I'm trying to allocate RAM from my bios back so that Windows 7 and games can use it. I currently have 8GB of ram (http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7564471&CatId=4534 I currently have 2 sticks in my pc) in an msi motherboard (http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1963472). windows says i have all 8gb installed but only 3.97gb is usable. Now i know my BIOS does not need 4gb of ram and that 3gb is enough to do what it needs to do, but i do not know how to allocate it if it is possible. The manual told me nothing about allocating it (which my tech savy friend looked at, and he has no clue how to do this either, which is why im asking here), so i was wondering if anybody knew how to do this. Any help is appreciated.
Allocating BIOS Ram Usage
- Thread starter HyPerTank
- Start date
Solution
hang-the-9
Titan
- Mar 25, 2010
- 60,387
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Has nothing to do with RAM the BIOS is using, you have some confusion about how the BIOS works. It does sound like you have 64bit Windows or you'd be seeing less than 3.97 gig usable, so it's not an issue with the 32bit limit of RAM. But just to make sure, check if you have 64bit Windows.
Run MSCONFIG, check the Boot tab, Advanced options, if Maximum memory is checked, uncheck it. If it's not checked, try doing a BIOS update for the motherboard.
Run MSCONFIG, check the Boot tab, Advanced options, if Maximum memory is checked, uncheck it. If it's not checked, try doing a BIOS update for the motherboard.
Well I've tried the MSCONFIG solution many times before and it did not do a thing for me. I remember now that I have looked around and found something that told me exactly what was using my ram, but i cannot find it anymore. it said that the bios was using about 4gb, so i assumed this was the problem after going into the Source (local technology shop) and asking them and them telling me that allocating some of the ram away from the bios would fix my concern. I am updating the bios at the moment so if that fixes it in the meantime then ill let you know.
EDIT: I found the page (happened to be the resource monitor on the task manager) and it shows that 4126mb are hardware reserved. Is that for the bios or not, and would i be able to allocate that in any way?
hang-the-9
Titan
- Mar 25, 2010
- 60,387
- 1,081
- 152,940
That is WAY too much RAM for Hardware Reserved. I can guarantee you that the BIOS will not come close to using that RAM, maybe 1/100th of that.
Did you reboot the system after you unchecked Max Memory from msconfig? There are quite a few posts that pointed that out as the issue and it was fixed by unchecking Max Memory.
There is a post here that had the issue as RAM that was not fully compatible with the motherboard. http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1694156/hardware-reserved-ram-8gb.html Try using one stick at a time and see if the Hardware Reserved RAM goes back to normal. You can also try swapping the sticks around in the slots.
BIOS update may help, but I think it's something else.
Did you reboot the system after you unchecked Max Memory from msconfig? There are quite a few posts that pointed that out as the issue and it was fixed by unchecking Max Memory.
There is a post here that had the issue as RAM that was not fully compatible with the motherboard. http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1694156/hardware-reserved-ram-8gb.html Try using one stick at a time and see if the Hardware Reserved RAM goes back to normal. You can also try swapping the sticks around in the slots.
BIOS update may help, but I think it's something else.
So I did a bit of snooping around the msi website about my product, found a pdf that gave what types of ram they tested and supported. I found that my ram was not listed in the pdf, which means that it's probably not my bios, it's that my ram isn't fully supported. Thanks for all the help. Time to go shopping.
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