3.96 usable memory?

On 07/30/2011 03:12 PM, Seth wrote:

"Todd" wrote in message
...
On 07/29/2011 10:36 PM, Paul wrote:
Example of the problem, here.

http://en.community.dell.com/support.../19328089.aspx


The link explains a lot. This is what happens when you
purchase a $400.00 computer from Wal Mart. Wal Mart probably
got a real deal from Dell too. Lots of bad motherboards
to flush out the back door.

The customer is well under the 3.7 GB of usable memory,
so I am just doing to ignore it.

Don't ignore it. Take care of it now while the machine is still
hopefully under warranty so it can be replaced\serviced if need be. The
person paid for that memory, it should be available for use.


You are not factoring in the effect of the down time on the customer.
(Which you did not know about because I did not mention it.) Not the
hill I want to die on.

Todd wrote:
On 07/30/2011 03:12 PM, Seth wrote:

"Todd" wrote in message
...
On 07/29/2011 10:36 PM, Paul wrote:
Example of the problem, here.

http://en.community.dell.com/support.../19328089.aspx



The link explains a lot. This is what happens when you
purchase a $400.00 computer from Wal Mart. Wal Mart probably
got a real deal from Dell too. Lots of bad motherboards
to flush out the back door.

The customer is well under the 3.7 GB of usable memory,
so I am just doing to ignore it.

Don't ignore it. Take care of it now while the machine is still
hopefully under warranty so it can be replaced\serviced if need be. The
person paid for that memory, it should be available for use.


You are not factoring in the effect of the down time on the customer.
(Which you did not know about because I did not mention it.) Not the
hill I want to die on.


Isn't it worth checking msconfig, for any maxmem value that was set ?
That won't require returning the machine. And I don't see a hardware
mechanism at the moment, to justify returning the machine. It's pretty
hard to get that 3.96GB value - that's what I'm counting on.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62...231/maxmem.png

In the example here, the user had problems actually reverting to full RAM usage.

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-d...nfig-help.html

Paul

On 7/30/2011 20:00, Todd wrote:
On 07/30/2011 03:12 PM, Seth wrote:

"Todd" wrote in message
...
On 07/29/2011 10:36 PM, Paul wrote:
Example of the problem, here.

http://en.community.dell.com/support.../19328089.aspx



The link explains a lot. This is what happens when you
purchase a $400.00 computer from Wal Mart. Wal Mart probably
got a real deal from Dell too. Lots of bad motherboards
to flush out the back door.

The customer is well under the 3.7 GB of usable memory,
so I am just doing to ignore it.

Don't ignore it. Take care of it now while the machine is still
hopefully under warranty so it can be replaced\serviced if need be. The
person paid for that memory, it should be available for use.


You are not factoring in the effect of the down time on the customer.
(Which you did not know about because I did not mention it.) Not the
hill I want to die on.

Sorry, that does NOT compute; if the customer is affected by downtime,
and he really need more than 3 GB of RAM, he/she should never had gotten
a cheap computer.
You get what you pay for, do not come here whining about it.
Unless there is a MAXMEM statement, or a bad contact on the SIMMS,
obsolete BIOS, bad config, the MBO is bad, and need to be replaced.

On 30/07/2011 12:10 AM, Todd wrote:
On 07/29/2011 08:12 PM, Yousuf Khan wrote:

Is it an Intel system with an 900-series chipset? Apparently some Intel
chipsets have trouble with anything over 4GB. Look at this thread:

64 bit windows 7 not recognizing 4 gb of ram
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...-986c9fe3475a/



My screen shot says it is a Dell Studio XPS 8100 with an Intel Core
i7-860

The Dell website has no mention of what chipset is in that thing. Next
time you get there, you might want to run the latest CPU-Z on it, and
check out which chipset is on it under the Motherboard section.

Yousuf Khan

On 30/07/2011 4:36 PM, Ken Blake wrote:
If you have 7.87GB available, you are clearly running 64-bit Windows
7. The OP didn't say, but he may be running 32-bit (although 3.96GB is
a very high number for 32-bit Windows 7).

