Setting RAM for Windows 7

Hello,

I'm having the following problem with Parallels Desktop 8 running Windows 7 as a guest:

I am able to change the available amount of RAM, but if I assign more than 2.75 GB Windows only uses 2.75 GB. Less RAM is recognized without problem. Windows always says it uses 2.75 GB or less of 4 GB available RAM.

My computer is a MacBook Pro 2011 with 8 GB of RAM and more than enough disk space.

Any help appreciated!

Greetings from Germany
Thomas

 

Are you running W7 32bit?

It will only use RAM - size of swapfile. If your swapfile is 1.25Gb then it can only adress 2.75GB RAM. Since the total can't exceed 4GB.


If you're running a 64bit version then the above isn't the solution.


Regards,

/J

 

Thanks 4 yr reply!

Yes, I'm running W7 32 bit, but the swap file size was set to 256 MB and it now is set to 0. Problem still occurs.

 

No one here having a solution?

 

Hi Thommy_,

This is a limitation of 32-bit Windows 7. You can find the explanation here (the article is about Windows Vista but the same applies to Windows 7): http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605

If you need more RAM in Windows, use 64-bit edition.

 

In fact I don't understand this. Of course I know that there is a 4 GB limitation with Windows 7. I also know that the graphic memory occupies part of this, in my case 256 MB. But where are the remaining 1 GB?

Exactly this configuration was running on another real machine before. There it had 3.75 GB of available memory. After transfering it into the VM only 2.75 GB are availabe.

Can anyone give me a reasonable explanation or a hint what to do?

 

In fact I'm still confused about this. Still don't know where that 1 GB RAM is gone to.

Nobody here who knows a satisfying answer?