Where is my memory going!! I’m using a Compaq Presario 5000US with Windows ME and regardless of what combination of memory that I install the system seems to gobble up or hide a good chunk of it. It’s not bad memory or memory slots because I’ve tried dif. memory banks and also varied the slots. I have also been selective about what is in my startup group. The computer recognizes the proper amount of total memory installed but when checking the “system information” program after a fresh boot with no applications open it would say “total physical memory 320 MB” (which is correct) but “available physical memory 133MB”. I then added 128 MB more and it said “total physical memory 448MB” but “available physical memory 275”. Where is this approx. 170 MB of missing memory?
This is very frustrating because I need the memory for large graphics work. I would like to sort this out before installing Windows XP. Thanks in advance for any responses. Compaq has no answers other than it seems software related.

Stevep,
Not sure if this is what you are looking for Stevep. But here it goes.

To use the MaxPhysPage entry to specify the amount of RAM that is available to Windows, add the following line in the [386Enh] section of the System.ini file
MaxPhysPage=

where is a hexidecimal number that determines the number of memory pages available to Windows. A page is 4096 bytes of RAM for 486 and Pentium processors.

When the MaxPhysPage entry is used, the following formula is used to determine the amount of RAM available to Windows:
4096 X MaxPhysPage (decimal) = Amount of RAM available to Windows in bytes

Therefore, to limit Windows to 32 MB of memory, use the following formula to determine the MaxPhysPage entry:
(32 * 1048576) / 4096 = 8192 (decimal) or 02000 (hexadecimal)

NOTE: One megabyte is 1,048,576 bytes.

The following table list some common RAM amounts and the corresponding MaxPhysPage entry:
Amount of RAM
available to Windows (MB) (Bytes) MaxPhysPage entry
no keysno keys-------
960 1,006,632,960 MaxPhysPage=3C000
896 939,524,096 MaxPhysPage=38000
832 872,415,323 MaxPhysPage=34000
768 805,306,368 MaxPhysPage=30000
704 738,197,504 MaxPhysPage=2C000
640 671,088,640 MaxPhysPage=28000
576 603,979,776 MaxPhysPage=24000
512 536,870,912 MaxPhysPage=20000
448 469,762,048 MaxPhysPage=1C000
384 402,653,184 MaxPhysPage=18000
320 335,544,320 MaxPhysPage=14000
256 268,435,456 MaxPhysPage=10000
224 234,881,024 MaxPhysPage=0E000
192 201,326,592 MaxPhysPage=0C000
160 167,772,160 MaxPhysPage=0A000
128 134,217,728 MaxPhysPage=08000
96 100,663,296 MaxPhysPage=06000
88 92,274,688 MaxPhysPage=05800
80 83,886,080 MaxPhysPage=05000
72 75,497,472 MaxPhysPage=04800
64 67,108,864 MaxPhysPage=04000
56 58,720,256 MaxPhysPage=03800
48 50,331,648 MaxPhysPage=03000
40 41,943,040 MaxPhysPage=02800
32 33,554,432 MaxPhysPage=02000
24 25,165,824 MaxPhysPage=01800
16 16,777,216 MaxPhysPage=01000
12 12,582,912 MaxPhysPage=00C00

Kind of got crunched together. That's for 960MB,896MB,832MB,768MB,704MB ect. ect. down to 12MB. Like I said not sure if this was what you had in mind.

Nice Star,
But couldnt he just check the Bios, and also the Compaqs and Toshibas are very weird about where you put the RAM. Some systems wont even boot when the RAM is is a certain combo. I suggest you swap the strips around, in some different combinations. Also check the max RAM allowance on your Board at the Specs website for your manufacturer.

Take it EZ..

Grizzlyadamz,
I do think all of the things you have expressed Stevep has done and the memory all shows up. I thought what he(Stevep)was asking was why windows was taking so much memory(because it can)but,I could be wrong. Not the first time :-)

You can do a message search on this forum and look up msg 8779 and 6764. Those people had the same problem, and there are a couple of good answers.
From What I understand from reading about ME and ram usage here on this forum and elsewhere - yes ME grabs a big chunk of available ram on bootup (A percentage of available ram)and saves it for future use. This is why even if you add more ram (ME) takes more. As you run more applications ME releases enough to properly run them. ME has a good ram usage manager, it just looks like its taking the lions share at bootup but it does this to manage the system.

STAR,
Thanks for all the info on MaxPhysPage. That does not exist in my System.ini at this time but I found it very informative. I downloaded a great ram mgr and it seems to be freeing up some of the "vanishing" memory so I'll hold off for now on PhysPage and also see how XP handles things. If you are interested in the RAM program let me know.

Till next time!

Richard,

Thank you as well. Those past posts were right on the money and misery loves company so I feel better now! I'm also convinced that it's just a windows issue and not a PC problem which is what I was afraid of.
Maybe we'll talk again.

Stevep

Stevep,
Your welcome. You need to add MaxPhysPage= to the [386Enh] section of the System.ini file It's not there allready unless someone has added it(or a program has) Thanks for the offer for the memory mgr prog. prob. know of it but still would like to know. Just in case :-)

STAR

Star,

If Win XP doesn't manage ram appropriately then I'll probably take your advice and add MaxPhysPage.
Here is the URL for the RAM mgmt program. It really works great. It's shareware and cost $20 after 30 day free trial. If you use it, let me know what you think.

http://www.memturbo.com/

Ciao for now