Unusable RAM

Hi,
I have a problem with my Memory in my Acer Aspire laptop it can recognise only 2.99GB RAM out of 4GB installed memory, I have updated the BIOS to the latest version and the particular BIOS release notes clearly mention the support for 4GB RAM, I would very much appreciate all suggestions and advice to resolve this problem.

With integrated graphics it's common for the memory to be set up to use system memory as video memory. If you don't need the current level of graphics performance, there may be a setting in the BIOS to cut down how much system ram the video chip is using.

If you don't have the option of inserting a video card then I think the choice is video performance/free ram.

Yea, that's an old lappy. The GMA 950 graphics is using memory. Afraid you don't have any options for different graphics even in BIOS settings.

@MilesAhead,
@popeye,

Thank you guys,when I install 3GB RAM it allocates 10MB for hardware reserved but when I switch to 4GB the hardware reserved goes up to 1GB, when I googled for this "2.99GB" problem, I came across many posts from users with newer systems( mainly windows 7 owners).
I couldn't find anyone with Win8/8.1 with this problem and wondered whether anyone else had this happened to them.
As far as the settings in BIOS concerned, there's no way I could do any in this laptop( disabled by Acer )

The chipset in that old lappy only supports up to 4 GB,

ARK | Mobile Intel® 945PM Express Chipset (Intel® 82945PM Memory Controller)

As a result this is what you are running into,

The system memory that is reported in the System Information dialog box in Windows Vista is less than you expect if 4 GB of RAM is installed

Also means there is nothing you can do if there isn;t a memory remapping option in the bios (highly unlikely).

The issue in a 32 bit OS is that RAM and memory mapped hardware have to share a 4 GB physical address space. You can't fit 4 GB RAM plus memory mapped hardware in a 4 GB address space. That problem doesn't automatically go aware with a 64 bit OS, it is just that there is (usually) a way to avoid it. That way is with a BIOS option that moves the conflicting RAM to a higher address where it can be accessed with a 64 bit OS. It appears that this technique is not supported on your computer. This is not unusual with older computers.

Intel doesn't support i945GM for Windows 8/8.1, MS has given me the Windows7 driver(WDDM 1.0) 8.15.10.2697, I can only hope and pray for a newer driver which might be helpful. As I mentioned earlier, this has happened in newer high speced systems as well.
EDIT: 32 bit Physical Address Extension may be the cause:ARK | Mobile Intel® 945GM Express Chipset (Intel® 82945GM Graphics and Memory Controller)