HP envy 17 only uses half installed RAM on win7 x64

[sharkhandler]

Hi All

I've been searching the forums for a solution to this and I don't know what to do. I have an HP Envy 17 and I have installed 8 GB of ram, but the windows 7 v64 OS is only detecting 4 GB in use:

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
System Model HP ENVY 17 Notebook PC
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60GHz, 1600 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Hewlett-Packard F.1D, 07/04/2011
SMBIOS Version 2.6
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32


so according to the MOBO spec, I could have 8Gb ram
I bought 2x 4GB Corsair memory
I have made sure that the memory chips are seated correctly
BIOS detects that there is 8GB of RAM installed
here is the system report on the RAM:


Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 3.93 GB
Available Physical Memory 2.22 GB


basically my system is detecting but not using one of the RAM chips
I don't have a setting in BIOS to map memory
I can't get to the motherboard to adjust any jumper/ voltage settings
CPU-Z shows both chips installed and working
I am running windows 64bit
been into MSCONFIG and maximum memory is unchecked

..and this is where all my efforts have now run out. so I don't get it. 8Gb installed, 4Gb available ? what do you think - dodgy RAM chip?

any ideas?


Paul

 

[jitpublisher]

It may be a defective stick, and I have heard of these notebooks having defective RAM slots as well. Try each stick by itself and each slot, it will take a little time but that is the only way to really figure it out.