM is being used. If I get a 64 bit I would have all that 4GB available for me.

The question is, what would I be losing if I get a 64 bit OS? I mean if it will use more CPU it won't be worth it because I would have too much RAM but not enough CPU. Watching my RAM usage it stays at 50% with my 2.4GB if I have firefox and Media Player open.

What do you suggest?

 

Vista is supposed to use up more RAM...So having the RAM usage higher doesn't mean its bad neccesarily. Also, with a 64-bit OS drivers at least for Windows 64-bit OS' are "harder" to find and to get working. If your willing to go on a treasure hunt for drivers, then dive in. However, I think if your an inexperienced user don't try that at all.

 

Actually, this is a Turion. It is a slightly different beast from the Intel platforms we usually use in the sense that the memory controller resides in the CPU, not the chipset. However, there is usually a BIOS option or two which still must be correctly configured.

1) At this point, 64-bit is a waste of time since most applications are 32-bit. Most will run, but some will not due to special drivers (ie: specialized software that use dongles generally won't work because they need a 64-bit version of the driver). Also, IIRC, Vista 64-bit OS drivers are *required* to be properly signed (most third parties do NOT sign their drivers, which is why you usually get that "STOP Installation" or "Continue Installation" warning when you install drivers), meaning it'll be difficult to get drivers until it becomes more common practice.

2) You will need a 64-bit OS to use all of the 4 GB. Essentially, it will be taking that 3-4GB marker and moving it up to the 4-5GB marker through memory remapping. Typically anything above 3GB is a loss because of the fact that the block of addresses used to talk to PCI, PCI-E and other devices' RAM resides in that block and it is no longer accessible due to the overlap.

3) It could be that one of the 2GB modules are defective. Try them individually to see if they give you 2GB each.

4) HyperMemory and TurboCache are not supposed to subtract from the free memory count, since the GPU has discrete memory which it uses first. When the driver sees it needs more, it will then proceed to allocate RAM. My X1700 is 256MB discrete + 256MB HM but I see my full 2GB on XP. The same applies for desktops. Integrated GPU solutions like the GMA950 have zero MB discrete RAM, meaning they must use main memory for their frame buffer and other storage needs.

5) Check the BIOS again to see if there is any memory mapping features or memory hole setting. If your BIOS is not set to properly do memory mapping, a desktop using a PCI-E graphics card will usually get 3GB out of the 4GB. I have seen an instance where those two settings set incorrectly dropped a system down to about 2.5GB.

If you can't get it to work with 4GB when it says it should, you should call ASUS to have them look into it. If there is a problem that wasn't reported, it won't get fixed.

 

Thanks for the notes, I will try to do #3 again to see what happens. About #5... how do you check the BIOS? I went to check ASUS to see if there are any BIOS updates but there are none. Do I just have to go to the BIOS and personally change some settings? If so how?

Thanks

 

nevermind #3 won't work, I already have 2.5GB so that means both cards are working otherwise I won't have more than 2GB stated

 

Hmm..., someone with the same problem as you (dated nov28) called Asus 5 times and got 3 different answers. It's in the F3KA forums in the Asus site.
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...&board_id=3&model=F3Ka&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

Looks like a bios update might solve the problem... I hope.

 

They don't have a solution on there though. And yes as he said, they don't have a BIOS update so I don't know what to do.

 

Hi, here is what I suggest. If possible, return a 2GB stick, and get a 1GB stick (unless you already have one). Use the computer with a 32-bit OS (XP, Vista, whichever you like) and 3GB of RAM. That will be more than sufficient.

 

Actually, I was thinking about doing that because I already have a 1GB Stick. My RAM goes to around 60-80% max in usage and it kinds of fits with the CPU usage, more RAM wouldn't really make much.

 

A 32-bit operating system can address memory that is relocated above the 4 GB boundary if the following conditions are true:
• The computer is in Physical Address Extension (PAE) mode.
• The computer has 4 GB of RAM.
In this case, the operating system correctly reports how much memory is installed.

Run Vista in PAE mode and it should work with 4GB ram! To enable PAE mode, you have to add PAE to the boot entry in the BCD file.
Open an elevated command prompt, hit Windows button + R and type in "cmd". Type BCDEDIT /SET PAE ForceEnable.

If you enable PAE and your computer rebots and can no longer boot windows. Enter safe (F8) mode which disables PAE, type cmd and disable the PAE. I believe it should be the same command, but with one difference BCEDIT /SET PAE Disable (not tested)

Microsoft's in-depth Answer to this problem or look here

 

Okay, so what exactly is PAE? What will it add or remove from my settings? Will it take more CPU usage? What is the reason of PAE? Why isn't enabled from the factory settings?

 

Hi, PAE has to be supported by the hardware, which it might or it might not. It is also somewhat issuey, again I wouldn't recommend it to averagely-experienced users.

It's really not worth the trouble. 3GB will do just fine.

For more details, just check wikipedia or google.

 

Hi elbasha, if you're sure that each of your 2 GB sticks is working properly, you need to check again in the BIOS. If the BIOS shows only 2.4 GB... then it's the max RAM for your notebook, no matter what kind of Vista you install.

I have experienced this issue with my W3J. I installed 2 x 2 GB, the BIOS shows 2.87 GB, Vista Ultimate 32 shows 2.87 GB. I tried to install Vista 64, and Vista 64 still shows 2.87 GB. It's because of the Intel 945 chipset in W3J that can only read 2.87 GB.

I also have a BenQ Joybook S41, which has a T7300 processor (Santa Rosa with Intel 965 chipset) and Vista Home Premium. I installed 2 x 2 GB sticks in it, and BIOS shows 4 GB, Windows shows 3 GB. I tried to activate PAE as described above, and it did not work (maybe because the hardware itself does not support PAE). Then I tried Vista 64... and it read the full 4 GB.

So that's my story with my 2 x 2 GB

 

Just an update for anyone who cares, the new BIOS update boosts your RAM to 3071MB instead of the 2.4GB it is at right now, I don't know if thats if you have a 3GB but if you have a 4GB it would do it.