I just recently added a 2GB 1066MHz DDR3 PC8500 memory to my laptop
which now has a total physical memory of 4GB. Checked if the Vista
recognized the added RAM and the System info shows 4GB. Likewise, the
Memory diagnostic tool reported "No errors found" in the 2 x 2GB memory
modules. However, the task manager reports total physical memory is only
2516 MB and cache is reported at 1173 MB. Can somebody in the forum
enlighten user of what's going on? Does this indicate that only 2.5GB is
"used" by Vista? Where is the 1.5GB RAM?


--
benson.gs

benson.gs wrote:
I just recently added a 2GB 1066MHz DDR3 PC8500 memory to my laptop
which now has a total physical memory of 4GB. Checked if the Vista
recognized the added RAM and the System info shows 4GB. Likewise, the
Memory diagnostic tool reported "No errors found" in the 2 x 2GB memory
modules. However, the task manager reports total physical memory is only
2516 MB and cache is reported at 1173 MB. Can somebody in the forum
enlighten user of what's going on? Does this indicate that only 2.5GB is
"used" by Vista? Where is the 1.5GB RAM?





A 32 bit operating system normally can use approximately 3 gigs of
RAM...it's usually about 3.25 gigs or so

To use more RAM you'd need a 64bit operating system

or PAE

What SP version of Vista are you running?
Are the two memory dims a matched pair? Vista only like to run in memory all
of which is running at the same speed.
Do the specs for your laptop say it will support 4GB, some laptops such as
mine will not due to the amount of heat that would be generated.
Vista does reserve memory and memory address space required for all graphic
operations and on may not show that memory as available for general use by
the OS.

"benson.gs" wrote in message
...

I just recently added a 2GB 1066MHz DDR3 PC8500 memory to my laptop
which now has a total physical memory of 4GB. Checked if the Vista
recognized the added RAM and the System info shows 4GB. Likewise, the
Memory diagnostic tool reported "No errors found" in the 2 x 2GB memory
modules. However, the task manager reports total physical memory is only
2516 MB and cache is reported at 1173 MB. Can somebody in the forum
enlighten user of what's going on? Does this indicate that only 2.5GB is
"used" by Vista? Where is the 1.5GB RAM?


--
benson.gs

"benson.gs" wrote in message
...

I just recently added a 2GB 1066MHz DDR3 PC8500 memory to my laptop
which now has a total physical memory of 4GB. Checked if the Vista
recognized the added RAM and the System info shows 4GB. Likewise, the
Memory diagnostic tool reported "No errors found" in the 2 x 2GB memory
modules. However, the task manager reports total physical memory is only
2516 MB and cache is reported at 1173 MB. Can somebody in the forum
enlighten user of what's going on? Does this indicate that only 2.5GB is
"used" by Vista? Where is the 1.5GB RAM?


--
benson.gs

Upper 768MB (0.75GB) of memory is reserved for add on peripherals. That's
leaves 3.25GB for program and OS use.

It's hard to tell where the rest of the memory went without the make/model
of your laptop.

Your laptop maybe using a video chip that uses main memory as video memory
and has carved itself some 800MB chunk of memory from your pool of 3.25GB.
You might be able to reduce that in the BIOS, but without knowing what the
make and model is I couldn't give you a definite answer.