3.96 usable memory?

Hi Guys,

I just caught this over on a customer's Windows 7 Home edition
in Control Panel, System:

Installed memory (RAM) 8.00 GB (3.96 usable)

What is "usable" all about?

Many thanks,
-T

Is that a 32 bit Windows 7 system?

On 7/29/2011 20:26, Todd wrote:
> Hi Guys,
>
> I just caught this over on a customer's Windows 7 Home edition
> in Control Panel, System:
>
> Installed memory (RAM) 8.00 GB (3.96 usable)
>
> What is "usable" all about?
>
> Many thanks,
> -T

> On 7/29/2011 20:26, Todd wrote:
>> Hi Guys,
>>
>> I just caught this over on a customer's Windows 7 Home edition
>> in Control Panel, System:
>>
>> Installed memory (RAM) 8.00 GB (3.96 usable)
>>
>> What is "usable" all about?
>>
>> Many thanks,
>> -T

On 07/29/2011 06:36 PM, Bob I wrote:
> Is that a 32 bit Windows 7 system?
>

I took a screen shot. Says it is a
System type: 64-bit Operating System

Oops, I see it is not home edition, it is "Windows 7 Ultimate"
Service Pack 1

-T

Todd wrote:
>> On 7/29/2011 20:26, Todd wrote:
>>> Hi Guys,
>>>
>>> I just caught this over on a customer's Windows 7 Home edition
>>> in Control Panel, System:
>>>
>>> Installed memory (RAM) 8.00 GB (3.96 usable)
>>>
>>> What is "usable" all about?
>>>
>>> Many thanks,
>>> -T
>
> On 07/29/2011 06:36 PM, Bob I wrote:
> > Is that a 32 bit Windows 7 system?
> >
>
> I took a screen shot. Says it is a
> System type: 64-bit Operating System
>
> Oops, I see it is not home edition, it is "Windows 7 Ultimate"
> Service Pack 1
>
> -T

Could you give some details about the hardware, make and model ?

Maybe the chipset is lacking in some way.

Your listed result of

"Installed memory (RAM) 8.00 GB (3.96 usable)"

seems unlikely, but maybe there is an explanation somewhere.
I'd expect to see something like "3GB usable" or even as
low as "2GB usable" in the case of one half-baked Dell computer.
3.96 as a value, is harder to explain.

Paul

On 29/07/2011 9:26 PM, Todd wrote:
> Hi Guys,
>
> I just caught this over on a customer's Windows 7 Home edition
> in Control Panel, System:
>
> Installed memory (RAM) 8.00 GB (3.96 usable)
>
> What is "usable" all about?
>
> Many thanks,
> -T

Is it an Intel system with an 900-series chipset? Apparently some Intel
chipsets have trouble with anything over 4GB. Look at this thread:

64 bit windows 7 not recognizing 4 gb of ram
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...-986c9fe3475a/


On the response from Peter Gravelle on Tuesday, August 11, 2009 4:25 AM:

> Note that some Intel Chipsets had problems with 4GB of Ram which has nothing to do with Microsoft.
>
> For example see the following:
>
> http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets...s/30167103.pdf
> The 915G/915GV/910GL Express chipset GMCH memory interface can support up to four double-sided DIMMS for a maximum of 4 GB of system memory. The memory technologies supported are 256-Mb, 512-Mb, and 1-Gb SDRAM technologies.
>
> Then it goes on to say that:
> http://download.intel.com/design/chi...t/30146806.pdf
> 14. 2GB DIMM Module Support in Asymmetric Mode
> Problem: 2GByte DIMM modules based upon 1Gbit memory technology are not supported when the total physical system memory is greater than 3.5GB and is configured for asymmetric mode.
> Addresses to physical memory are not properly decoded. Symmetric mode and single channel mode are not affected.
> Implication: Memory may not be initialized correctly.
> Workaround: The BIOS workaround is a memory initialization update contained in the latest BIOS specification update.
>
> I also know that there is a similar issue with the Intel 945 Express chipset.
>
> In some situations this may never be fixable.

Also possible, and mentioned in the same thread above, it's possible
that somebody has purposefully limited the maximum memory available to
Windows using the Msconfig utility. Look at the Azureblaze response from
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 11:30 PM:

> Hey everyone,
>
> I had this problem and fixed it.
>
> I was playing around with the installs, anyway on one HD I had X64 Ultimate Win7 clean. This machine listed 4GB and it was all usable (verified by looking at the performance tab in task manager) looking good right?
>
> I decided to upgrade my Vista X64 Ultimate to Win7 X64 Ultimate on the other HD on the same machine .
>
> Upgrading instead of a clean install is not something I would normally do but I was like "What the heck, I'm doing it!"
>
> After all my drivers and things were updated in the system info it listed 4.00Gb (3.25GB available) This showed there and in the performance tab for memory usage, NOT GOOD.
>
> So after some looking here is what I did to fix it:
>
> Msconfig > Boot tab > Advanced > I unchecked the maximum memory box and rebooted.
>
> For some reason mine was set to maximum memory checked and the value was 0.
>
> On the clean install this option was unchecked.
>
> I don't know if this is a typical issue when doing an upgrade instead of a clean install or if it's something I was playing with on the Vista machine and it carried over but check it out if you have the problem, it 100% fixed the issue here. Upon reboot it was golden.
>
> *Edit - Verified someone else had the same issue when upgrading of the max memory box being checked which effectively brought their RAM to 3.25 available.
> Good luck.

