Hardware New computer help did I screw up?

jDSX

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I bought a newish laptop recently it came with stock windows 8 and UEFI bios I downgraded it to windows 7 and booting it in legacy mode.

The problem is that all it's RAM it has which is 4gb is showing up but only using 1.60gb and the rest according to the resource manager, is reserved for system hardware some 2435gb of it and I know that is not normal.

I like to know how to fix this in getting my ram back? I tried resetting ram sticks but it still only uses that 1.60gb out of 4gb of ram. nothing else is hogging the computer the IGPU only uses 512mb of vram.

There is a hidden 1000mb partiton on the hdd system reserved and I checked it's not recovery backup. What is it I have no clue :blink:

Any help would be great.
 
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ody81

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You're fine man, as far as I can work out from deciphering your post anyway.
You aren't gonna use 4gb of RAM through Windows alone, Windows has it's basic footprint and the rest of your RAM goes into 'standby' until it's needed. It's fine.

As for your recovery partition, you may as well nuke it and add the partition to an existing partition, especially since you've installed your own Win 7, you can do without it.
 
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jDSX

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You're fine man, as far as I can work out from deciphering your post anyway.
You aren't gonna use 4gb of RAM through Windows alone, Windows has it's basic footprint and the rest of your RAM goes into 'standby' until it's needed. It's fine.
.

But it's not in standby, I even checked if it was only using that much ram in msconfig, and the box under memory is unchecked. No clue why I am only using 1.60gb out of 4gb is it because I am legacy booting windows 7?

edit: I should have a 3.65gb ram usable according to HP support.
 
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obcd

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Did you install a 32bit or 64bit version of windows 7? 32 bit versions are limited to 4 gig of memory adressing, and usually a 1 gig window is used to interface some hardware only leaving 3 gig of ram memory. Maybe, in your case, the window used to interface hardware is bigger?
 

jDSX

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Did you install a 32bit or 64bit version of windows 7? 32 bit versions are limited to 4 gig of memory adressing, and usually a 1 gig window is used to interface some hardware only leaving 3 gig of ram memory. Maybe, in your case, the window used to interface hardware is bigger?

It's x64 based win7 I don't install x86 anymore.
 

obcd

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In that case, you can forget previous. Have you checked other peoples experience on the net with that model of laptop and windows 7? Does the manufacturer still provides all windows 7 drivers for that model indicating they still support windows 7 on it? The reason I ask is because we had some gigabyte mobo's that frequently froze on windows 7. After an update to w10, the problem seemed to be gone.
 
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jDSX

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In that case, you can forget previous. Have you checked other peoples experience on the net with that model of laptop and windows 7? Does the manufacturer still provides all windows 7 drivers for that model indicating they still support windows 7 on it? The reason I ask is because we had some gigabyte mobo's that frequently froze on windows 7. After an update to w10, the problem seemed to be gone.

1.Yes and they only left in the stock 2gb of ram it came with and windows 8 and dual booted with 7, no problems like I am having with RAM. DO note that the laptop can have a max of 8gb of ram so that isn't the case of only supporting a limited amount of ram.
2.Yes they do everything is updated.

Also want to mention that my ram sticks are both working after a memtest.
 

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So, some cards of RAM completely suck. Basically, not all RAM cards will give you the RAM you want. I have Windows 8 and I have an 8 Gig RAM card, yet only 7.78 of it is usable for me. Does it make sense? Not really. My guess is that you may need to get a new RAM card. Downgrading your OS shouldn't get rid of your RAM. But don't take my word quite yet. Wait for other responses.

Best of luck
 

ody81

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But it's not in standby, I even checked if it was only using that much ram in msconfig, and the box under memory is unchecked. No clue why I am only using 1.60gb out of 4gb is it because I am legacy booting windows 7?

edit: I should have a 3.65gb ram usable according to HP support.
Msconfig for RAM? Huh?

I'm convinced you don't have a problem and you're confused about something. If Windows sees 4gb it will use it when it needs it, resource monitor or anything else won't tell you it's using 100% of your RAM if it doesn't need it at the time.

