1.8GB RAM 'Hardware Reserved'

[OS X Dude]

Hi all

Out of a possible 4GB RAM, only 2.16GB is usable under Windows 7 64-bit, according to System Properties. After looking into it, none of my background services are chomping excess RAM; it turns out nearly 2GB is allocated to 'hardware reservation'.

I can't re-map the memory from the BIOS as Macs don't use it... Is there a Run command I can use?

Running Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium under Boot Camp on a 2011 15" MacBook Pro. All latest updates installed.


Thanks

----------

Fixed it!

Was caused by having a limit to the RAM available during boot-up. Removing the limit solved it

 

[Chase R]

Hi all

Out of a possible 4GB RAM, only 2.16GB is usable under Windows 7 64-bit, according to System Properties. After looking into it, none of my background services are chomping excess RAM; it turns out nearly 2GB is allocated to 'hardware reservation'.

I can't re-map the memory from the BIOS as Macs don't use it... Is there a Run command I can use?

Running Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium under Boot Camp on a 2011 15" MacBook Pro. All latest updates installed.


Thanks

----------

Fixed it!

Was caused by having a limit to the RAM available during boot-up. Removing the limit solved it

How did you remove the limit? How much is allocated to reserve hardware now?

 

[OS X Dude]

How did you remove the limit? How much is allocated to reserve hardware now?

Start>msconfig in the search box>Go to the Boot tab>Untick 'maximum memory' box

Also whilst there, you can specify a higher number of processor cores to be used for boot-up (as only one is used by default, even on my i7 Mac).

Around 90MB of RAM is hardware reserved now, but Windows can see and address the full 4GB now so it doesn't matter

 

[Chase R]

Start>msconfig in the search box>Go to the Boot tab>Untick 'maximum memory' box

Also whilst there, you can specify a higher number of processor cores to be used for boot-up (as only one is used by default, even on my i7 Mac).

Around 90MB of RAM is hardware reserved now, but Windows can see and address the full 4GB now so it doesn't matter

Thanks! Boots up faster with two

Also, just finished setting up VirtualBox. It is now booting off of my Boot Camp partition and it recognizes all 3GB I gave it (0MB hardware reserved!)

Full-screen VirtualBox plus Lion's 4-finger swiping of spaces is awesome. Two computers at once!

 

[IvanOhio]

Hi all

Out of a possible 4GB RAM, only 2.16GB is usable under Windows 7 64-bit, according to System Properties. After looking into it, none of my background services are chomping excess RAM; it turns out nearly 2GB is allocated to 'hardware reservation'.

I can't re-map the memory from the BIOS as Macs don't use it... Is there a Run command I can use?

Running Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium under Boot Camp on a 2011 15" MacBook Pro. All latest updates installed.


Thanks


----------

Fixed it!

Was caused by having a limit to the RAM available during boot-up. Removing the limit solved it

FYI, Windows 7 64bit has a Virtual Address Space of 8 Terabytes. 4 TB is for system use and 4 TB for Per User Process (aka programs). Your system will use about 1 to 2 GB of physical RAM. The rest is free and in standby for just in case.

Misconception is that the OS will use all of your physical RAM which is false. Like I mentioned earlier Windows uses a thing called Virtual Address Space which allows the programs to work. Also it uses a thing called WOW32 that allows 32 bit programs to work in a 64bit OS.

Oh, do not use msconfig. You can do more harm than good with that. Windows 7 is designed to use memory a lot better than previous versions.

If you have a newer Intel processor, i7 Quad Core, It will see 4 physical cores plus 4 logical cores. This caused by the hyper threading feature.

 

[hanyyahia]

hi every one ...

Hi all

Out of a possible 4GB RAM, only 2.16GB is usable under Windows 7 64-bit, according to System Properties. After looking into it, none of my background services are chomping excess RAM; it turns out nearly 2GB is allocated to 'hardware reservation'.

I can't re-map the memory from the BIOS as Macs don't use it... Is there a Run command I can use?

Running Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium under Boot Camp on a 2011 15" MacBook Pro. All latest updates installed.


Thanks

----------

Fixed it!

Was caused by having a limit to the RAM available during boot-up. Removing the limit solved it

i have a problem with my macbook air after i installed windows 7 32bit using boot camp my usable ram is 2.16 gb out of 4gb , my vag carde became 64mb out of 380mb

 

[azribohari]

i tried but the hardware reserve RAM keeps on going back to 1.8Gb!

I followed your instructions to the letter. but it keeps coming back. help!

 

[Quad5Ny]

Start>msconfig in the search box>Go to the Boot tab...
..Also whilst there, you can specify a higher number of processor cores to be used for boot-up (as only one is used by default, even on my i7 Mac).

That's not what that is for. The processor setting does not make the boot process use more CPU's/Cores. It's purpose is to restrict windows to a certain amount of CPU's.

The startup process is not faster, its all in your mind.

 

[Ccrew]

i have a problem with my macbook air after i installed windows 7 32bit using boot camp my usable ram is 2.16 gb out of 4gb , my vag carde became 64mb out of 380mb

What version of Windows 7? Starter will only address 2gb. All other 32bit will address 4gb, but set aside system reservations so the best you'll ever see is about 3.3. Still will only address 2gb in a single threaded 32bit process though.

As to the 64mb video memory, that's the real number onboard. The Air's used shared memory with system memory. You did install all the bootcamp drivers, correct?

Doesn't sound like a problem with your Air though, sounds like the choice of Windows flavor you made.

 

[LunarianCrystal]

So am I just stuck with the 2.16GB of usable ram...? No one has really answered this thread... The original poster said he "unchecked" a box but I never had any box checked in in the first place so...

My friends PC (Not a Mac) runs windows with 3.15GB of usable memory left (out of 4GB)... Only two differences of his computer is that it: 1) Isnt a Mac and 2) Hes using Windows 64 bit (I use 32 bit).

So why is windows storing more than half my memory.... I'd really like to know this. Thanks in advance

(Is this normal with all 2011 Macbook Pros?)

 

[Sincci]

Most likely your friend's pc has a discrete gpu with it's own memory (could be anywhere from 64mb to 3gb). 13" MBP's and MBA's don't have such thing, so they are forced to share computer's ram. The amount of memory that the gpu reserves from your computer's ram is usually fixed and cannot be changed with macs. Then there's of course the 64bit vs 32bit thing. With 32bit Windows you can only map 4gb of memory and this includes the gpu's own memory too. With 64bit systems, you don't have such restrictions.

 

[azribohari]

im using windows 7 home edition 64 bit. mac mini 2011. i installed 4GB, but still 1800MB of hardware reserved RAM. Help!