mine is custom built Motherboard NameAsus L1N64-SLI WS CPU TypeDualCore AMD Athlon 64 FX-72, 2943 MHz (14 x 210) duel processors Video Adapter nVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS (Asus EN8600GTS)
hit ctrl-shift-esc and goto performance and under physical memory have a look what it says, post a screen shot so every one can have a look, you cant go from what windows says in System properties because after vista sp1 they change it so it reads from the bios and not windows, so even on a 32bit os it would still read over 4GB when the os cant even use it, i have 6GB and u dont have a problem
I response to how many GB my mobo can handle, it is 8GB MAX. When I was using Vista Home Premium x64 all 6GB were recognized and used. There are different variations of the M5100 Desktop model, some can handle up until 4GB, others up to 8GB. I presently have Windows 7 Ultimate x64 OEM. Out of 4GB memory installed, only 3GB are recognized. I am at work now so I will post my results when I get home.
On my BIOS, the options are as follows: 1. PCI 2. on board 3. PCI-E x16 If I select PCI-E x16 then the onboard video deactivates itself? Is there another option I am missing?
I'm going to try to explain this so you can understand. While your motherboard can physically handle 8GB or RAM, it can only address 4GB. This is a hardware limitation present on a lot of early 64bit cpu capable motherboards. You are correct that you can physically install 8GB of RAM, and the system will show that you have 8GB installed, but it can only use 4GB worth of addresses. Every device in your computer requires an I/O address, so from a maximum of 4GB addressing space your motherboard can handle, your hardware is using 1GB (notice hardware reserved is 1025MB). So you only have 3GB worth of useable addresses left for RAM. This is why you only have 3GB useable RAM. This is a hardware limitation of your motherboard and short of replacing the motherboard there is nothing you can do about it. The reason why it appeared to be ok in Vista is because Vista SP1 and later only showed the actual RAM installed, not the useable RAM. Windows 7 is showing you both. I assure you your useable RAM in Vista was the same.
Too many people explained this, and yet he still ignored them. To ryaxin, we need a proof that Vista can use all your 6GB RAM, please provide the screenshots. Of course not the one in System page but the one under Performance tab in Task Manager.
Perhaps I am not making myself clear. My mobo's memory limitation is 8GB, NOT 4GB. As I've stated earlier, the M5100 series has different variation mobo's in production, some with 4GB limits and others with 8GB limits etc. If it were 4GB, I'd be content with 3GB available... I'm not ignoring the comments, by far. At first you all mentioned that I was running a 32bit OS.....c'mon know.... Providing proof of Vista at this point would mean I would have to install from scratch. Too time intensive. I'm not a noob when it comes to PC's, in fact very knowledgeable. This is the first major block I've come across. It's easier to assemble a PC from scratch than figure this puzzle out.
A gig of ram "hardware reserved" ? Why? Only 3 gigs of usable ram? I feel your pain. And you are not using onboard video, so where did that gig go? Hell, I'm only using 1 meg for "hardware reserved". See my pic. If you have onboard video, even if it says its disabled in the bios, I'd plug a monitor into the onboard and see if it is REALLY disabled. I've encountered mobos before that even though the onboard video is set to off or auto, it still stayed on when a PCI/PCIe card was in use. Something smells like fish and it's not the deck of the Black Pearl.