If you could make your post a little clearer...
 

ody81

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To see if it was using the whole 4gb on boot or if it's checked only a certain amount, you didn't know about that?

That's an odd thing to do. What is the actual problem though?
It reads like this, I have 4gb of RAM and Windows sees 4gb of RAM, but it's not using the whole 4gb when the computer's not under load.
Is that it?

I suppose just in case, you might wanna get into your bios and manual select 512Mb of shared RAM for your gpu, as opposed to 'Auto'. Just in case I guess, but there's no way 2 and a half gig of RAM would be allocated to a gpu not under load.
 
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jDSX

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That's an odd thing to do. What is the actual problem though?
It reads like this, I have 4gb of RAM and Windows sees 4gb of RAM, but it's not using the whole 4gb when the computer's not under load.
Is that it?

The problem is I have 2x2gb sticks of ram in my computer, and while it shows 4gb installed, only 1.60gb is usable so let me try a 8gb stick of ram, I put in a 1x8 just now and it's showing up 8gb of ram installed but still only 1.60 usable.

the resource manager is showing that all my other memory is being eating up by the system reserved (what the hell is doing this?) it's not normal. Also using a 64 bit version of windows 7 I know the ram limits of 32 bit can only read a 4 and not the rest.

Here is the computer http://www.amazon.com/HP-2000-2b19wm-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Winter/dp/B00BJ8C02I
 
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ody81

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The problem is I have 2x2gb sticks of ram in my computer, and while it shows 4gb installed, only 1.60gb is usable so let me try a 8gb stick of ram, I put in a 1x8 just now and it's showing up 8gb of ram installed but still only 1.60 usable.

the resource manager is showing that all my other memory is being eating up by the system reserved (what the hell is doing this?) it's not normal. Also using a 64 bit version of windows 7 I know the ram limits of 32 bit can only read a 4 and not the rest.

Here is the computer http://www.amazon.com/HP-2000-2b19wm-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Winter/dp/B00BJ8C02I

Run a benchmark, 3dmark or anything and see if it craps out. You could try memtest, but that's a bit more involved.

Edit: scratch that, I gotta go to bed. But...
If your 2gig stick is fine (the original) check the chips clock speed and brand and compare it to the ones you're trying to use. It's also possible that the sticks are just plain incompatible with the mainboard, it <can> happen,
I looked for the models manual to get a compatibility list but couldn't find the manual (within 5 seconds, I'm sleepy).

It stands to reason that it's unlikely the chips aren't faulty so it's either some mismatch fuckup with clock/CLK/whatever or the mainboard itself not playing ball.
 
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Xanthe

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Yeah man, no computer uses all of the RAM you have. I don't think you have a problem. Every one who owns a Windows computer has the menu that says that only some out of the total amount is usable. If you're not pleased with the amount of RAM you have, just buy a new RAM card. It only costs a couple dollars.
 

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Windows 7 x64 uses about 1.3gb ram by its self. the rest goes into system reserve and is used as needed. Some of the ram may be allocated by the GPU. Even if the gpu as its own ram, windows 7 can still reserve ram for it.
Can you give me a screen shot of resource monitor? Id like to see the ram distribution

This is what mine looks like for the Netbook im on. Yeah windows 7 ult 64bit on a netbook FTW

Ram.jpg
 
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Captain_N

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well thats interesting, most of your ram is being reserved making it inaccessible to the OS. perhaps its the GPU. look in the bios/uefi and see if ram is being reserved used as video ram. typically its about 512mb NOT 1.5 gb. There should not be anything reserving that much ram unless its the gpu.

There is definitely a problem. Its not a problem i have ever ran across
Its got to be a bios setting making that ram unusable or your laptop does not like the ram

do you happen do have any other ram sticks to try?
 
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cots

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It's normal for Windows to reserve the RAM. I wouldn't worry about it. I have 32GB of RAM and 27 GB is being reserved. When the system needs more it will use it. The widget "All CPU Meter" will show you how much RAM is in use ignoring the reserved so it paints a better picture of what's going on. Like I said, don't worry about it as there is nothing wrong.
 

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