Vista Ram Help

Hello, i was just wondering why i have 4 gig of ram installed on vista,

Control Panal/System/Memory (Ram) - 4GB

But Program such as Auslogics boost speed and other programs that check
the Ram installed, only Pick up 3446.51 MB installed

Every other program says that Digit, why am i not getting the Full 4
Gig, Or how can i make it 4 Gig in total?


--
sparks559

sparks559 wrote:
> Hello, i was just wondering why i have 4 gig of ram installed on vista,
>
> Control Panal/System/Memory (Ram) - 4GB
>
> But Program such as Auslogics boost speed and other programs that check
> the Ram installed, only Pick up 3446.51 MB installed
>
> Every other program says that Digit, why am i not getting the Full 4
> Gig, Or how can i make it 4 Gig in total?
>
>

To understand this fully you would need to understand Binary math. Your
32 bit operating system can't "Count" above 4 Gigabytes so even if you
had 8 installed it could not "See" it. It's not because the RAM is not
there, it's because a 32 bit operating system simply cannot handle
addressing it.

The reason your other software is reporting less is because things like
your video card need addresses too, so because the system can only
address 4 GB in total it has to take these addresses out of the total 4 GB.

Vista is reporting 4GB "Installed" which is correct, but because some of
those addresses are already taken by the operating system and some of
the hardware you can't use them, nor can the programs that you mention
above. It's like the RAM you can't see is being "Hidden", if that helps
to explain it.

The only practical way to do anything about this is to use 64 bit Vista
instead.

Hi, sparks559.

A 32-bit operating system can address a maximum of 4 GB of memory space.
But some of that memory space has to be reserved for use by drivers and
other overhead, leaving something less than 4 GB for use by applications.
To use the full 4 GB, you will need to install a 64-bit operating system.
Vista x64 can use the full 4 GB - actually 128 GB.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 7000

"sparks559" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Hello, i was just wondering why i have 4 gig of ram installed on vista,
>
> Control Panal/System/Memory (Ram) - 4GB
>
> But Program such as Auslogics boost speed and other programs that check
> the Ram installed, only Pick up 3446.51 MB installed
>
> Every other program says that Digit, why am i not getting the Full 4
> Gig, Or how can i make it 4 Gig in total?
>
>
> --
> sparks559

Hello Sparks,

Does your motherboard have a integrated video chip? If so, then the
missing RAM is most likely being set aside and used by the video chip
instead.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

sparks559;1017982 Wrote:
> Hello, i was just wondering why i have 4 gig of ram installed on vista,
>
> Control Panal/System/Memory (Ram) - 4GB
>
> But Program such as Auslogics boost speed and other programs that check
> the Ram installed, only Pick up 3446.51 MB installed
>
> Every other program says that Digit, why am i not getting the Full 4
> Gig, Or how can i make it 4 Gig in total?


--
Brink

'*MS MVP - Windows Desktop Experience*'
(https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/pr...5-AD617AF3D511)
*There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask
them.*
'*::Windows 7 Forums::*' *and*

*Please post feedback to help others.*

By Video Chip you mean graphics card?

The only Graphics card i have atm, is the mother boards graphics card,
i have nothing extra i took everything out and dont think ill be
replacing it for a while.
i have mother board (with its ports , ethernet usb etc), Ram,
Processors and HD in there, pretty basic setup. ?


--
sparks559

Brink <> wrote:

>
>Hello Sparks,
>
>Does your motherboard have a integrated video chip? If so, then the
>missing RAM is most likely being set aside and used by the video chip
>instead.
>
>Hope this helps,
>Shawn

It will show less than the full 4gigs even if the video card has
dedicated RAM. What the OP is seeing is typical for a 32-bit system.

sparks559 wrote:
> By Video Chip you mean graphics card?
>
> The only Graphics card i have atm, is the mother boards graphics card,
> i have nothing extra i took everything out and dont think ill be
> replacing it for a while.
> i have mother board (with its ports , ethernet usb etc), Ram,
> Processors and HD in there, pretty basic setup. ?
>
>


Well it's not so much what is in there and actually used, it's what is
"Mapped" for use. Generally blocks are reserved for your onboard devices
which means they are not necessarily fully "Used" but are "Reserved".

Either way there is little hope of increasing it by any useful amount.

Vista shows the amount of installed memory, not just the amount of available
memory to the system.
My system shows 6 GB but since I am only running 32 bit Windows, I can only
use less than 4 GB of that memory.

When I run the 64 bit Windows (which I have been doing by dual booting), the
system can access all 6 GB, more or less.

"sparks559" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Hello, i was just wondering why i have 4 gig of ram installed on vista,
>
> Control Panal/System/Memory (Ram) - 4GB
>
> But Program such as Auslogics boost speed and other programs that check
> the Ram installed, only Pick up 3446.51 MB installed
>
> Every other program says that Digit, why am i not getting the Full 4
> Gig, Or how can i make it 4 Gig in total?
>
>
> --
> sparks559

sparks559 <> wrote:

>
>Hello, i was just wondering why i have 4 gig of ram installed on vista,
>
>Control Panal/System/Memory (Ram) - 4GB
>
>But Program such as Auslogics boost speed and other programs that check
>the Ram installed, only Pick up 3446.51 MB installed

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt/RAM.html

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(Shell/User)

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

Hi Sparks,

It's your intigrated graphics chip on your motherboard that is using
the missing RAM. A intigrated graphics chip does not have onboard memory
like a separate graphics card, so it must use memory set aside from your
RAM instead. There is a option in your BIOS settings to adjust how much
RAM is to be set side for intigrated graphics, but I would not go any
lower than what you have now to maintain the same graphics quality you
have now. You can increase the amount to improve graphics quality, but
then you have less available RAM for Windows to use.

Hope this helps.

sparks559;1018040 Wrote:
> By Video Chip you mean graphics card?
>
> The only Graphics card i have atm, is the mother boards graphics card,
> i have nothing extra i took everything out and dont think ill be
> replacing it for a while.
> i have mother board (with its ports , ethernet usb etc), Ram,
> Processors and HD in there, pretty basic setup. ?


--
Brink

'*MS MVP - Windows Desktop Experience*'
(https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/pr...5-AD617AF3D511)
*There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask
them.*
'*::Windows 7 Forums::*' *and*

*Please post feedback to help others.*