Thought someone here might give some insight on this.
 
I am looking at a Compaq 6735s laptop for someone and it has a gig of RAM installed, the system reports a gig of RAM but Task Manger says it can only see 757meg any pointers.  It has an AMD chip Sempron no this is not going to be used as a DAW.
 
Cheers

Some memory is used by the loaded operating system, so it is not available.  There used to be little magical programs (back in the early 1990's), that would allow you to squeeze a little bit extra from memory, but that is just not done any more.
 
Bob Bone
 

By the way, if you let me know the system specs, model number and type of memory currently installed, I can see if I have any memory lying around that you can simply HAVE.
 
I always end up with memory sticks left over from various people's computer that bite the dust - particularly older ones, so it may well be that I have some memory strips I could just send you for the cost of a couple of stamps.
 
They are of no real use to anyone, except to shore up memory in an older system, as you seem to be trying to do.
 
If interested, just shoot me a PM,
 
Bob Bone
 

Video card. It's common for laptops to share the installed RAM with the video card.

Thanks Robert and Karyn I think Karyn has hit the nail on the head and it is just the way Windows is reporting its memory allocation.  
 
Robert thanks for the offer but I think the cost of shipping it across the pond would be more than the guy who owns this machine would want to pay or the machine is probably worth.

1GB of RAM is very bare minimum for modern operating systems.  According to what I find, that came with Vista.  It is upgradeable to more RAM.  If you want Windows 7 (or its already installed), consider at least 4GB of RAM.

Check the BIOS settings. Might be possible you could free up vid card memory.

The laptop has been returned to the 'client' with the recommendation of adding at least 1gig of RAM it is only running 32bit Vista and is primarily used for surfing and picture viewing.  I am going to see about getting some extra RAM for them.
 
Thanks for all the helpful advise peeps.

Just for curiosity's sake, where across the pond would memory from me be shipped?  It weighs less than the stamp (almost), and is quite tiny, so it might not cost much at all to send.
 
So, prithee - please give me a city name or thereabouts, so I can look it up and be able to rest easy tonight, without having nightmares of not knowing running through my head.  :)
 
Bob Bone
 

If you're curious Robert, just pick a random city in UK like Manchester, or Nottingham.  The price will be the same.
 
It's only if you ship to offshore islands or the Scottish highlands that it sometimes costs more.