The OP has subsequently said it's 64-bit W7 Ultimate.

Yousuf Khan

On 7/30/2011 3:36 PM, Ken Blake wrote:
On Sat, 30 Jul 2011 12:43:16 -0500, Roy Smith
wrote:

On 7/30/2011 8:43 AM, Twayne wrote:
In ,
Todd typed:
Hi Guys,

I just caught this over on a customer's Windows 7 Home
edition in Control Panel, System:

Installed memory (RAM) 8.00 GB (3.96 usable)

What is "usable" all about?

Many thanks,
-T

The 3.96 Gg simply indicates the amount of free RAM address space not
assgned to anything (thus it's unused). Windows tries to use ALL of RAM if
it can and in this case it doesn't have anything to put in the lat 3.96 Gig
of RAM.
Windows will give up the used RAM if it's not needed and the 3.96 isn't
enough, so it's really not a big deal. If that stll isn't enough RAM, it'll
start to use the paging file on disk.

Yeah, but did you notice how much ram was installed? The OP's pc had 8
GB, but yet only 3.96 is usable? I have 8 GB on my system and have 7.87
GB available for Windows to use. So where did he lose over 4 GB of ram?


If you have 7.87GB available, you are clearly running 64-bit Windows
7. The OP didn't say, but he may be running 32-bit (although 3.96GB is
a very high number for 32-bit Windows 7).

Yes I am running the 64-bit version of Windows 7. Though the thing is
if the OP had bought this PC and hasn't modified it in any way, then
would Dell sell it in it's current configuration with a 32-bit OS
knowing that it would require a 64-bit OS to use all the memory?


--

Roy Smith
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
Thunderbird 5.0
Sunday, July 31, 2011 2:25:27 PM

On Sun, 31 Jul 2011 14:25:29 -0500, Roy Smith
wrote:

If you have 7.87GB available, you are clearly running 64-bit Windows
7. The OP didn't say, but he may be running 32-bit (although 3.96GB is
a very high number for 32-bit Windows 7).

Yes I am running the 64-bit version of Windows 7. Though the thing is
if the OP had bought this PC and hasn't modified it in any way, then
would Dell sell it in it's current configuration with a 32-bit OS
knowing that it would require a 64-bit OS to use all the memory?


That's a good point, and you're probably right. Again, with 3.96GB
usable, 32-bit Windows didn't seem possible, but I mentioned it just
for him to be sure.

On 31/07/2011 4:46 PM, Ken Blake wrote:
On Sun, 31 Jul 2011 14:25:29 -0500, Roy
wrote:

If you have 7.87GB available, you are clearly running 64-bit Windows
7. The OP didn't say, but he may be running 32-bit (although 3.96GB is
a very high number for 32-bit Windows 7).

Yes I am running the 64-bit version of Windows 7. Though the thing is
if the OP had bought this PC and hasn't modified it in any way, then
would Dell sell it in it's current configuration with a 32-bit OS
knowing that it would require a 64-bit OS to use all the memory?


That's a good point, and you're probably right. Again, with 3.96GB
usable, 32-bit Windows didn't seem possible, but I mentioned it just
for him to be sure.

The 3.96GB sounds like what you should expect to see from a 64-bit OS
running with 4.00GB of RAM. I ran with 4GB for awhile on both 64-bit
Linux and Windows 7, and that's the amount I used to see. The 0.04GB was
probably just some reserved memory. So it looks like this system is only
really seeing 4GB of RAM for use.

Yousuf Khan

On 7/31/2011 13:56, Yousuf Khan wrote:
On 30/07/2011 4:36 PM, Ken Blake wrote:
If you have 7.87GB available, you are clearly running 64-bit Windows
7. The OP didn't say, but he may be running 32-bit (although 3.96GB is
a very high number for 32-bit Windows 7).

The OP has subsequently said it's 64-bit W7 Ultimate.

