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Win 7 - 4GB installed, but shows only 3GB!!

by rahul 3/26/2009 2:34:07 PM

Honestly, I never noticed it till date, and I was really surprised when I was working with a few Virtual Machines today on my Win 7 Laptop which has 4GB RAM. I was thinking that something must have gone wrong with my laptop. Finally, I did some research and found a few interesting things. First of all, there were a lot of people in forums who were thinking that there is something wrong with their machines, and they have gone to the extent of changing their BIOS settings, plugging out the RAM, etc.

Don’t believe me? Okay, let me show you a few snapshots to clarify...

On my Win 2k3 machine, my System Properties (Right click on My Computer and select properties) looks as follows...

...and the Task Manager’s Performance Tab shows the Memory as follows...

So far so good. That’s what you would expect, right?

Let’s check the output on my Win 7 machine. Oh by the way, just as an FYI... the Win 2k3 machine is running as a Virtual Machine on my Win 7 machine.

System Properties shows the RAM as 4 GB...

...and now the BIG SURPRISE... the Task Manager’s Performance tab...

Crap!! Where is my 1 GB? Who stole that??? That’s the question I believe a lot of people are asking with Win 7. It seems like the same issue is present with Vista as well (I am not sure though). But, I just checked my Windows Server 2008 enterprise, and the output is correct (similar to Win 2k3). Let’s first find out where exactly this 1 GB is! Click on Resource Monitor on the screen and switch to Memory tab.

1027 + 3069 = 4096!!! So that makes sense, and I have just given you an answer.

Unfortunately, I have got quite a few questions which I don’t know the answer yet... and I can feel the pain already. I have to run 3 VM at the same time with just 1 GB each. This was possible easily with Win 2k3, but now it is not possible with the same hardware Confused

Why such a difference from other versions of Windows?
Is there a way to tweak this?
Any side effects of even trying to tweak this (I don’t want any blue screens!)?
And above all, am I missing anything or reading something wrong??

I don’t have any answers to these questions. Do you? Please comment, and let me know if you are seeing the same problem or if you have a solution to this.

Thanks,
Rahul

Quote of the day:
I don't necessarily agree with everything I say. - Marshall McLuhan

Tags: troubleshooting, win 7

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Comments

3/27/2009 12:15:41 AM

32 bit versions can never see the full 4 GB of memory. And it is because of the 'hardware reserved' item you see. This part varies per machine, but I've never seen it get higher than 3.5 GB.

To see the full 4 GB, you have to be on a 64 bit machine.

jdn

3/27/2009 1:09:45 AM

Thanks for your response jdn.

I believe you are right. But just to be on the safer side, I would still like anyone to cross check this on a Win 2k3 machine with more RAM or at least 4GB RAM. Does the System Properties on a Win 2k3 show 4GB and Physical Memory on the Task Manager show ONLY 3 GB?

I have a Win 2k3 Virtual Machine, but since I have only 4GB on my Win 7, I can't make the memory of the VM = 4GB. Can anyone please confirm?

Rahul

3/27/2009 1:45:32 AM

Oh by the way... I found a few forums that mentioned that this problem is happening even on a 64 bit machine.

social.technet.microsoft.com/.../

Still, a confirmation won't hurt. I will try to manage a Win 2k3 machine with more RAM and see if there is a difference in the way Win 2k3 and Win 7 shows/uses memory.

Rahul

3/28/2009 12:34:29 AM

OKay, just got it confirmed from one of my colleagues.

I see this on a windows server 2003 32 bit OS...

Total Physical Memory = 4,095.11 MB
Task Manager = 4193396

Thus, one thing is for sure... on Win 2k3, there is no inconsistency in how the memory is shown. Let's see if anyone has some pointers to what is happening. I will keep my hunt on, and if I find anything I would modify the post accordingly.

Rahul

4/1/2009 12:55:56 PM

Microsoft changed practices in Win 7 in system properties. This was because so many people complained that they were not seeing the exact amount of memory they had on there system. They complained regardless of the fact if it was being used or not by the OS.

So Microsoft changed this to quell that issue, but now as you can see you are on the flip side of the coin. You can now see why they initially had it the way they did. Again they can never please everyone.

64 bit is a no brainier jump I have been running 64 bit vista with no problems since 2006. If I have had any issues it is usually with bad drivers from vendors or from me "cleaning" hacking the system.

Nick

4/4/2009 2:31:06 PM

Hi Nick,

Yes, it does seem like it has changed. All I am currently looking at is a documentation or explanation from Microsoft side. If anyone is reading this and has links that may help others, please share it.

Rahul

Win 7 - 4GB installed, but shows only 3GB!!

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