Only 2.9GB of 6GB RAM?

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TylerRex

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May 28, 2015
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I have a 4 year old laptop[Compaq 420] which came with 2GB RAM with Win 8.1(32bit) I decided to add an additional 2 GB. However, since 4 GB stick was available on almost the same price as 2GB, bought the 4GB one.

There are 2 SODIMM slots, and installed the 4GB into the second slot which was empty. However now, the system usable is only 2.9 GB instead of 4GB which should be there? And the system is able to recognise all of 6GB of the installed memory. It says about 3.1GB is hardware reserved.

I know I have a 32bit OS but shouldn't it recognise at least 4GB instead of mere 2.9?

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I ran the Windows memory diagnostics tools, and it showed no problems.

Any ideas what is going on here?
 
Solution
herrwizo
YOu won't be able to use your full RAM without 64-bit Windows. As it is now, it cannot allocate more than 3GB - in theory your are correct, it should be 4GB, but in practice there is something called "hardware reserved memory", which usually takes at least 512MB of RAM, and the other half could easily be your integrated graphics memory if you don't have a discrete graphics card. Moreover, some BIOSes, especially on laptops, are very quirky and 3GB is all you can use without a 64bit system.
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herrwizo

herrwizo

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Feb 17, 2009
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YOu won't be able to use your full RAM without 64-bit Windows. As it is now, it cannot allocate more than 3GB - in theory your are correct, it should be 4GB, but in practice there is something called "hardware reserved memory", which usually takes at least 512MB of RAM, and the other half could easily be your integrated graphics memory if you don't have a discrete graphics card. Moreover, some BIOSes, especially on laptops, are very quirky and 3GB is all you can use without a 64bit system.
 
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Solution
K

ktolo

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Jul 19, 2012
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You could read this article and try out this patch... Apparently there is an old trick from the server days to enable the OS to 'see' more than the 4GB limit.
The processes will not be able to address more than 4GB though.

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/make-windows-7-and-vista-32-bit-x86-support-more-than-4gb-memory/
 
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ktolo

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Jul 19, 2012
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I hate to burst bubbles.. but you can't upgrade from 32bit 8.1 to 64bit Win10.

It's 32 bit to 32bit Win10 or 64bit Win8.1 to 64bit Win10..

 
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B

Ben_6

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Aug 20, 2015
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Thats not it. I have the same problem with windows 10 64-bit version saying 8gb installed and 2.9 useable. So why this happening to me also. I cant play video games no more cuase of the 2.9gb limitation. Again, i do have 64 bit windows 10, so having 64bit version does not fix the problem. anyone know how to fix this.?

 
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