Got a DV7-4180EA, installed an extra 4GB of RAM only 3.93GB usable out of 8.00GB

Hi there, I'm wondering if you guys can help me.

I recently purchased a DV7-4180EA which is spec'd as follows:

i7-Q720M - 1.6Ghz Quad Core
500GB HDD
ATi HD 5650 1GB
4GB DDR3 RAM (4GBx1)
Blu-Ray
Win7 x64

I am absolutely in love with the machine, however as soon as I received it I fired another 4GB of RAM into it so now its (4GBx2) totalling 8GB, however Windows 7 tells me only 3.93GB of this is available and the rest is system reserved.

Have any of you encountered this problem, and if so, how did you resolve it?


Thanks in advance!

Below are screenies of CPU-Z of my RAM, the system info and a pastebin of my dxdiag.

Memory:



System:



DxDiag (On Pastebin)

------------------ System Information ---------- - Dxdiag

 

Also, I'm using the latest BIOS from HP, i figured that might have fixed it.. but alas... no joy!

 

Bump...

Anybody?!

 

Is it being cached for video memory?

 

I'd begin with the Windows troubleshooting guide here:

The usable memory may be less than the installed memory on Windows 7-based computers

Especially this:

Check the system configuration settings
This problem may occur because the Maximum memory option is selected incorrectly. To fix this, follow these steps:

Click Start
Start button
, type msconfig in the Search programs and files box, and then click msconfig in the Programs list.
In the System Configuration window, click Advanced options on the Boot tab.
Click to clear the Maximum memory check box, and then click OK.
Restart the computer.

 

Bad stick, perhaps?

 

Is 64-Bit enabled on BIOS ?

 

Well I hope its being used for something as useful as that, otherwise its just being wasted.

Believe me... I've tried it many a time with the same result

I hope not, when I swapped the order of the sticks and checked CPU-Z it showed both sticks in and working in Dual channel mode, but the OS detection of the second stick was patchy between boots, like 1 boot I could have 8GB and on the next I could have only 4, so I swapped them back.

Well the system was shipped with Win7 x64, and there doesn't appear to be many options in the BIOS menu, let alone a 64-bit mode. I've been looking to a memory remap option but to no avail!

 

That does sound like a bad stick or poor/dirty contact...

Anyways, I'm curious how they are reserved/allocated for, Can you open up the resource monitor and click on the memory tab. There should be a graphic representation of how the physical memory is made up.

 

I hope you resolved it as a bad stick, and attempted on a new fresh one.

Try using only the new stick, and run it by itself for awhile. Then add the HP one.

Trying to get you into a process of trial and error determine if its bad or won't play nice with the HP stick.

Sorry, this is the best we could do with limited consumer access.

 

As that picture shows, 4GB hardware reserved and 8GB total installed ram.

Check how much is allocated to the graphics card?

 

I have a dv7-4073nr, which came with 4GB, and I just bought 8GB and installed. I have also attempted all of these fix attempts, and none of them have worked as well.

No place in bios to map memory or 64-bit mode. Every thing notices 8GB, but will only let me access 3.93 GB. I am currently attempting to download UBCD for Windows to test my memory.

I will report back after testing with yet another tool.

EDIT- What ended up working for me, was simply swapping the slots that they were in. I assume maybe one of the sticks were not fully inserted, as I have had these in this configuration before.