Windows 7 eats my ram

I have this recurring issue where one day all is good then the next I have 2.48 to 2.97GB of ram. This has happened 3 times now and the only way I have found to get my ram back is to clean install and I CBF doing it again as it is getting annoying. This time (can't remember the others) it happened the day after I installed XP mode and KB958559 (Virtual PC). I also enabled HW virtualization at the same time. I have since uninstalled VPC and disabled virtualization and my ram has not come back.

The programs I installed at the same time are:
Minefield 4.0b5pre (x86 en-us) (Via the update app not install package.)
CPUID HWMonitor
KB971033 (Activation Update)
KB977632 (Update for VPC)

RamMap says the range 0x100000 0x9B63f000 is 2,544,892K in size.
There is a crap load of ranges that are Driver Locked and I i'm guessing the ram i'm after is in there somewhere. The GPU also calls shotgun on about 200mb of my ram.

Somebody save me. I'm pretty good with computers if there is some info you need me to provide, i'll get it.

 

Im confused are you saying windows is not reporting your full ram capacity or that your ram is just used/full of data?

Windows 7 & Vista are both designed to use more RAM if you have more RAM avalible, so its normal to see a high amount of ram usage even if you do not have a lot going on, it caches programs and things you use often into the RAM for faster loading and if a program is used that needs that RAM space the OS will then release the RAM it was holding to that program.

If its a capacity issue the most common reasons do not see all of their RAM (4GB+)

- Not a 64bit OS
- A chipset that does not have atleast 8Gb of memory address space
- Need to enter BIOS and save & exit to update RAM after upgrade

 

Sorry, I mean that windows is reporting that 1611Mb is hardware reserved.

Yes, I'm on 64 bit. I have 8gb address space and I have played with the BIOS.

 

The only reason you should see reserved system ram if you met all the above criteria is when it shares it with your GPU and this feature can not be turned off in Vista/7 but there was a hack for it in XP.

Maybe there is a hack for Vista/7 now as well, in 99% of the cases it did not actually give any performance increase to turn off the shared ram with the gpu so as long as you have not gotten close to 100% ram use I would not sweat it too much.

 

Hey I know you're trying to help but you are not getting my issue. I know the GPU takes some RAM and until now only 200mb has been hardware reserved. then suddenly it will increase to 1-1.5gb additional to that 200mb reserved by the GPU. I cannot get it to decrease. Task manager reports only 2485MB total ram when a few days ago I had 3885MB. I have not changed any drivers for the GPU so I doubt it has anything to do with that.

This is what I'm saying. Something else is using it... Not the GPU

 

I don't know if I'm understanding your question properly, but from my point of view, it isn't releasing the ram back to you(?) You could try a program like this;
CleanMem v.1.5.1 | PcWinTech.com?

I haven't used it, never had to as the ram is given back to me.

I'm downloading it now, and going to take it for a spin. - If I have not really answered your question, or misunderstood it, you can just disregard my post,

 

OK. Seems I'm failing to get the problem across somehow...

I have 4GB ram installed in my laptop (4096MB exactly) running Windows 7 Ultimate x64. A few days ago the performance tab of task manager said my total ram was 3885MB. The difference is caused by my graphics taking some. Yesterday I installed the programs stated in the first post and now task manager says my total ram is 2485MB. 1.4GB of my usable ram just disappeared. Now resource monitor says that it is hardware reserved. I have not installed or changed or looked at the hardware. Some SOFTWARE is doing this to my computer. I suspected it was Virtual PC, i removed it and the usable ram has not returned. I want to disable/remove/find out/set fire to whatever piece of software is doing this to me.

Does this help?

 

Ah huh. Got it! Thanks for the clarification!

If you try this software, it should help get it back. Memory Cleaner - Software - Koshy John - I've just briefly used this, and it has given me a ton of my ram back that I didn't even know was gone!

But, then again, it may not.

 

Hmm... Does nothing for me. It also shows only 2485MB that it can clean.

 

There is a posibility that is a hardware problem.Maybe the memory controler in the CPU has gone haywire.It usually gets straightened out by reseating the CPU.I hope it's not that,probably it's not that but I ve seen it happening.

edit..Do you have multiple partitions with OS"s in them?
Also unistall the VPC update.

 

Since clean installs resolve it, it isn't a hardware issue.

 

Just one partition. No change after removing the update.

 

You may be wrong.What's reserving your memory (if your memory controler has gone crazy)is your hard drive.Clean installing you temporarily formating the hard drive.That's why I asked you if you have other OS in a separate partition.

 

As I said in the first post this has happened to me before on another laptop. I doubt 2 memory controllers coincidentally in two computers I own went crazy.

 

What was the solution to the previous notebook?

 

Clean install as i said in the first post...

 

Try this.

1)Press Start -> Run
2)Type "msconfig"
3)Go under the "Boot" tab
4)Click "Advanced options" button
5)UNcheck "Maximum memory"
6)Reboot

Found this here.

 

How does a hard drive reserve memory, unless it is an advanced RAID controller we are talking about?

Gary

 

Quick Question....are you running XP Mode? I noticed one of the updates is for it, If you are running XP Mode and left it suspended it will reserve RAM plus Overhead Reserves for those applications running with-in the XP environment.

Just an idea to look into...

HTH,

Jeff

 

what he said.......

 

I was wondering if the pagefile was disabled. Did the performance suffer from the decreased RAM availability? I have 8gb RAM on my laptop and after everything is loaded and running it reports I have 7.8gb RAM available.

 

The pagefile shouldn't affect it. I have 64bit Windows installed, and I only show 10MB (not a typo) of memory as hardware reserved while having my pagefile completely disabled.

@Poulsen8r: What machine do you have, what specs? Yes, it's likely a software issue but it could be some kind of driver problem, and knowing the hardware you're using may help.

 

Well I got it all sorted out by reinstalling everything then removing everything, disabling virtualisation and deleting all XP mode files and any traces remaining in the registry.