Help!! My win 7 PC shows 3.95 GB available RAM even though 8 GB are installed!
Help!! My win 7 PC shows 3.95 GB available RAM even though 8 GB are installed!
It's unclear what bothers you most about this, especially given the unusual RAM setup (4GB plus 2GB) compared to standard configurations. This seems counterintuitive since most systems operate with similar pairings.
Updated! I updated the bios to the latest version. I didn’t realize it because I had changed the CMOS several times before, and the DDR3-1600 MHz setting is showing 8GB, but it doesn’t work on the 1866 MHz one. Still, I’m okay with it and thank you for your help!
I can explain what occurred. The RAM Hole Remapping was turned off. Years back, computer designers chose to place expansion card RAM in the same area as general-purpose RAM for ease of use. They shifted the starting address by a significant amount that could never fit into a system like 4 billion bytes, and then allocated another 4 billion bytes for cards.
Looking ahead, now 4 Gigs is considered a minimum for system RAM. If we don’t instruct the BIOS to ignore those 4 Gigs of address space reserved for video cards, it will fill up completely. Windows would then treat it as general-purpose RAM, causing confusion. Data intended for regular RAM could end up in the video card area, and vice versa, leading to chaos.
This is why the RAM Hole Remapping is necessary.
Now, some very old applications might not be compatible with the remapping. If you relied on an onboard graphics chip that used part of the regular RAM for the frame buffer, you might prefer not to remap—but those are rare scenarios.
In short, because the 4 and 2 were mismatched, the BIOS likely spaced them apart in the address space, allowing the 4 Gig gap to remain unnoticed.