Memory upgrade with strange results..

[detailer]

I started with Win7 Pro 32bit,with 3Gigs Ram installed from the factory.
The configuration was 1x2Gig and 1x1Gig,which has always been reported accurately in System Properties as 3.00 installed.
I was able to get a great deal on another 2Gig stick (identical),so I bought it,and yes,I know 32bit can not utilize all of 4Gigs.
I was expecting to see in System Properties 4.00 installed > 3.26 usable or there abouts.This has always been the case when I've gone to 4 Gigs on 32bit OS in the past.
My result was 4.00 installed > 2.97 usable
My WEI score for Ram had increased from 5.1 to 5.4 before re-running the assessment,and remained that way afterward.
Does anyone know why I actually lost a tiny fraction of memory in this "upgrade"?
Also,if it pertains,this is an Intel chipset laptop with integrated graphics.Not seeing how that should matter,as my 3Gigs was always reported as 3.00,not 2.97usable
Sorry,forgot to mention I used a registered copy of Everest Ultimate Engineering Edition to confirm the Ram as an exact match in respect to timings,voltages,and features.In fact,aside from the obvious serial # difference,the date of manufacture was within 10 weeks of the same year.
I'd say that's as close as one could get to a "matched pair",unless you're standing at the end of the conveyor at the factory.

[JayCub]

From the off this seems a strange kind of setup, depending on the ram slots and if it is duel channel i would expect to see 2x2 or 1x1 or if the archictecture is triple channel the slots should be 3x1 or 3x2 etc, there is a mismatch of ram even if it is 2x1x1/

[Nick Vini]

This may depend on incorrect BIOS settings: check AGP video aperture size in the settings, and if possible, enable memory remapping. Maybe several RAM issues: I recommend that you check your RAM for bad memory modules, first, I recommend to swap an order of memory to make sure that memory arrangement is correct, also interesting, do you use a memory standoff cards?

[detailer]

Probably should have mentioned it's a note book-only two Dimms.
I'm sure the config from the factory was 2+1 because of 32bit OS.
Bad module(s) seems highly unlikely-the new 2Gig stick was detected straight off-I booted without so much as a hick-up.System Properties reports 4 Gigs installed.I tried swapping between Dimms with same result 2.97 usable.

[Nick Vini]

That makes me think about hardware reserved memory: so-called physical memory-minuses - memory you can't access.

[detailer]

Still doesn't explain why I had 3Gigs available when 3Gigs was originally installed.If hardware were the case,I should have had > 3.00 installed > 2.97 usable from the beginning,correct?
At the very least,I should have remained at 3Gigs usable after installing the new stick.
Also,from what I understand,memory mapping should not be enabled on a 32bit OS to access memory beyond the @ 3.5Gigs that it can utilize.
I just finished two rather lengthy articles on the subject,admittedly,much of which I was unable to comprehend when they discussed untethered memory assigned to the kernel.

[Raymond]

I think this article explains very well to your question.
http://www.computing.net/howtos/show/4gb-memory-with-32bit-os/62.html

[detailer]

Raymond,thanks for the article and related links (the second one is dead).
Still not explaining how I LOST memory though.
I've installed 4Gigs on dozens of 32bit systems,XP,Vista,and 7 (always to insure parody),and always gained .12 to .50 beyond 3Gigs.
Sorry,just can't wrap my head around this one,and see no clear answer in any of the articles I've read since yesterday.My eyes are bleeding from researching this!

[Raymond]

Actually the same thing happened on my computers.

Laptop with 4GB of ram on Windows 7 32-bit shows 2.96GB while my desktop with 4GB of ram on Windows 7 32-bit shows 3.25GB usable.

On my laptop, 32MB is used by integrated graphics card.
When I set it to 128MB in bios, the usable installed memory shows 2.87GB.

[detailer]

Curious indeed Raymond.In my case,however,if my graphics were "using or borrowing" from installed memory,that should have been reflected in the original 3Gig configuration.
For example: 3.00GB (2.93 usable)--sorry,I see I've been posting 2.97 usable.
So, now that I've given Windows an extra Gig of ram to work with,it decides it can "borrow some"?
That makes absolutely no sense from anything I've read or experienced in the past.
I do sincerely appreciate everyone's efforts to help me with this.
If I find more on this,I'll certainly post again.Cheers!