4gb ram installed but only 2gb usable

[hotmilk]

hi guys.. my wife have an old laptop (asphire 4741g) with 2gb ram and recently i helped her bought and installed another 2gb ram which is total 4gb ram both 10600.

but after installed.. the system showing 4.00gb (2.00gb usable).. tried maximize memory in msconfig but still shows the same thing.. read in some where suggesting that change it in bios/advanced but this laptop bios doesnt have the advanced tab..

please help.. thanks


aspire 4741g
intel core i5-450m (2.4 ghz)
nvidia geforce 310m
240gb ssd harddisk

 

[Jonathan Cave]

which version of windows do you have?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_GB_limit

 

[hotmilk]

windows 7 32bit... and i thought 32bit maximum ram is 4gb?

 

[boju]

It's usually around 3.5GB usable, maybe a little more. 2GB isn't right.

I've seen this issue once before with a set of 3 x4GB with only 8GB usuable. Bios showed the same but the system still booted though. It was a bad stick and replaced the bad one and had 12GB. So it could be that.

Or,

In msconfig, under boot > advanced options. Untick Maximum memory if it's ticked. Might need to run msconfig as administrator depending on your UAC settings.

 

[molletts]

It could be a combination of the 32-bit memory limitation and the discrete graphics - the video memory of the GPU is likely mapped below 4GB thus pushing some of the RAM above the 4GB mark where 32-bit Windows can't access it.

Switching to 64-bit Windows would most likely fix it. If you've got an old laptop hard drive sitting around, you could try popping it in and doing a quick install of Windows x64 (you could skip putting in a product key as it's only a temporary setup) to see if it does work before embarking on the bigger task of backing everything up and reinstalling on the SSD.

Stephen

 

[Barty1884]

You've said W7 x32......is it's Windows 7 Starter? It's a barebones version AFAIK, and I believe the max memory ie 2GB.

 

[hotmilk]

You've said W7 x32......is it's Windows 7 Starter? It's a barebones version AFAIK, and I believe the max memory ie 2GB.

ya.. its windows 7 starter.. and i think it could be the case... i'll try install other version and see.. thanks to all... cheers

 

[boju]

Lol yea Barty is correct, well done.

Home Basic starts at 8GB(4GB 32Bit). Starter you've hit a wall there.