ACER Aspire 4 gig of ram only 1.74 usable, how can I fix?

missingram
missingram Member Posts: 3 New User

Hi,

I hope I picked the right forum, if not, please move to the right place.

I have a ACER Aspire 5552-5686, Windows 7 family premium 64 bits with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 video card. I have latest version of my bios, 2.14

I have 4 gigs of RAM, but windows says only 1.74 is usable. This makes the system really small.

The bios says 256 megs is reserved for video card, but there is no way to change the value.

I installed the latest video card driver, it says 893 megs are used for video card. Here are the screen shots, sorry, french system:

 

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Any help will be appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance!

Best Answer

  • DrkBluePenguin
    DrkBluePenguin Member Posts: 18

    Tinkerer

    Answer ✓

    Is this the ram that came with your computer and how long have you had it?

    It sounds like one of the sticks have failed. It knows it is there but cant use it. That why you have 1.7 available. The other .3 is being used by the video card.

    I would open the bottom panel of your laptop to make sure the ram is seated correctly.

    I'm not sure your thech level skill but you can remove one stick and see if it still boots. You should see 2gb ram available 1.7 usable. Turn it back off and switch the sticks. If it dosen't start with just one of the sticks then theres your problem. You need to replace a stick of ram.

Answers

  • missingram
    missingram Member Posts: 3 New User

    bump! Anybody can help?

  • DrkBluePenguin
    DrkBluePenguin Member Posts: 18

    Tinkerer

    Answer ✓

    Is this the ram that came with your computer and how long have you had it?

    It sounds like one of the sticks have failed. It knows it is there but cant use it. That why you have 1.7 available. The other .3 is being used by the video card.

    I would open the bottom panel of your laptop to make sure the ram is seated correctly.

    I'm not sure your thech level skill but you can remove one stick and see if it still boots. You should see 2gb ram available 1.7 usable. Turn it back off and switch the sticks. If it dosen't start with just one of the sticks then theres your problem. You need to replace a stick of ram.

  • missingram
    missingram Member Posts: 3 New User

    Thank you so very much!!

     

    It worked. Turns out one of the stick must have gotten loose, I remove both, one at a time and the computer worked both time showing 2 gig available. So I re-installed both and TADAM, 3.7 gig available now!

     

    Thanks again!

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