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    My notebook won't notice 4GB.

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by drawiz, Feb 22, 2010.

  1. drawiz

    drawiz Newbie

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    Clevo M670SRU notebook:

    RAM 3 GB
    BIOS Phoenix, version 6.00 (2008/04/14)
    Chipset VIA 82C364 rev 0
    (in fact, cpuz and SiSoft report: VIA P4M900, North Bridge: VIA VN896, South Bridge: VIA VT8237A).

    I've upgraded memory to 4 GB (DIMM1: Micron 16HTF25664HY-667E1, DIMM2: Kreton 53623xxxx68x35xxxx).

    Now, my problem: BIOS only reports 3 GB.

    Why? Can anyone help?

    Thanks!!
    :confused:
     
    drawiz, Feb 22, 2010
    #1
  2. wii

    wii IPS Rules

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    Because your OS is only 32 Bit?
     
    wii, Feb 22, 2010
    #2
  3. AcerTimelineHunter

    AcerTimelineHunter Notebook Geek

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    Make sure you power down and remove the battery for a while.
    It took me this procedure to have memory upgrades recognized in several laptops.
     
    AcerTimelineHunter, Feb 22, 2010
    #3
  4. Joel

    Joel coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee

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    Possibly a BIOS thing... While some companies say they can take xGB amount, the BIOS may only be able to take xGB amount of that. In your case, it may say it can take 4GB, but, if its only showing 3, then, hmm, thats got me stumped. Does software recognize the 4?
     
    Joel, Feb 22, 2010
    #4
  5. drawiz

    drawiz Newbie

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    Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bits - shows 3 GB.
    Interestingly, CPUZ reports 4096 MBytes, DDR2, single channel.
     
    drawiz, Feb 22, 2010
    #5
  6. reb1

    reb1 Notebook Evangelist

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    Even though it is not showing over 3gig the graphics will probably use it when needed. There are other programs designed to use it for memory paging also.
     
    reb1, Feb 22, 2010
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  7. Judicator

    Judicator Judged and found wanting.

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    Does the M670SRU use a GPU with shared memory? That "missing" 1 GB of RAM might be going to the graphics card...
     
    Judicator, Feb 23, 2010
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  8. drawiz

    drawiz Newbie

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    1. BIOS information with 3 GB:
    video card memory: 633 MB; system memory: 3 GB.
    2. BIOS information with 4 GB:
    video card memory: 633 MB; system memory: 3 GB.
    As we can see, it doesn't change a bit...
     
    drawiz, Feb 23, 2010
    #8
  9. Han Bao Quan

    Han Bao Quan The Assassin

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    I'd suggest update your BIOS.
     
    Han Bao Quan, Feb 23, 2010
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  10. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Missing RAM does not go to the GPU. It is called Memory Mapped IO, and chances are your BIOS does not support more than 4GB of address space. In your case your system takes about 1GB of address space for device drivers and hardware, leaving 3GB to RAM.
     
    Greg, Feb 23, 2010
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  11. drawiz

    drawiz Newbie

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    I understand, but it seems unlikely.
    The reason being that I didn't notice any performance change.
    Also, reported Core and RAM consuming didn't change at all.
     
    drawiz, Feb 23, 2010
    #11
  12. ViciousXUSMC

    ViciousXUSMC Master Viking NBR Reviewer

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    I cant find much info on that chipset but it probably does not support 4+ GB, if your BIOS cant see it, then your OS can NEVER see/use it.

    CPU-Z is not "seeing" 4GB of ram its just identifying the ram modules installed.

    Is your OS showing exactly 3gb of RAM for use or like ~3.2GB? If its ~3.2 all 4 GB is there and working just that the other 800MB of space is consumed by system resources that you can not free up without PAE or a chipset that supports more than 4GB of memory address space.

    Also if your chipset/bios does support 4+GB thats when the OS also has to support it for it to be in Windows, so it has to be 64bit.

    However since you do not even see it in bios, the OS is not even a concern right now.
     
    ViciousXUSMC, Feb 23, 2010
    #12
  13. drawiz

    drawiz Newbie

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    OS shows exactly 3 GB.
    PAE enabled.
     
    drawiz, Feb 23, 2010
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  14. weinter

    weinter /dev/null

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    I remember previously there was a similar issue and the reason was poster had itchy fingers and had enabled Max Memory in msconfig...
     
    weinter, Feb 23, 2010
    #14