The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    4GB of ram but only 3GB showing?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by edta1, Feb 17, 2009.

  1. edta1

    edta1 Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hi all,
    I have 2 Asus notebooks. I have the M50VM-X1 and the X38VB. Both are stated to have 4 GB of RAM. 4 GB show up in the Bios but only 3 GB show in Winxp (right click on My computer, properties). Where's my 1 GB? I know the M50VM has 1GB of video ram. Is that where it went? I thought when it states it like that it's dedicated. Please advise. :confused:
     
    edta1, Feb 17, 2009
    #1
  2. Alienized

    Alienized Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    108
    Messages:
    257
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    If you are running a 32bit system only 3 may be recognized by some programs...
     
    Alienized, Feb 17, 2009
    #2
  3. whizzo

    whizzo Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    769
    Messages:
    5,851
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    206
    32bit operating system. it'll only adress about 3gb because it only has adress lines for (2^32)-1 bytes, which is just under 4GB. of that, about 1GB is used for hardware, caches etc.
     
    whizzo, Feb 17, 2009
    #3
  4. edta1

    edta1 Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Thanks for the reply.
    Ic. will windows xp 32bit take advantage of 3GB or 4GB?
     
    edta1, Feb 17, 2009
    #4
  5. nhbound20

    nhbound20 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    9
    Messages:
    164
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    3GB and probably some change (my guess would be about 3.5 gigs). If you want the full 4 gigs to be recognized, you need to install a 64 bit OS.
     
    nhbound20, Feb 17, 2009
    #5
  6. Pirx

    Pirx Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    3,001
    Messages:
    3,005
    Likes Received:
    416
    Trophy Points:
    151
    No, none of the above explanations is quite correct. A 32bit system can address exactly 4GB of memory, but the problem is that the chipset in your laptop maps certain address ranges, including the graphics memory, into this 4GB window. This is the reason why XP can only access 3GB of memory: Part of the total of 4GB has been remapped by the chipset, and is reserved for use by some device drivers and the graphics subsystem. The only way to get access to all of the 4GB is to use a 64bit OS, in conjunction with a fully 64bit capable chipset. Note that some of the older laptop models use chipsets that also have a 4GB limit, in which case you will not be able to use all of your memory even with a 64bit OS.
     
    Pirx, Feb 17, 2009
    #6
  7. 0.0

    0.0 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    87
    Messages:
    237
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    That depends on the hardware and version of XP. AFAIK from XP SP2 onwards your going to face problems trying to fully use 4GB because of the kernel itself. Only pre SP2 with the necessary hardware will allow you to access all 4GB.
     
    0.0, Feb 18, 2009
    #7