Hi I just recently opened my computer case the other day to work on it, I don't think I damaged anything but my computer now says this in BIOS 4GBs total Available 3GBs and for some reason when I go to system information it won't tell me the total ram available for Windows Vista, so I don't know exactly what's going on. I tried to reset my BIOS but I still get the same message, I've individually tested each stick of RAM by itself and it works, in each RAM slot too. I'm confused also not the greatest computer person out there, thanks for the help!
Sorry, it's a built-in limitation in consumer-grade builds of Windows. The system has 4gb, but Windows can only use 3.
Does this apply to the BIOS? Vista doesn't even read how much RAM I have, cause before it said 4GBs now it says "Not Available" also saying the same for the processor.
Well in that case, do you have integrated video? If the video card is part of the motherboard, it may be "stealing" RAM from your system and using it for video. In that case, you should be able to determine how much is allocated for video in the BIOS. Another possibility is that some systems have the option of capping available RAM to 3gb to avoid Windows problems. Still another scenario would be that you have one of the specific Intel chipsets which are incapable of addressing more than 3gb of RAM. If you were able to address all 4gb on the same hardware at one point though, that would rule this theory out with some certainty.
This is my system information Intel Q6600 ASUS P5W DH Deluxe Motherboard Board Specifications: - Intel® Quad-core CPU Ready - LGA775 socket for Intel Core2 Duo, Core2 Extreme - Intel 975X +Intel ICH7R 1066/800MHz - Dual-channel DDR2 800/667/ 533 max 8GB - 2 x PCI-E x 16 / 2 x PCI-E x 1/ 3 x PCI - Support ATI CrossFire graphics cards - Intel Matrix Storage technology - Dual Gigabit LAN - Dolby Master Studio technology - ASUS EZ-Backup - ASUS Digital Home features
