Thread: Motherboard showing less RAM than installed

Hi guys.need advice

got: ASRock ConroeXfire-eSATA2 with 4x1GB RAM installed and 64bit Win7 Ultimate.

My problem is next : Motherboard showing 2.87 of total 4GB of RAM
How to fix that?

EDIT: Figured out that system is using about 1153MB as Hardware Reserved (seen in Resource Monitor)
How to remove that reserves and use them as typical memory?

click start
type msconfig in search program and files
click boot
click advanced options
set maximum memory to 4096

Originally Posted by pinkpuffer

click start
type msconfig in search program and files
click boot
click advanced options
set maximum memory to 4096

tried still nothing....

Well, if you would be in a 32 bits OS then there is a limit of 4 GB that the OS can allocate in total between RAM and GPU mem, so if your vid card had 1 GB mem, then even if you would have 4 GB RAM or more you would not be able to use more than 3GB since 1 GB is being used by the GPU.
But I understand this is not your case, because you're using Win7 64Bits. What can be happening is that your mobo has a onboard GPU chip and that is using part of your RAM. Should that be the case,(and if you have another GPU in your PCIExpress slot) then enter the BIOS Setup and look for a setting that disables the mem that the onboard GPU is using. Check the manual of your motherboard and be careful what things you modify in there.

his board does not have an onboard gpu

bump
any onther ideas

its eather not reading it in the slots (or maybe outdated bios)
or you are running a x86 (32-bit) OS

32-bit is limited to 3GB
64-bit is limited to 128GB

*Not my work, copied from somewhere else*


You have the right amount of RAM on the right OS and you are using your RAM to it's full potential. Your particular BIOS automatically detects RAM configuration and sets remap accordingly.

Installed: 4096mb minus
Hardware Reserved: 1153mb equals
Total: 2943mb

If you had only 3 GB, your Total remaining would be approximately 1920mb.

Hardware reserved means your video card + all of your other device drivers. It is not "just" your video that uses your RAM.