The first time I ran the WEI, it worked perfectly fine. Since then, as soon as I hit around 75-80% when refreshing WEI, the computer simply switches itself off. No warning, no error, no freeze nor crash. I've tried a few times, waited about a month, and trieda few more times - I have no idea what the problem could be!Any help would be appreciated, ta.System info. for reference:ASUS G71G-Q1 laptopIntel Core 2 Quad Q9000NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GSAlso, could anyone tell me how the RAM subscore is calculated? I've heard people getting a score of 5.5 with 2-3GB, while I get that score and have 6GB. Is that a problem with my RAM or the WEI?Sorry if this has been dealt with before, I searched but found nothing close enough.

WEI is not dependent on the amount of RAM, for the most part . As long you have enough RAM so WEI doesn't have to tap into virtual RAM. Also, search for the "DataStore" folder on your primary hard disk; it contains .xml files which may contain troubleshooting information. At what part of the WEI does it crash? "Assessing CPU performance"? "Assessing hard disk performance"? As for the computer shutting off, it could be the laptop is overheating; you have several high end components. I assume you know how to check each component's temperatures; make sure they are below each component's set "TJmax. Otherwise, use "Core Temp" for the processor tempature and "GPU-Z" for graphics card tempature. If there is excessive dust, attempt to remove it. ~~~~TechOutsider Norton AntiVirus 2009

As far as i am aware the RAM subscore will be based around the technical settings of the RAM, speed, clock settings the CL ratings, and isnt really anything to do with amount of RAM, when i first Winstalled W7 beta i was running on 2Gb of RAM, now im using 6GB and have the exact same score.

Okay, I didn't think it was due to overheating (I do check temps regularly, and the lap stays pretty cool). I checked anyway; it wasn't.HOWEVER - I checked the .xml file for memory and picked this up: 'Physical memory available to the OS is less than 3.0GB - limit mem score to 5.5' - My RAM shouldn't be limited, should it?What's more worrying is that the computer switches off as soon (literally the second) WEI starts assessing memory performance.I didn't think those oddities were related before, but is it far-fetched to suspect they are now?

there were a lot of decisions made to limit different Parts of the WEI , 'capping' different components at different levels, it is entirely possible that your RAM has been capped, I was kind of worried about a similar issue when the beta first released, as the HDD i installed it on was capped at 2.0 bringing my entire score to that.My worry was that due to playing games the WEI might prevent me from running games that required a higher rating, ( like most do) but it doesnt actually prevent that, basically its a generic way of letting people know whether a specific bit of software is likely to run on their system, however as far as i am aware this scoring system hasnt actually taken off as was hoped. With regards to the WEI freezing when you are trying to run it, i seem to remember some posts about that happening back in January time. A lot of the issues turned out to be due to XDDM driver incompatabilities, but i am fairly certain there was a solution to people who seemed to have the issue you are having just now, i dont think it appeared to be RAM specific. Searching the Forum for WEI might dig up the thread, unfortunately i cannot remember what it was called.

Thanks for the info. It could be that, but woudn't the file say 'memory capped at less than 3GB' instead of 'memory available'? I just want to make sure that I'm not losing out on memory I should be able to access but can't. I'm sure I saw those posts, but my issue isn't with my computer freezing - it switches itself off. As in, black screen, lights off, no power. I don't think I have a XDDM driver anyway - isn't that for Win XP? Mycomp hasn't ever run XP.

If you press START , then right click on Computer and select Properties it will show you how much RAM Windows sees as being installed on your laptop, it will also show which variant of Win 7 you have installed, 32 bit or 64 bit. If you have 32 bit, then windows wont see your full RAM which might explain what you fund in the .xml if thats the case, when the RC is released i would advise getting both and trying both, I downloaded both 32 and 64 bit versions , but im only using the 64 bit version. It is quite possible that switching off is another problem caused by the same thing that was causing the freezing on the systems that didnt have XDDM drivers installed, but as i said it was a while ago, and i cant remember all the causes.

I do have 32 bit, but it does see the whole 6GB - but that's not quite the same as being able to use it, is it? And yeah, I'll be getting the 64 bit for the RC if possible.I looked it up, and the only solution to aXDDM driver is to not use it (i.e. use/upgrade to a WDDM driver). Seeing as I doubt Asus would release a driver for an operating system it doesn't support for the particular model (let alone list it under Vista drivers), I assume I'm already using a WDDM. I don't know of a way to check, though, I have to admit.

having a quick look at the components you have posted, i dont think any of them would have been around when XDDM drivers were being written, so i wouldnt worry about that. how much Ram is available on the vidcard? because 32 bit systems 'see' and 'use' a maximum of 4Gb of RAM, but the amount that the vidcard has is subtracted from that so if its a 1GB card, then Windows is only going to have a maximum of approximately 3Gb available to it, less normally. the normal amont reported with a 512mb card is 3.25 even if a system has more than 4 gb physically fitted.

It's 1663mb, I think. I followed the advice of another thread + checked Task Manager to see for certain how much memory is being used, and it's about2.8GB. Soooo... yeah... That's a large reduction! But 4 - 1.7 = 2.3, which is LESS than what the Task Manager is reporting! Argh. I may be reading the wrong values (I've picked total available - should it be the dedicatedvalue? That's 512mb, which makes more sense, but then the memory in the Task Manager is far too small).And yeah, I found out that it's WDDM. ^.^

Er.. If a video card has 512 MB of dedicated RAM on board, that figure is not typically subtracted from the main pool of RAM. RAM is only subtracted for video if it's not a discrete - as in a built in video adapter that has none of it's own. Note, some late model cards apparently have both - discrete memory and can share additional RAM if they configured to do so.The reason a 32 bit system can only access 3.25 to 3.5 GB of RAM is that all peripherals built into the system (and add-on cards) are mapped onto the main pool. In other words - if your system has a PATA controller, a SATA controller, Floppy controller, each one will be mapped to various addresses so they can be accessed.

Youve just explained more clearly what i was try to Wolfie, so thanks for that.

Oh, okay, cool - this'll sound stupid, but how do I check which I have and how much memory they're using? I know I have SATA and don't have Floppy - and I suppose I don't have PATA? But still, 2.8GB's still to small, isn't it?

It will vary from system to system as to how much is available, due to hardware, but most systems still have a pata controller as that is what a lot of DVD drives connect through, I wouldnt worry just now, as in 5 days time the RC will be available to download.

Yeah, okay. I'll check on the 64bit RC, see if it's any better + see if I can actually complete the WEI!Thanks for the help and info, guys. xx

Youve just explained more clearly what i was try to Wolfie, so thanks for that. You're welcome... @ Lizza - You can check by going into Device Manager - and looking at each peripheral's Properties box - on the Resource tab. It will tell you the address range for that item. You'll likely see an item there called Memory Range and some numbers which are in Hexadecimal. As a for instance, my 1394 controller takes up the memory address between F50000000 and F500007FF. That would mean this particular item is taking up 7FF bytes or 2047 bytes - or just under 2 KB. You can use the Windows 7 calculator to do unit conversion between Hex and Decimal by shifting it into Programmer mode. Just add 'em all up, and you shouldhave your answer as to exactly how much is being used. Keep in mind that not EVERY bit of that memory space will be taken up. There may be gaps between items.

Wolfie2k6, I hope you can laugh along. You just stepped into the programmers' rat-hole. Oops!If you number your fingers 1 to 10, then 10-1=9. Only 9 fingers!?You need to add 1 to this kind of inclusive calculation.0 thru 7FF means 800H bytes are used!

@ derosnec - Duh.. You're right. Probably why I'm not a programmer.