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So, I bought 8GB of RAM for my HP Laptop, I installed both cards, when I boot up, it shows 8GB installed, but only 3.92 Usable. I'm running Windows 8.1 32-Bit, even when looking in task manager I see 640MB in use, 2.8 GB Available. On the right side I do see 4.5 GB for Hardware reserved, I'm not 100 familiar with 8.1 being as I primarily use my desktop with Win7, I just thought I might get it ready for Win10 for next month, ANYWAY, is this correct? I don't think/feel it is but i would like some help on figuring this issue out since google didn't help much.

I have tried:

  • Swapping places of the sticks.
  • Changing it in msconfig(When I do, I check the box that says Maximum memory, which then defaults to 8192, apply it, and check the box that says "Make all boot settings permanent", but then the box then comes unchecked and the Maximum memory gets changed to 0)
  • Running a memory test in my BIOS, is passes.
  • Looked in my BIOS for other possible configs to change but I can't see any to change that have anything to do with my memory.
Jon
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Exmix
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    32bit systems can only use 4GB of ram. PAE can extend this. This question would have been asked before. – mic84 Jun 16 '15 at 05:01
  • 32 bit is the issue, you will need to upgrade windows to 64bit. Reason 2^32 = 4,294,967,296 which is the maximum amount of memory (in bytes) that can be addressed. That big number is 4 gig as pointed out by @steven in correct answer. – Tyson Jun 16 '15 at 05:02

1 Answers1

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All versions of 32-bit Windows have a 4GB limit for memory.

Steven
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  • So basically I need to get a 64-Bit OS and it should be ok, right? Now I feel silly, this is something minor that I never actually knew about... – Exmix Jun 16 '15 at 05:02
  • Exactly. Do you have a specific need for 32-bit Windows 8? – Steven Jun 16 '15 at 05:07
  • Nope, I tossed ito n here when it first came out to play around with it. I have Win8 64bit here so i'm gonna go ahead and re-format(I have nothing on the laptop worth saving) and just start fresh with WIn8 64-Bit. – Exmix Jun 16 '15 at 05:09