Lots of good helpful advise from this one thread.

Yousuf Khan

On 07/29/2011 07:19 PM, Paul wrote:
> Todd wrote:
>>> On 7/29/2011 20:26, Todd wrote:
>>>> Hi Guys,
>>>>
>>>> I just caught this over on a customer's Windows 7 Home edition
>>>> in Control Panel, System:
>>>>
>>>> Installed memory (RAM) 8.00 GB (3.96 usable)
>>>>
>>>> What is "usable" all about?
>>>>
>>>> Many thanks,
>>>> -T
>>
>> On 07/29/2011 06:36 PM, Bob I wrote:
>> > Is that a 32 bit Windows 7 system?
>> >
>>
>> I took a screen shot. Says it is a
>> System type: 64-bit Operating System
>>
>> Oops, I see it is not home edition, it is "Windows 7 Ultimate"
>> Service Pack 1
>>
>> -T
>
> Could you give some details about the hardware, make and model ?
>
> Maybe the chipset is lacking in some way.
>
> Your listed result of
>
> "Installed memory (RAM) 8.00 GB (3.96 usable)"
>
> seems unlikely, but maybe there is an explanation somewhere.
> I'd expect to see something like "3GB usable" or even as
> low as "2GB usable" in the case of one half-baked Dell computer.
> 3.96 as a value, is harder to explain.
>
> Paul

My screen shot says it is a Dell Studio XPS 8100 with an Intel Core
i7-860

On 07/29/2011 08:12 PM, Yousuf Khan wrote:
>
> Is it an Intel system with an 900-series chipset? Apparently some Intel
> chipsets have trouble with anything over 4GB. Look at this thread:
>
> 64 bit windows 7 not recognizing 4 gb of ram
> http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...-986c9fe3475a/
>

My screen shot says it is a Dell Studio XPS 8100 with an Intel Core
i7-860

Todd wrote:
> On 07/29/2011 07:19 PM, Paul wrote:
>> Todd wrote:
>>>> On 7/29/2011 20:26, Todd wrote:
>>>>> Hi Guys,
>>>>>
>>>>> I just caught this over on a customer's Windows 7 Home edition
>>>>> in Control Panel, System:
>>>>>
>>>>> Installed memory (RAM) 8.00 GB (3.96 usable)
>>>>>
>>>>> What is "usable" all about?
>>>>>
>>>>> Many thanks,
>>>>> -T
>>>
>>> On 07/29/2011 06:36 PM, Bob I wrote:
>>> > Is that a 32 bit Windows 7 system?
>>> >
>>>
>>> I took a screen shot. Says it is a
>>> System type: 64-bit Operating System
>>>
>>> Oops, I see it is not home edition, it is "Windows 7 Ultimate"
>>> Service Pack 1
>>>
>>> -T
>>
>> Could you give some details about the hardware, make and model ?
>>
>> Maybe the chipset is lacking in some way.
>>
>> Your listed result of
>>
>> "Installed memory (RAM) 8.00 GB (3.96 usable)"
>>
>> seems unlikely, but maybe there is an explanation somewhere.
>> I'd expect to see something like "3GB usable" or even as
>> low as "2GB usable" in the case of one half-baked Dell computer.
>> 3.96 as a value, is harder to explain.
>>
>> Paul
>
> My screen shot says it is a Dell Studio XPS 8100 with an Intel Core
> i7-860

Example of the problem, here.

http://en.community.dell.com/support.../19328089.aspx

By the way, I like Yousef's /maxmem idea, that using
msconfig, the boot parameters have been modified to limit
the system to 4GB total. That makes more sense, than a
remapping issue. After all, the box probably shipped with
an x64 OS on it. And i7-860, the memory controller and
"Northbridge" equivalent, are all inside the processor itself.

And the system wouldn't report "Installed memory 8.00GB", unless
that much was installed. If one or two DIMMs were broken,
I could understand "Installed memory 4.00GB", but since
it seems to be detected, to me that implies the memory
is really there. And then that /maxmem idea makes more
sense.

Paul

How many EWES should one provide for RAMS? I hear they are pretty
prolific and can service quite a lot of EWES!

Is there a minimum requirement for EWES per RAM?
-- choro --

On 30/07/2011 02:26, Todd wrote:
> Hi Guys,
>
> I just caught this over on a customer's Windows 7 Home edition
> in Control Panel, System:
>
> Installed memory (RAM) 8.00 GB (3.96 usable)
>
> What is "usable" all about?
>
> Many thanks,
> -T

In news:j0vmk0$eoc$,
Todd <> typed:
> Hi Guys,
>
> I just caught this over on a customer's Windows 7 Home
> edition in Control Panel, System:
>
> Installed memory (RAM) 8.00 GB (3.96 usable)
>
> What is "usable" all about?
>
> Many thanks,
> -T

The 3.96 Gg simply indicates the amount of free RAM address space not
assgned to anything (thus it's unused). Windows tries to use ALL of RAM if
it can and in this case it doesn't have anything to put in the lat 3.96 Gig
of RAM.
Windows will give up the used RAM if it's not needed and the 3.96 isn't
enough, so it's really not a big deal. If that stll isn't enough RAM, it'll
start to use the paging file on disk.

HTH,

Twayne`