Yousuf Khan

Perhaps OP could look at this bit.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978610

Bob I wrote:


On 7/31/2011 13:56, Yousuf Khan wrote:
On 30/07/2011 4:36 PM, Ken Blake wrote:
If you have 7.87GB available, you are clearly running 64-bit Windows
7. The OP didn't say, but he may be running 32-bit (although 3.96GB is
a very high number for 32-bit Windows 7).

The OP has subsequently said it's 64-bit W7 Ultimate.

Yousuf Khan

Perhaps OP could look at this bit.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978610

Agreed, but the thing is, the "3.96GB" value is telling us
something. The "usual" limit, such as the 3.5GB value in that
KB article, is due to some allocation being set aside for
system busses. It's obvious, that 3.96GB makes no such allocation,
and there is a tiny reserved amount for something else.

If it was "memory license induced", we'd see 3.0GB, 3.5GB and
some other canonical values. 3.96GB is not one of those
values. And that's why I'd be looking at /maxmem instead.

Paul

On Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:26:24 -0700, Todd wrote:

Hi Guys,

I just caught this over on a customer's Windows 7 Home edition
in Control Panel, System:

Installed memory (RAM) 8.00 GB (3.96 usable)

What is "usable" all about?

Many thanks,
-T
1 good Stick of 4 GB less video sharing, and 1 BAD stick of 4 GB??

Goldmemory Test
http://www.goldmemory.cz/

Hiren's BootCD (Bootable, and has memory testers available)
http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

Microsoft WinDiag
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

MemTest
http://hcidesign.com/memtest/
www.memtest.org

Unk

On 07/30/2011 08:02 PM, Vic RR Garcia wrote:

You are not factoring in the effect of the down time on the customer.
(Which you did not know about because I did not mention it.) Not the
hill I want to die on.

Sorry, that does NOT compute; if the customer is affected by downtime,

I did say that. They would have a bad time with the downtime.

and he really need more than 3 GB of RAM,

I did *not* say that. They are using only about two GB at the worst.
The customer is working just fine.


he/she should never had gottena cheap computer.

I concur

You get what you pay for, do not come here whining about it.

Who was whining? The customer does not even know she has
a problem. She is working just fine.

Unless there is a MAXMEM statement, or a bad contact on the SIMMS,
obsolete BIOS, bad config, the MBO is bad, and need to be replaced.

If I wanted to be a purist, I'd have Dell replace the whole
stinkin' thing. But, the customers is not affected by the problem
so it is better to leave well enough alone. (Their way of
thinking is to just go to Wal Mart and buy another $400
abomination if this one fails. Problem solved.)

Vic, maybe you misread me. I was asking if anyone knew what was
going on. I was not really looking for a fix, although I did
very much appreciate those that were offered. And, I did get
an extraordinary answer that explained everything:

http://en.community.dell.com/support.../19328089.aspx

Thank you for your input,
-T

Todd wrote:
On 07/30/2011 08:02 PM, Vic RR Garcia wrote:

You are not factoring in the effect of the down time on the customer.
(Which you did not know about because I did not mention it.) Not the
hill I want to die on.

Sorry, that does NOT compute; if the customer is affected by downtime,

I did say that. They would have a bad time with the downtime.

and he really need more than 3 GB of RAM,

I did *not* say that. They are using only about two GB at the worst.
The customer is working just fine.


he/she should never had gottena cheap computer.

I concur

You get what you pay for, do not come here whining about it.

Who was whining? The customer does not even know she has
a problem. She is working just fine.

Unless there is a MAXMEM statement, or a bad contact on the SIMMS,
obsolete BIOS, bad config, the MBO is bad, and need to be replaced.

If I wanted to be a purist, I'd have Dell replace the whole
stinkin' thing. But, the customers is not affected by the problem
so it is better to leave well enough alone. (Their way of
thinking is to just go to Wal Mart and buy another $400
abomination if this one fails. Problem solved.)

