32-bit Win 7 shows 2.5 GB RAM installed but 2.0 GB usable

PC Hobbyist

PC Hobbyist

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I know that a 32-bit system cannot see more than a little over 3 GB of RAM although my motherboard takes max 4 GB. But I'm confused about something else (I think). I have Win 7 32-bit with 2x 1GB modules and 2x 256MB modules running in dual mode (accoriding to CPU-Z).

However, Win 7 system information shows: "2.5 GB installed (2.0 GB usable)".

CPU-Z says 2.5 GB of memory
WCPUID says 2 GB of memory

I also have an nVidia GeForce 9400GT card with 1 GB of DDR2 RAM.

Why does Win 7 only show 2 GB of usable RAM? Is the video card affecting that? So, are 512 MB of RAM truly being ignored?
 
PC Hobbyist

PC Hobbyist

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mac550 said:
have you had a look in the BIOS for any possible memory conflicts
Click to expand...
The BIOS only shows 2 GB of memory. Strange that Win7 says 2.5 GB installed, but then it agrees with the BIOS and says 2 GB usable.
I still don't know why that is.

All modules are DDR 400 (PC 3200).

G25r8cer said:
The other 500mb is being used for something with graphics I believe
Click to expand...

I thought the video card might have something to do with it, but I'm not sure. I would have thought that the BIOS would still report the 2.5 GB and maybe Windows would only show 2 GB.

Anyway, I really wish I new why this is happening. I'm a bit confused with the whole matter.
 
Cromewell

Cromewell

Administrator
Staff member
It's not necessarily the graphics card, there's other stuff that draws on the high range of addresses. I don't think I've ever seen a board that uses 2GB for IO mapping but that doesn't mean it can't happen.
 
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