Hello all,

I have been using Windows 7 since the first leak and it is wonderful. But for some reason today I am having problems with Windows and my RAM. I have 3 gigs installed, and Windows says that is sees 3 gigs RAM, but for some reason, it is only using 1 gig of it. It is making my system REALLLLLLLY slow. In safe mode it is a good speed because it is only using around 600 megs.

Does anyone know why my Windows 7 is doing this and also if there is a fix for it?

William

how did you ascertain that your windows is only using 1gb ?

Taskmanager ----> Performance. It shows you there the amount of RAM you are using and it has been steadily at around 900megs to 1 gigs which before it would be around 1.6 gigs to 2.2 gigs.

How much RAM you are using doesn't mean that's how much RAM is in your computer. A better way to tell is to look at the Physical Memory section of Task Manager:

This is what it says:
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It is holding at a steady 1.00 GB and it says Physical Memory 33% and thats not moving either. Again it has NEVER done this till this morning. Is there a setting to limit any of this?

limit what ?

why do you want your windows insall to use more than it is ?

If sysdm.cpl doesn't say that 1 GB is usable, but still sees 3 GB, it's fine.

I want it to use all the RAM it needs to use. Meaning, before once fully booted it was useing around 1.8 gigs and it goes up and down according to what it is doing. Now (With no change on my end), it is never going above 1 gig. I was asking if something in windows might have been changed to only allow it to use 1 gig even tho 3 gigs are available to it.

It's simply not needing to use any more.

Vista was actually quite a bit more aggressive with RAM usage, but they toned it back in Win7 because people didn't like Task Manager telling them all their RAM was being used even if it made little difference, and when it did, it was a positive gain.

A computer can be slow for a whole number of reasons though. For general sluggishness, I'd be checking to make sure nothings hogging the processor or hard drive bandwidth (Many AVs are good at hogging both).

Windows will only use the RAM that is required to use. As you run more resources and applications so will the amount of ram you are using will increase inline with this.

It is always better to have masses of resources available for when you do need it rather than hitting 99% used just running at idle.

T

Load RAM with more programs!Why should Windows use all RAM?

I have a simmilar problem, but here it says 4.00 GB (3.80 GB usable)... Though it doesn't bother me much as it's only 200 MB and I rarely manage to use 100% of the available ram. I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit.

Does your PC have a built in graphics card?

It's a laptop with switchable graphics; one is a built-in Intel "HD" Graphics the other is an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470...

That's why. The Intel graphics will be using some of the memory for itself.

Your onboard graphics chipset actually feeds off of the RAM you have. Which is normal by the way.