How do I get Windows Vista to see my 4Gb RAM?
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Kryptos
Backup People!
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Chadk
excuse me - do you has a flavor?
Kryptos wrote:How do I get Windows Vista to see my 4Gb RAM?
You running 32 or 64 bit? -
Kryptos
Backup People!
Sorry, 32bit
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CannotResolveSymbol
Microsoft: Who do you want to execute today?
Does your BIOS see the 4 GB of RAM?
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BlackTiger
If you stumbled and fell down, it doesn't mean yet, that you're going in the wrong direction.
Install 64bit Vista to access 4+ GB of RAM.
32bit version is limited, same as XP. -
Could be a motherboard limitation. I have a 64-bit processor and for a while I had some spare RAM so I was able to boost it to 4GB. The motherboard could only use 3.5GB regardless if I was in 32-bit Windows XP or 64-bit Linux.
I remember hearing the reason being something along the lines of PCI address space cutting into the 4GB, but I may not be remembering correctly (it was a while ago). -
PerfectPhase
"This is not war, this is pest control!" - Dalek to Cyberman
TimP wrote:Could be a motherboard limitation. I have a 64-bit processor and for a while I had some spare RAM so I was able to boost it to 4GB. The motherboard could only use 3.5GB regardless if I was in 32-bit Windows XP or 64-bit Linux.
I remember hearing the reason being something along the lines of PCI address space cutting into the 4GB, but I may not be remembering correctly (it was a while ago).
As BlackTiger said the 32bit versions of XP and Vista are limited to 32Bit address space, this has to include space for all hardware mapped into the address space as well, so you will never see your full 4Gb of memory (I see 3.6Gb on my machine). Win2k3 32bit works diffenet and can see the full 4Gb.
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Kryptos
Backup People!
CannotResolveSymbol wrote:Does your BIOS see the 4 GB of RAM?
Yep -
PetKnep
IE7 RTM'd yay!
PerfectPhase wrote:
TimP wrote: Could be a motherboard limitation. I have a 64-bit processor and for a while I had some spare RAM so I was able to boost it to 4GB. The motherboard could only use 3.5GB regardless if I was in 32-bit Windows XP or 64-bit Linux.
I remember hearing the reason being something along the lines of PCI address space cutting into the 4GB, but I may not be remembering correctly (it was a while ago).
As BlackTiger said the 32bit versions of XP and Vista are limited to 32Bit address space, this has to include space for all hardware mapped into the address space as well, so you will never see your full 4Gb of memory (I see 3.6Gb on my machine). Win2k3 32bit works diffenet and can see the full 4Gb.
Maybe I'm wrong since I don't have any machines w/ 4GB+ of RAM, so take this with a grain of salt. You can use PAE on Vista to access more than 4GB of physical ram, you'll only get 4GB of virtual address space though.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms791485.aspx
XP doesn't seem to support more than 4 GB of physical ram even with PAE. Vista and Win2k3 do.
Also, there's the 3GB switch to deal with. This search should hit every good blog post by Raymond Chen on the subject:
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/search.aspx?q=3gb&p=1 -
RichardRudek
So what do you expect for nothin'... :P
[Ch9 thread: 4GB RAM] - Basically, what PerfectPhase has said...
EDIT:
See also [Memory Support and Windows Operating Systems]
EDIT2:
D'oh... Vista... What PetKnep said... -
Kryptos
Backup People!
Sorry, am I missing something here. How do I switch on /3GB and PAE?
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PerfectPhase
"This is not war, this is pest control!" - Dalek to Cyberman
PetKnep wrote:
XP doesn't seem to support more than 4 GB of physical ram even with PAE. Vista and Win2k3 do.
You sure, I thought the limits broke down like this:
32bit versions - all 4gb64bit home basic - 8gb
64bit home premium - 16gb
64bit other versions 128gb+
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/64bit.mspx -
PerfectPhase
"This is not war, this is pest control!" - Dalek to Cyberman
Kryptos wrote:Sorry, am I missing something here. How do I switch on /3GB and PAE?
I wouldn't mess with the /3GB swtich, the app has to be writen to support it (header in the PE file needs to be set)
As regards PAE, turn on DEP or execute this:
bootcfg /raw "\pae" /A /ID 1
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CCC
Intru Informatique
Guys, I am at a dead end here. This topic started with "Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram" which is why I came here. I have Dell XPS 700 with 4GB ram installed on it. My computer only sees 2.5GB. I ordered 4 GB of new ram and replaced the current 4GB and still the same, different ram, same problem.
The Windows 64-bit link that was provided above says "All editions of Windows Vista 64-bit provide increased memory support beyond the standard 4 gigabytes (GB) available with 32-bit editions. Refer to the specific edition of Windows Vista 64-bit to determine maximum memory capacity."
This means that my 32-bit Ultimate supposed to show all 4GB without enabling PAE or DEP. My BIOS sees the 4GB, plus when I had Vista Beta, on this same machine, it worked with my 4GB ram, showed it in Windows and everything, without enabling anything. When the full version came out and I installed the Ultimate, it shows 2.5GB no matter what I did.
If anyone can help, please as I am puzzled. -
CCC
Intru Informatique
Hello PerfectPhase. How do I execute this command bootcfg /raw "\pae" /A /ID 1 ? When I run it it says "ERROR: You are not authorized to modify contents of boot.ini" all though I am logged-in as the administrator. Thanks in advance.
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The hardware in the machine will eat into the 32-bit address space. This prevents Windows from "seeing" all the 4GB of memory because there isn't enough free address space.
I'm led to believe however that this memory will still be used by the system if not by applications. -
CannotResolveSymbol
Microsoft: Who do you want to execute today?
CCC wrote:Guys, I am at a dead end here. This topic started with "Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram" which is why I came here. I have Dell XPS 700 with 4GB ram installed on it. My computer only sees 2.5GB. I ordered 4 GB of new ram and replaced the current 4GB and still the same, different ram, same problem.
The Windows 64-bit link that was provided above says "All editions of Windows Vista 64-bit provide increased memory support beyond the standard 4 gigabytes (GB) available with 32-bit editions. Refer to the specific edition of Windows Vista 64-bit to determine maximum memory capacity."
This means that my 32-bit Ultimate supposed to show all 4GB without enabling PAE or DEP. My BIOS sees the 4GB, plus when I had Vista Beta, on this same machine, it worked with my 4GB ram, showed it in Windows and everything, without enabling anything. When the full version came out and I installed the Ultimate, it shows 2.5GB no matter what I did.
If anyone can help, please as I am puzzled.
No, it's impossible to show all 4GB without enabling PAE. See http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2006/08/14/699521.aspx for a good explanation of what's going on.
To run the command to turn on PAE, you'll have to run the command prompt elevated.
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irascian
Irascible Ian
daSmirnov wrote:The hardware in the machine will eat into the 32-bit address space. This prevents Windows from "seeing" all the 4GB of memory because there isn't enough free address space.
I'm led to believe however that this memory will still be used by the system if not by applications.
Yes, but the values people see seem to be widely varying! 1.5GB seems a lot to lose. On my 4GB laptop Vista's telling me I have 3.25GB - I was wondering where the rest had gone, but at least I'm not in as bad a shape as the original poster.
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