Vic, maybe you misread me. I was asking if anyone knew what was
going on. I was not really looking for a fix, although I did
very much appreciate those that were offered. And, I did get
an extraordinary answer that explained everything:

http://en.community.dell.com/support.../19328089.aspx

Thank you for your input,
-T

Hmmm. So after looking at this for a while, it *seems* the
installed quantity shown here, is either coming from DMI
or from the SPD on each DIMM. This is an example of someone
else, with a DIMM not making contact.

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/6581/wtfn.png

The weirdest one, was a system with 6GB installed and 3GB
reported working, which suggests a channel wasn't making
contact (meaning, the CPU needed to be re-seated).

That's something to keep in mind I guess, that the installed
is just the sum total of the nominal capacity (SPD value), versus
something the BIOS has tested.

If you booted that Studio XPS 8100 then, it would probably
say "4GB" while the BIOS screen was showing. Then, in resmon
in Windows 7, it would show a huge "hardware reserved" and
"8GB" installed.

The end result is, it just makes resmon, that much less useful
for debugging. That "hardware reserved" can come from more
than one source.

Paul

In message , Todd writes:
[]
Vic, maybe you misread me. I was asking if anyone knew what was
going on. I was not really looking for a fix, although I did
very much appreciate those that were offered. And, I did get
an extraordinary answer that explained everything:

http://en.community.dell.com/support.../19328089.aspx

Thank you for your input,
-T

Hm. When I read that thread, I see Dell just replaced it with one that
reported 8G in all places - no actual explanation of why the earlier
system hadn't been doing so. (The thread then wanders off into
discussing McAfee.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Our sun is one of 100 billion stars in our galaxy. Our galaxy is one of the
billions of galaxies populating the universe. It would be the height of
presumption to think that we are the only living things within that enormous
immensity. -Wernher von Braun, rocket engineer (1912-1977)

In ,
Roy Smith typed:
On 7/30/2011 8:43 AM, Twayne wrote:
In ,
Todd typed:
Hi Guys,

I just caught this over on a customer's Windows 7 Home
edition in Control Panel, System:

Installed memory (RAM) 8.00 GB (3.96 usable)

What is "usable" all about?

Many thanks,
-T

The 3.96 Gg simply indicates the amount of free RAM
address space not assgned to anything (thus it's
unused). Windows tries to use ALL of RAM if it can and
in this case it doesn't have anything to put in the lat
3.96 Gig of RAM. Windows will give up the used RAM if
it's not needed and the 3.96 isn't enough, so it's
really not a big deal. If that stll isn't enough RAM,
it'll start to use the paging file on disk.

Yeah, but did you notice how much ram was installed? The
OP's pc had 8 GB, but yet only 3.96 is usable? I have 8
GB on my system and have 7.87 GB available for Windows to
use. So where did he lose over 4 GB of ram?

Yes, I did notice, but without knowing a lot more things it'd turn into a
circle-hop to see if it was credible information or not - many things could
account for all that RAM being used, including but not limited to VMs and
other things that might be hooked in.
I have an 8 Gig laptop win 7 laptop next to me here, just cold booted,
and it shows in the order of 3.16 Gig free with 3841 Gig available, 980
cached. Commiit is at 2 Gig, 29905 handles, 1205 threads, 101 processes, all
but 2 of 8 (i 7 processors) working, idling at about 10%. Those are each
pretty well level-loaded also. Of those, there will be firewall, AV, VPro,
networking and several other tasks in the background. Right now it's showing
me as the only user signed on, all else is idle except normal background
tasking and scanning.

Actually I'd say your numbers are a bit low unless you only use the machinie
for surfing and mail and haven't much else running. Like I said, windows
tries to utilize as much memory as possible, in order to give the appearance
of being faster than it is. My prefetch is probably larger than the average
bear too because I have some heavy number-crunching apps.

In addition, different RAM analyzers can come up with vastly different
results, too as they get more and more detailed with win 7. In particular,
they need to know about win 7.

HTH,

Twayne`