Effective RAM size not recognized

[wolfen69]

From the BIOS:
System Memory: 632 kB
Extended Memory: 4029 MB
Video Memory: 64 MB

Just because the BIOS gives the right info, does not mean there are no errors with the memory. (an example would be a bad hard drive, the BIOS sees it, but it does not work right) I still think you should rum MemTest.

[N00b-un-2]

sounds like the RAM is either incompatible or you got a bad stick.

[manolomanolo]

sounds like the RAM is either incompatible or you got a bad stick.

Bad stick. Is it still possible taking into account that each stick is well recognized when installed alone, as I said here?

[MoreOrLess]

It's probably not a bad stick. Look in the BIOS for settings related to memory (like remapping).

[manolomanolo]

The current ACER BIOS does not allow so much settings changing. Actually, I think it just allows changing the boot device priority and not much more.
For example, no way to declare how much memory to reserve to video card.

Moreover, I've been experiencing the same problem on another laptop, same model (ACER ASPIRE 5730z). Both Windows 7 (32bit) and Kubuntu 11.10 (64bit) tell me that just 3GB of memory are availeble.
Actually, Windows 7 sais that 4GB are installed, but just 3 are usable.

So, in the end, I will surely exclude it is a Linux issue, since the problem persists on 2 laptops (same model!) with different OS and different RAM stick.

What could it be?
Thanks.

[trundlenut]

My laptop has 4gb of ram, windows 7 (32 bit) reports 4gb present but only 3gb available. Ubuntu 11.10 (64 bit) can access the 4gb without issue though, all minus what the graphics are using though.

Does the graphics card in the latop use the ram too, if so how much?

[manolomanolo]

My laptop has 4gb of ram, windows 7 (32 bit) reports 4gb present but only 3gb available. Ubuntu 11.10 (64 bit) can access the 4gb without issue though, all minus what the graphics are using though.

Does the graphics card in the latop use the ram too, if so how much?

I don't understand if you are asking the same question I'm going to ask now.
ACER tech support says that the video card is authomatically absorbing the resting 1GB of RAM, even if I cannot manually set the quantity of RAM I would wish to assign to the video card.

Now, the question is: how to see how much RAM is currently assigned to the video card when the OS is running?

[trundlenut]

I don't understand if you are asking the same question I'm going to ask now.
ACER tech support says that the video card is authomatically absorbing the resting 1GB of RAM, even if I cannot manually set the quantity of RAM I would wish to assign to the video card.

Now, the question is: how to see how much RAM is currently assigned to the video card when the OS is running?

Yes, that is basically the same question.

I would suspect you can't see how much RAM tis used by the graphics easily as this is controlled by the BIOS. You may be able to find out though through the graphics card.

[manolomanolo]

Just because the BIOS gives the right info, does not mean there are no errors with the memory. (an example would be a bad hard drive, the BIOS sees it, but it does not work right) I still think you should rum MemTest.

I haven't still run MemTest but I would exclude the possibility that the sticks are damaged.
In fact, the same problem persist on another laptop (same model) with Windows 7 installed: 4GB are installed, but just about 3GB are available.
However, unlike in Gnu/Linux, I can do explain why it happens in Windows 7: the graphic card result to use minimum 64MB and maximum about 1300MB of the system RAM. So, in a way, I can say that the missing GB is reserved to the video card, even if not currently completely used.

On the other hand, I cannot tel for sure my k/ubuntu installation is doing the same. In fact, as shown here, just 256MB seem to be used by the video card. Actually I cannot even distinguish whether those are 256MB of memory installed on the video card or it is 256MB of shared RAM. However, more that 700MB would be missing.

So, the question is: how is Linux treating the "missing" RAM?

[manolomanolo]

Yes, that is basically the same question.

I would suspect you can't see how much RAM tis used by the graphics easily as this is controlled by the BIOS. You may be able to find out though through the graphics card.

trundlenut, i think the previous post answers to you too.
In other words, do you know alternative ways to discover how much RAM is reserved for the video card?