Windows 7 Usable Memory Problem

[the_rook13_1201n]

I am having an issue getting all of my RAM to be usable in Windows 7. I was unsure which forum to post my question to.

I recently purchased an Asus 1201N netbook with the NVIDIA ION chipset. The netbook came configured with 2G of RAM. It has 32 bit Windows 7 Home Premium installed. My problem is that Windows 7 reports 2G installed (767 M usable). I know that the ION chipset shares system RAM, but it is only using 304 Meg. I still seem to be unable to access about 1 G of RAM.

With 32 bit windows, I should have 4G of hardware addresses available. Looking at the memory map in device manager, it appears that the PCI bus is reserving 2.6G. This seems inordinately large. Any suggestions for recovering the unusable memory? I feel cheated for having paid for 2G when I can only seem to use less than 1G.


Memory map as I see it is below. Apologies if the format doesn't show up properly.

Start Address Stop Address Component Usage (MB)
FBFC0000 FBFFFFFF Atheros Ethernet 0.25
F9F78000 F9F7BFFF Audio Controller 0.02
F9F7E800 F9F7E8FF Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller 0.00
F9F7EC00 F9F7ECFF Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller 0.00
FED00000 FED00FFF Event Timer 0.00
F9F76000 F9F77FFF IDE Controller 0.01
FC000000 FDFFFFFF Motherboard Resources 32.00
FEC00000 FEC00FFF Motherboard Resources 0.00
FEE00000 FEE00FFF Motherboard Resources 0.00
FEE01000 FEEFFFFF Motherboard Resources 1.00
FEFE1000 FEFE1FFF Motherboard Resources 0.00
FEFE2000 FEFE3FFF Motherboard Resources 0.01
000A0000 000BFFFF Nvidia ION 0.12
E0000000 EFFFFFFF Nvidia ION 256.00
F6000000 F7FFFFFF Nvidia ION 32.00
FA000000 FAFFFFFF Nvidia ION 16.00
F9F80000 F9FFFFFF NVIDIA nForce System Management Controller 0.50
F9F7D000 F9F7DFFF OpenHCD USB Host Controller 0.00
F9F7F000 F9F7FFFF OpenHCD USB Host Controller 0.00
000D0000 000DFFFF PCI Bus 0.06
40000000 DFFFFFFF PCI Bus 2560.00
F8000000 F9F75FFF PCI Bus 31.46
F9F7C000 F9F7CFFF PCI Bus 0.00
F9F7E000 F9F7E7FF PCI Bus 0.00
F9F7E900 F9F7EBFF PCI Bus 0.00
F9F7ED00 F9F7EFFF PCI Bus 0.00
FBEC0000 FBEFBFFF PCI Bus 0.23
FE000000 FEBFFFFF PCI Bus 12.00
F0000000 F5FFFFFF Pci to Pci Bridge 96.00
FB000000 FBDFFFFF Pci to Pci Bridge 14.00
FBE00000 FBEBFFFF Pci to Pci Bridge 0.75
FBF00000 FBFBFFFF Pci to Pci Bridge 0.75
1000 0009F000 RAM 0.62
100000 2FF90000 RAM 766.56
FBEFC000 FBEFFFFF Realtek Wireless 0.02
0 00000FFF System Board 0.00
0009F001 0009FFFF System Board 0.00
000C0000 000CFFFF System Board 0.06
000E0000 000FFFFF System Board 0.12
2FF90001 3FFFFFFF System Board 256.44
FEC01000 FECFFFFF System Board 1.00
FED01000 FEDFFFFF System Board 1.00
FEF00000 FEFE0FFF System Board 0.88
FEFE4000 FFFFFFFF System Board 16.11

 

[Guest]

Hey man, yeah this is a BIOS issue... I have an 1201n as well and although I run Linux not windows but I sometimes see the same problem (as do many others on the WWW).

What BIOS rev are you running?

1) Try the following, shut down the netbook (all the way off), turn it on and when you see the eee logo hit F2 to load the BIOS (may have to tap it a few times). How much memory is showing on the first BIOS page?
2) If you see the proper 2GB (I am running 4GB) then exit the BIOS, IMPORTANT: Save your changes!!!

When you load Windows how much memory does it show? You should see the full 2GB.

I normally encounter this problem when I reboot the computer and see the BIOS message about "settings have changed" and "F1 to load BIOS or F2 to load defaults"... If you see this message, do not load defaults, go into the BIOS and repeat the above.

For me the issue is using the fn+brightness keys in Linux, odd but true. A royal pain to be sure as any time I boot after that message from the BIOS I have to check my RAM to make sure it's all there, but looks like a new BIOS is out 0324 on the Asus support site I will give it a go and hope for the best.

Hope this was of some help, good luck!