Installed memory 4GB (2GB usable)

[sbohdan]

I hope someone can help me in this. I have a little Acer Aspire One 722, that came with a 320GB HDD and wanted to swap the HDD for a 64GB Crucial C-300 SSD, that was laying around. I have installed the windows 7 Starter 32bit on the SSD (the 320GB HDD had win 7 Premium 64bit on it). now all seems fine, accept that windows shows 4GB installed RAM but only 2GB usable:



I know all about 32bit windows not showing the whole 4GB but it should be more like 3.5-3.7GB and not just 2GB!
Now, I've searched on the internet and found all kinds of solutions but non helped.
1. they suggested to go into msconfig and under memory tab uncheck both CPU and max. memory but I had both unchecked.
2. I know that the RAM is not faulty because when I swap back the old 320GB HDD, windows shows 3.74GB usable out of the 4GB, so RAM and MOBO (some suggested a faulty MOBO) seems not to be an issue. I also have the latest BIOS firmware, so that is not the problem eighter. some suggested, the APU's integrated video card is doing this but it is not so with the HDD, although as you can see, GPU-Z shows a weird number of video RAM. I would really appreciate help on this because I'm clueless after reading up on this the whole last night

[Apoptosis]

If you go into the BIOS what does it show for the GPU?

Just for fun adjust it and see what happens to the available memory

On a desktop PC I had the same issue... IT was back with the Hyper ICs and when they would die, you'd know it because the system would detect it, but it wasn't useable. Don't rule a bad module or side of a DIMM out just yet.

[sbohdan]

If you go into the BIOS what does it show for the GPU?

Just for fun adjust it and see what happens to the available memory

On a desktop PC I had the same issue... IT was back with the Hyper ICs and when they would die, you'd know it because the system would detect it, but it wasn't useable. Don't rule a bad module or side of a DIMM out just yet.

Acer's BIOS is VERY basic. nothing is realy adjustable. It shows 4096MB total memory and 256MB video memory as it should and non can be adjusted in any way (grayed out). You see, the only hardware change I did was the HDD to SSD and all else was kept the same (except a new install of windows). Also when I swap the HDD back the problem is gone. Could the SSD be damaged? It worked in my maine rig for 3 years with no problems and I only took it out because I got an OCZ Vertex 128GB instead. The Crucial was laying around for couple of months and haven't been used in the meantime.

*edit: I just had an idea, to put back the Kingston 2GB Ram, that was originally in the netbook (I kept it as a spare). Now it shows 2GB (1.73GB usable). Now that much difference is acceptable with the APU, where integrated graphics uses system memory (I suppose) but 2GB out of 4GB seems way too much. BTW, with the other RAM, the resource monitor says "Hardware reserved 2048MB" - with the 2GB Kingston it shows "hardware reserved 278MB". Hope that helps?

*Edit2: With the 1.73GB usable RAM (Original Kingston 2GB RAM), the netbook seems to work better, than with 2GB usable (the 4GB Crucial RAM + win7 32bit) or the 3.74GB usable RAM (4GB Crucial RAM + win64bit) with eighter the HDD or SSD, so it seems you are right: looks to be the only common thing, which is the Crucial 4GB RAM! There is no lag now (with the Crucial RAM there was random slowing and lag but I thought it was due to the weak CPU). I guess if I get another stick of 4GB RAM, it will work even better. What do you think?

[Major_A]

Out of curiosity have you looked for an updated BIOS for the Acer?

[sbohdan]

Out of curiosity have you looked for an updated BIOS for the Acer?

As I wrote in the original post, I have the latest BIOS on the netbook. I'm also wandering if it's not just a compatibility issue of the 4GB Crucial RAM I have bought from Amazon to upgrade the 2GB Kingston that came with the notebook?

[Major_A]

It could be I know some computers (mostly laptops and OEM builds (Dell, HP, etc...) are sometimes picky about what RAM you run. Have you tried to email Acer or Crucial (probably better luck with them) about the issue?

[sbohdan]

It could be I know some computers (mostly laptops and OEM builds (Dell, HP, etc...) are sometimes picky about what RAM you run. Have you tried to email Acer or Crucial (probably better luck with them) about the issue?

I couldn't find any info about RAM compatibility on this model. Acer's web site totally sucks. There is no info about this eighter. I just had an idea: is it possible, that Windows 7 Starter edition can only utilize max. 2GB of RAM?! This version of windows is very much stripped down, to enable slower (or older) machines to be able to use win7 and maybe it has a cap on max. amount of RAM? Anybody?

[Major_A]

Looks like you nailed it.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... _windows_7

[sbohdan]

Looks like you nailed it.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... _windows_7

Thanks a lot mayor. The funny thing is, when I searched the web for this, I found info saying that the Cap is 4GB (not on microsoft's site) - I guess they were wrong and Microsoft knows what there own software is set to. You just saved me more trubleshooting and made my day - I spent the last 3 days trying to figure this out
Thanks a lot. I guess, I will just install Home premium 64bit and strip it down as much as I can, so this little notebook still runs fast enough

[INeedAFnSuffix]

Ran into this issue a while ago but it was slightly different than yours, in fact it was a massive BUMMER
I had a ASUS EEE netbook and i decided to upgrade the 1GB DDR3 RAM (which actually in fact is DDR2 but in DDR3 socket!, BUMMAH!!!) because that was becoming a huge bottleneck in overall performance (RAM running at 80% marks won't perform well AT ALL)
So i headed out and bought a 4GB 1333MHz (It doesn't matter as Intel still uses FSB on the atom then at least) and it wouldn't POST! Wow that was annoying
Then i called up ASUS help center and they told me it's not that it doesn't support 4GB but rather the communication interface is DDR2 not DDR3 but it's on a DDR3 as they wanted future compability when prices shoot up but the northbridge is DDR2 anyway so they failed there
What's the point?! So i had to find exactly that. A 2GB DDR2 module in DDR3 pinouts, same price as DDR2 so their massive oversight is indeed massive
That's totally not the ASUS i knew before and the netbook went very wild, like every 3 weeks the DC-DC converter for the battery kept dying and somehow negatively affects it too
First repair was okay but of course 3 weeks and same problem, second repair it came back with a hard-on fan ... suspicious 3 weeks converter dead again, finally after the 3rd repair nothing happened so far and usage was low in the first place anyway

[sbohdan]

Just an update: I have installed Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit on the netbook and lo and behold: almost 4Gb RAM appears usable (some is being used by the integrated VGA)! Funny thing is, I ran WEI and it gave me a bit higher scores - I guess it is able to use the advantages of the 64 bit capable CPU. Case solved. I came to a conclusion that Windows 7 Starter 32bit is only beneficial to old systems, that do not have 64bit capability and have a 2GB RAM limit anyway and on early netbooks that came with very weak 1st. gen. Atom CPU's and a RAM cap of 1-2GB. All newer netbooks and full sized notebooks or desktops seem to benefit from 64bit windows, even if they have less than 4GB RAM.

[Major_A]

I have the starter version on my Eee PC but it's the 2nd generation so there wouldn't have been an advantage to go with a better version of Windows. Glad you got it ironed out and thanks for the update.