BIOS shows wrong amount of RAM

Hi all!

I have a problem with my RAM that i hope i can help me with.
I have 4 GB RAM installed in my computer, but when i look in BIOS under system information, the system memory shows 3008 MB.
At first i thought it was because i was running windows XP 32 bit, but as i read in another thread:
"Correct. Your BIOS should tell you how much is detected, your OS how much is available. (In simple terms)"

So the way i see it, BIOS should show the full 4GB RAM regardless of my OS.
I also updated my OS to Windows 7 64 bit, and ofc nothing changed and BIOS still shows 3008 MB System memory.

Does anyone have a clue on what might be wrong ?
My RAM are 2 x Kingston hyperX 2GB DDR2.
My motherboard is Asus Commando.

/mox

try this
uninstall one of the RAM. now u have 2 GB. let see how much ur bios is detecting. it should be 2 GB.
Now uninstall the other one and install the first one and do the same process.
see how much ur bios is detecting.

i guess one of ur RAM is defective. if so, you can identify the defective one in this way.
In either case, please tell me.

Hav a good luck...........

There's a possibility of your motherboard gone bad.Try both modules in a friend's comp.But before that try memtest86 and check whether there are any issues with the Ram itself.

I have just tried to take out both RAM blocks, one at a time and place them in different slots. Each time BIOS recognises them as 2048 MB, so i think the RAM work correctly. I have also tried to move them while both were in, to see if it was a specific slot, that made things bad. BIOS still only recognises 3008 MB RAM

I think i try that memtest86, to be on the safe side, before i go further.

Thx for the input!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mr mox

Hi all!

I have a problem with my RAM that i hope i can help me with.
I have 4 GB RAM installed in my computer, but when i look in BIOS under system information, the system memory shows 3008 MB.
At first i thought it was because i was running windows XP 32 bit, but as i read in another thread:
"Correct. Your BIOS should tell you how much is detected, your OS how much is available. (In simple terms)"

So the way i see it, BIOS should show the full 4GB RAM regardless of my OS.
I also updated my OS to Windows 7 64 bit, and ofc nothing changed and BIOS still shows 3008 MB System memory.

Does anyone have a clue on what might be wrong ?
My RAM are 2 x Kingston hyperX 2GB DDR2.
My motherboard is Asus Commando.

/mox

---

you need to up grade bios if it is avalableother wise it will not be read

bal

Which processor does your computer have? 32bit processors detect only 3GB Memory and if there is no dedicated graphics card, some memory is shared by the onboard graphics accelerator... Theoretically 4GB is addressable by 32bit processors, but 1GB of address goes for hardware address mapping like port addresses... :thumbup1:

Some systems with built in video cards or special digital imaging hardware will acquire the system ram during start up. This problem should be related to how much ram the BIOS reports to Windows. It sounds like the RAM is not being detected. What does the BIOS show? Either way, the maximum amount of RAM you will be able to access (without enabling PAE) is 3.2GB. Check to make sure that you GPU heatsink isn't full of dust and if it has a fan, make sure that the fan spins easily. It could be that your video card is overheating. Or you can check out the following link. Hope so it may resolve your issue.:thumbup1:

My processor is Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz.
Im pretty sure it supports 64 bit systems. After all im running Windows 7 64 bit just fine.

There is one thing i find strange... I was visisting a site that could determine how well your system is able to play certain computer games, and it posted some rather strange numbers in "video card":

Required You Have
Video RAM 128 MB 2.2 GB

Under RAM it posted as i expected showing i have close to 3 GB, as BIOS also tells me:

RAM Minimum: 1 GB
You Have: 2.9 GB

I wonder if this could be the reason that i dont see my my full 4 GB of RAM in BIOS and my Video card is "taking" some of it...

My video card is Nvidia 9600GT with 1 GB RAM from Asus.

The numbers match pretty good, but maybe this is an error from the website.
(http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/srtest/)

/Mox

I have such kind of issue but that is with 32 bit operating system now as you are running on windows 7 that may be the problem for that site as windows 7 is new some application not able to co-operate properly so you are right there may be site error..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mr mox

My processor is Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz.
Im pretty sure it supports 64 bit systems. After all im running Windows 7 64 bit just fine.

There is one thing i find strange... I was visisting a site that could determine how well your system is able to play certain computer games, and it posted some rather strange numbers in "video card":

Required You Have
Video RAM 128 MB 2.2 GB

Under RAM it posted as i expected showing i have close to 3 GB, as BIOS also tells me:

RAM Minimum: 1 GB
You Have: 2.9 GB

I wonder if this could be the reason that i dont see my my full 4 GB of RAM in BIOS and my Video card is "taking" some of it...

My video card is Nvidia 9600GT with 1 GB RAM from Asus.

The numbers match pretty good, but maybe this is an error from the website.
(http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/srtest/)

/Mox

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Windows takes some memory to map the hardware devices and and input/output ports. As the processor is capable of addressing a large number of locations, large memory support is available for 64bit processors. The IO devices cannot interact with the processor directly, but through the memory. So this may be your problem. Check in Windows 7, what does it show there??

Hmmm my windows information says:

Installed memory (RAM): 4,00 GB (2,94 GB usable)

So do you think windows just takes up 1 GB to map these input/output ports and hardware devices ?

Still strange that my BIOS says 3008 MB RAM instead of 4000 MB i think... Im confused :rolleyes:

Is there a graphic card using shared memory? So maybe the graphic card uses the missing RAM. If you flash with it in the wrong position, your flash utility may refuse to flash the bios, or your flash will fail, and in some cases you can end up with an empty bios. Therefor check the manual of the graphic card. Check your motherboard manual to see if you have such a jumper.

Check your Bios I have some systems that require the extra memory to be mapped. There may be a map memory hole setting. If there is, with out the memory hole being mapped the board only sees 3 gigs. With the memopry hole mapped the board sees the entire 4 gigs. Just a side note XP 32 bit only sees 2 gigs when I map the hole; but it sees 3 gigs when I do not map. BSD 64 bit sees all 4 gigs when I map the hole.