how to stop windows 7 stealing 2gb of ram for hardware

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ive just re installed a fresh version of win7 64bit on a new hard drive, as i want to upgrade to 8gb of ram from 4gb.

problem is my 4gb have now turned to 2gb as windows is reserving 2gb for hardware. how do i stop this or is it a bug?

ive check msconfig and there is no ram limit.
i cant find a bios cache in the bios.
and the ram chips are in the correct slots.


my mother board is msi p55-gd65 with 1.1A0 version


has anyone else had this problem?
 
On some motherboards you have to tell the BIOS to use extended addressing. The specific setting you will need to research. On some mobos it is called PAE, I believe.
 
It's not a Windows bug as such, but it could be a number of things.

If your BIOS reads the correct amount of ram then:

1) Make sure memory mapping (sometimes called memory remap) is enabled in your BIOS

2) Make sure you're not running any hardware based virtualization software

3) Make sure you have not specified a specific number of CPU's or memory in msconfig

If you BIOS only reads 2gb then there really is something wrong:

1) Switch the ram sticks around and make sure they are seated properly

2) Ensure your RAM voltage is not more than 1.65v

3) Test each stick individually

4) Test RAM in another PC

5) Make sure your CPU is seated properly
 
It's probably fixed on if there is no option for it.

Run through the other things in my list and see how you get on, cant really think of much else.
 
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