Clockwork

I have a problem with ram. i have a HP laptop with 960mb ram. about a week ago, when i booted up, I had 600mb of ram available. By the way, this is not virtual ram. Now when i boot up, i only have about 450mb free. i checked task manager, and added up the numbers, and i should have at least 600mb free, if not more. The numbers say that I should have about 700mb or more, but I've always had less. I want my ram back, please help. if anyone has solved this problem, or there is a post that solves this problem, or someone might know how to fix it, Please help.

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Win·dows: Noun.
A thirty-two bit extension and graphical shell to a sixteen-bit patch to an eight-bit operating system originally coded for a four-bit microprocessor which was written by a two-bit company that can't stand one bit of competition. -LW

OldGrayGary

Hi Clockwork

Are you getting your memory numbers from the Performance tab in Task Manager? The Total in Physical Memory should not change = that is the actual physical capacity of your memory modules [the fact that you mention 960mb tells me that you probably have 1gb of memory, with the rest shared for your onboard video].

The "Commit Charge" should give you an idea of how much memory is in use by your programs and background processes. This will change a great deal, depending on what programs you are running, and on what background services are currently busy.

If you want to check in on all those background processes:
Autoruns - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sys.../Autoruns.mspx
Process Explorer - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sys...sExplorer.mspx

Or identify them -
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Taskl...s/tasklist.htm
http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php

Malware and Rootkits use up resources, too, so scan for those. A good free rootkit scanner is Rootkit Revealer (follow the instructions exactly to avoid false positives) - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sys...tRevealer.mspx

Best of luck
. . . Gary

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foxxy_loxx

Hi Clockwork,
In reference to OldGrayGary's comment on Physical Memory... you can check that yourself the next time you turn your computer on.

During the beginning of the boot process (as soon as you turn on your laptop)
1: Begin tapping the DEL key (some PC's use ESC, F1 or F2) to enter the BIOS Setup Menu.
2: Use the navigational arrows to select Advanced Features press Enter.
3: Select the Quick Power on Self Test/Quick Boot. and press Enter.
4: Disable the option to quick boot.
5: Use the Esc button to Exit Bios. Save your Settings.

This will allow your Laptop to do a Memory Count and will tell you exactly how much RAM you have installed to run programs and processes with. Systems with alot of RAM, enable quick boot to skip this test during boot for time reasons.

You can enable the option again later, but remember your RAM won't be included in the POST when you boot up, you might miss out on related error messages

Clockwork

From what i can tell, i don't have any malware or spyware or viruses running on my computer. your guess with the 960mb is right. i have 1 gb but the rest is used by shared video. And I don't see the quick boot feature in my bios. I have a pheonix bios, and I looked in every category (there was no advanced features). i was surprised that thier wasn't a quick boot option, but maybe its just the pheonix bios. also, i wasn't using task manager to find my free ram. i was using several independant programs that all agreed with each other. Can anybody give me exact steps to see very precisely how much memory is being used and how much is free? i think it would help

__________________
Win·dows: Noun.
A thirty-two bit extension and graphical shell to a sixteen-bit patch to an eight-bit operating system originally coded for a four-bit microprocessor which was written by a two-bit company that can't stand one bit of competition. -LW

nickster_uk

Is the GB of RAM made up of 1 stick or 2 sticks?

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My system:
ASUS P5K-E WiFi | Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz (OC 3.60GHz) | 2GB Corsair DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 RAM (4-4-4-12) | PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro Xtreme 512MB GDDR3 GPU | 1xMaxtor DiamondMax 22 500GB & 4xMaxtor DiamondMax 21 250GB SATA HDDs | Zalman CNPS9500 Heatsink + 6 LED Case Fans | Corsair HX620W Modular PSU | Enermax Black Knight (CS-527) Case | Pioneer DVR-216 SATA 20x20 DVD±RW

In a world without walls or fences - who needs Windows and Gates?

Clockwork

2 512 sticks

__________________
Win·dows: Noun.
A thirty-two bit extension and graphical shell to a sixteen-bit patch to an eight-bit operating system originally coded for a four-bit microprocessor which was written by a two-bit company that can't stand one bit of competition. -LW

nickster_uk

Could it be possible that one stick has becmoe defective in some way?

It may be an idea to run memtest86 on both modules to find out. Run memtest86 for at least 3 passes on each stick just to make sure but it will take a couple of hours.

__________________
My system:
ASUS P5K-E WiFi | Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz (OC 3.60GHz) | 2GB Corsair DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 RAM (4-4-4-12) | PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro Xtreme 512MB GDDR3 GPU | 1xMaxtor DiamondMax 22 500GB & 4xMaxtor DiamondMax 21 250GB SATA HDDs | Zalman CNPS9500 Heatsink + 6 LED Case Fans | Corsair HX620W Modular PSU | Enermax Black Knight (CS-527) Case | Pioneer DVR-216 SATA 20x20 DVD±RW

In a world without walls or fences - who needs Windows and Gates?

OldGrayGary

Hi again all -

Clockwork - I'm still not certain what numbers you are working with. What programs did you use to report the memory usage?

If you want to check the numbers in Task Manager, there's a good tutorial for that over at Tech Republic --- http://articles.techrepublic.com.com...1-5071997.html

See if the memory adds up OK in Task Manager. [By the way, MS/SysInternal's "Process Explorer" also reports memory usage, with a tad bit more detail - a link to that program is in my first reply]

Something often overlooked when adding up memory that is in use is that taken up by the operating system kernel & device drivers -- these are not listed in your process list, but are loaded into memory none-the-less.

Programs have been known to have "memory leaks" --but the cleanup of such is greatly improved in 2000/XP systems (especially as compared with the 9x systems).
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Should you still find that memory seems strangely unaccounted for - in addition to running the diagnostics (to check if the physical modules themselves test OK), also scan for malware, especially rootkits - these hide from the Windows APIs and likely wouldn't show up in Task Manager statistics. The top free rootkit detection programs are Rootkit Revealer, from Microsoft/SysInternals --- http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sys...tRevealer.mspx --- and BlackLight, from F-Secure --- http://www.f-secure.com/blacklight/try_blacklight.html --- for these tools, follow the directions carefully to avoid false positives.

Should you find you are facing a serious infection, try the 5-Step Security Checklist over in the Security forums --- http://www.techsupportforum.com/secu...kthis-log.html


Best of luck
. . . Gary

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Clockwork

That article explains many things. I think that gives me the answer I was looking for. thank you.

__________________
Win·dows: Noun.
A thirty-two bit extension and graphical shell to a sixteen-bit patch to an eight-bit operating system originally coded for a four-bit microprocessor which was written by a two-bit company that can't stand one bit of competition. -LW

Clockwork

Just tying up loose ends. All of my problems are solved as of 7/7/08.