Samsung R460

[Messengerskiller]

Hi everyone!
Could you please unlock the phoenix bios 16NA for the laptop Samsung NP-R460? The bios is here:
http://org.downloadcenter.samsung.com/downloadfile/ContentsFile.aspx?CDSite=UNI_RU&CttFileID=1949074&CDCttType=FM&ModelType=N&ModelName=NP-R460&VPath=FM/200912/20091201101751593/WIN_16NA.exe

I have installed 4GB RAM (2 x 2GB) but Windows 7 Pro x64 still allocates only 3GB of RAM. So I think the BIOS has locked "Memory Remap" function and unlocking it should help me.

[AHMED HOSSAM]

the windows should read it as 3.3 GB of ram as the rest of the ram is for memory addressing .
and if you have got integrated graphics card , it gets more from ram too and may be takes 256 or 512 MB ........... so , no problem for reading it as 3 GB .

[Messengerskiller]

Finally I get an answer here from guru. That's nice. But I still have some questions.

the windows should read it as 3.3 GB of ram as the rest of the ram is for memory addressing .

What version of windows do you mean here? x64?

I always thought if I have x64 then my computer can allocate all of 4GB RAM (of course if 4GB physically installed on motherboard). I try to explain what I'm talking about. If you look at screenshot (sorry for russian text on it)

so you see there a resource monitor window from my desktop computer with x64 windows7, 4GB RAM and integrated intel video. I underlined all allocated RAM and the value is 3.8GB. And the rest 200MB (circled part on screenshot,) is reserved for video memory. And everything seems to be OK.

But my laptop pc has discrete Nvidia graphics, so I expect the value of allocated ram near 4GB with x64 windows7. Unfortunately I can't show you a screenshot from my laptop pc with x64 windows and running resource monitor (as I had to use original x86 windows vista due to temporary BSOD troubles while connecting my HTC smatrphone), but believe me resource monitor shows about 1GB memory reserved for hardware and only about 3GB are displayed in the place where I have 3.8GB on my desktop. And I think it is not normal.

[AHMED HOSSAM]

have you tried to only use 3GB or 2GB of ram then see in the resource monitor if it still get 1GB for hardware use or no !
try this and tell me the result .

if it still get 1GB for hardware use from the 2GB or 3GB , then its hardware issue that you may have integrated card along with nvidia or the nvidia card is like 512MB upto 2GB .... so it takes more memory .

if it had read it as 3GB or 3GB and hasn`t showed any memory reserved for hardware , then may be its bios problem .

[Messengerskiller]

have you tried to only use 3GB or 2GB of ram then see in the resource monitor if it still get 1GB for hardware use or no !
try this and tell me the result .

You are reading my thoughts, man! I just intend to write this information to you to make it clear. So yes it was 2GB (2 x 1GB) ram installed before I bought 2 new ram modules (2GB each one) and it was NOT 1GB reserved for hardware! It was reserved only about 100MB. That's why I realized that the problem is in bios.

[AHMED HOSSAM]

ok , thats nice ......... i have one more question .
did the resource monitor in the 32bit ( which you said you are running on now ) detect it as 3GB or 4GB !
and do you see the 1GB reserved for hardware use in the 32bit you are running now !

[Messengerskiller]

did the resource monitor in the 32bit ( which you said you are running on now ) detect it as 3GB or 4GB !

Now "physical memory" area in task manager in 32bit windows vista detects installed 4GB as 3GB:
(sorry for russian text again)

do you see the 1GB reserved for hardware use in the 32bit you are running now !

Unfortunately windows vista does not have the graph of "memory map" in resource monitor or.... I can't find it in the place where it is in windows7 ("memory map" seems to be added only in windows7). And I can hardly find a program, which can show me something like memory map. After an hour of looking for such a program I find "Sysinternals RamMap" and you can see a screenshot below:

It is not the same as windows utility, but I think 248MB "unused" grey section is reserved for hardware. By the way, you can see here 3GB of RAM being allocated as task manager shows.

[AHMED HOSSAM]

it seems to be bios problem but i haven`t found any option in the bios for memory remap .
i don`t really knew the reason as its strange thing that 1GB is for hardware use .
this means it detect the 4GB but decide to only use 3GB ........ so , no problem in detecting the memory but the problem is using it .
looks like the memory remap can help in this , but i haven`t found this option in the bios yet .

i`m sorry for this .

[Messengerskiller]

i haven`t found any option in the bios for memory remap .

That's bad :\\
It's really strange that Samsung gives no opportunity to expand RAM to 4GB....
Well, if I try to find older versions of bios for my laptop (pc shipped with 11NA bios version, then there was an update to 14NA and the other update to 16NA) could one of that versions contain memory remap function? What do you think about it?

And one more question. I suppose you can see all locked functions of 16NA bios. So, does it have something like "FSBRAM ratio" and "FSB frequency" settings? Or maybe user can set FSB and DRAM frequencies independently?
Most of time I use default FSB (for my PC it is 266MHz and Intel Core2Duo P7350 CPU runs at 2GHz), and I'm not a "crazy gamer", but sometimes I have numerical computation tasks (they are not so complex and usually takes up to half an hour for calculation) and I use SetFsb utility to set FSB to 333MHz so that CPU become running at 2.5GHz. Doing this save about 15% of time. But to make the procedure of switching FSB frequency more stable, I had to reflash SPD of memory modules, in order that bios detects my DDR2-800 modules as DDR2-667 and switch FSBRAM ratio from default value of 2:3 to 4:5. So after switching FSB to 333MHz with FSBRAM ratio of 4:5 I have my memory runs at 416(832)Mhz and it is absolutely stable even with 100% cpu load for half an hour. I've done this many times and everything seems to be OK, but I still have instabilities at the moment of swithing the FSB frequency. PC freezes about two times of ten.

[AHMED HOSSAM]

I`m sorry but there is no frequency options hidden in your bios and there is only multiplier option hidden but i`m sure it will not work after unlocking so its useless .