Why is only 3.5 gb usable

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Current visitors New profile posts Search profile posts Billboard Trophies. Forums Hardware Memory. JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Status Not open for further replies. Previous Next Sort by votes. May 14, 15 0 10 0.

Please help me. I'm currently running the latest Windows 10 and msconfig won't do anything upon fixing it. Apr 24, Slash said:. Already tried it, Sir. Both RAMS are healthy and working. But if I only put one ram on the "faulty ram slot" it does not give output to the monitor. It's old. OS: Windows 10 latest version. B Respectable. Feb 8, 2, 2, Reactions: Slash B said:.

Reseat the ram sticks Swap the ram slots Use one ram stick test in each slot. Repeat with the other stick of ram. Replace the bios battery. Thank you so much for answering, Sir. Those are the only things I haven't done.

Power down. Unplug the pc. It says 4gb installed but only 3. Please help, thank you. Go to Solution. The operating system will always reserve a certain amount for system resources. It has been this way from the very beginning of computers.

View solution in original post. The system will still reserve some of the ram. Where you will see the difference is when you go over the 4 gig amount. A 32 bit OS can only use up to for gig a 64 bit can use far more. Doesnt seem to explain why he can only see 3.

So you have 8gb installed it doesnt say 7. Actually I'm surprised he can see 3. Windows 32 bit reserves a good size chunk of the address space between 3 GB and 4 GB for system use. Even though the memory is on the video card rather than plugged into the memory slots of the computer, the OS must map it in the addressable space of the computer. In order to see more than 3. First, the chipset used on the main board must be capable of supporting at least 8 GB of memory.

Third, the OS must be 64 bit in order to support the necessary address space. If 4 GB of system memory is already installed, part of that address space must be reserved by the graphics memory mapping. Graphics memory mapping overwrites a part of the system memory. These conditions reduce the total amount of system memory that is available to the operating system. For more information about how to determine how memory is used on your computer, see the " Physical Memory Allocation in Windows 7 " topic in the "More Information" section.

There are several additional situations that could cause the usable RAM to be less than expected. These issues and possible solutions are listed here:. This problem may occur because the Maximum memory option is selected incorrectly. To fix this, follow these steps:. Click Start , 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. The problem may occur because the system BIOS is outdated. If you have an older computer, the system may be unable to access all the installed RAM. In this case, you have to update the system BIOS to the latest version. Or, contact your computer manufacturer for help. Enable the memory remapping feature Check the BIOS settings to see whether the memory remapping feature is enabled. Memory remapping gives Windows access to more memory.

You can enable the memory remapping feature in the BIOS by booting to the system setup. See the User's Guide for your computer for instructions on how to boot to system setup on your computer. The name for the memory remapping feature may be different for different hardware vendors. This can be listed as memory remapping, memory extension, or something similar. Be aware that your computer may not support the memory remapping feature.

This is the memory that the system is sharing with the video card that is used for texture mapping and rendering. This memory would not be used by the system, because it is locked by the video card. You can test each setting to see which offers the best results. Check whether you have bad memory modules To check whether you are experiencing this issue, turn off the computer, unplug the computer, and then swap the order of the memory. Make sure that the memory arrangement is correct Refer to the User's Guide of the computer to determine in what order the memory modules should be inserted into the memory slots.

The system may require you to use specific slots when you are not using all the available slots. For example, the computer has four slots available. But you may have to use slot 1 and slot 3 if you want to use only two memory modules. Check whether memory standoff cards are used If you use a memory standoff card to hold multiple memory modules on the computer, the system may require specific configurations for this scenario.