T400 uses only 2.5gb out of 4gb?

Hi, I recently received my ThinkPad T400 and in the first 5 days has frozen 4 times already. I knew something was wrong to I tried looking for the answer. Eventually I found out that the OS is only using 2.5gb out of the 4gb it detects.

I have the ThinkPad T400 with switchable graphics (Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD and ATI Mobility Radeon 3470 with 256MB) with Vista 32-bit Home Basic SP1.

I know that Vista 32-bit can't use all 4gb but shouldn't it be recognizing atleast 3gb instead of 2.5gb?

I ran the BIOS setup utility and it did show all 4gb for installed memory and so does the properties of my computer show it. But the Task Manager Performace Tab, Can You Run it? website, and dxdiag shows only 2.5gb total.

Anyone have any solutions on how to fix this?

P.S-I was thinking of installing Windows 7 RC1 or maybe getting Vista 64-bit but if that is the solution can anyone tell me what drivers I'd have to download and which Lenovo/Thinkvantage programs I should keep?

 

2.5Gb sounds about right. The Video cards are both taking chunks of the ram as well, which is why its lower than 3Gb. And as for 64 Bit vista, Everything you need can be found on Lenovo's site in the driver matrix, or if your lazy (like me), is downloaded by the System Update utility.

 

You should check maybe something is wrong, you should see like 3.3gb.

 

Ok so I did some research on the two graphics cards and the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD has no dedicated memory so can take up to 384mb from the main memory. The ATI Mobility Radeon 3470 has 256mb. But why does running dxdiag(DirectX Diagnostics Tool) say it has approx. total memory of 1256mb. Can You Run it? says it has 1.2gb of video memory and when I switch to the Intel it says 1036mb from dxdiag and 940mb of video memory from Can You Run it. Is there any way to reduce the amount they are taking to get some memory back?

 

on the TP freezing... it might be too late in your case, but with every new TP I receive the first thing I do is do a factory re-install of everything. That's what cured the BSOD issues I had on my new T40 a few years back. Might also fix the memory issue.

Did you run memtest?

 

I could do a re-install since I still have everything backed up on external drives if it'll save the problem. And no, I haven't ran memtest yet.

P.S- If the problem is because that I'm using 32-bit, could I use the same key to activate a 64-bit of the same version? (32-bit home basic to 64-bit home basic)

 

Use 64 bit OSes (XP 64, Vista 64, Win 7 64, etc) to reclaim all the RAM you paid for.

That's what I'll do if I ever install 4GB RAM on my current or future machines.

 

I believe seeing only 2.5gb of ram even though you have 4gb of ram is normal for people who use vista and switchable graphics. there was a thread a few months ago that explained this. The only way to get the 3gb max possible that xp sees(at least in my T400 xp) is to go into bios and deselect the switchable graphics and manually set the bios to either integrated or discrete.

 

"I found out that the OS is only using 2.5gb out of the 4gb it detects.

This is the WAY computers NOW work. I think there has change in measurements since Vista, certainly Windows 7.

Renee

 

Is there a step by step for this?

 

It's "normal for Vista".

 

Actually there's another topic that addresses this. But you push F1 when the ThinkPad logo appears at start up to enter Bios Setup Utility and then go into Config and then to Display. You switch to discrete graphics and put the option below it to disable. Then exit Bios using the Restart and save option. This will only save you .5gb of ram. I haven't tried it as of yet because I'm just gonna switch to 64-bit.

 

Yes, the same key will work for x64 Windows.