Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram | The Coffeehouse

PaoloM
Hypermediocrity

BHpaddock wrote:

Please read carefully:

- PAE mode is always enabled on Vista and XP SP2. It is required for hardware DEP / NX.

- 32-bit Client versions of Windows (XP, Vista) will never support more than a 4GB address spaces, even with PAE.

- 32-bit Server versions will support it, but this is very much the wrong solution for your use. Even disregarding the fact that your machine isn't a server and Server OSes are expensive, you need to consider that the reason XP and Vista won't use PAE to address additional memory is that many device drivers (like, say, Nvidia video drivers) often don't play well with PAE.

- The /3GB switch should never be used. It exists for very specific server scenarios. It will probably make your machine unstable, and none of your applications will make use of it.

- A 64-bit OS can address huge amounts of memory, and it does not need the remap feature.

- If you happen to have a motherboard that doesn't actually support more than 4GB worth of physical address space, even a 64-bit OS won't help you. Nothing will. These boards simply do not support 4GB of RAM, end of story.

The right solution for everybody with more than 2GB of RAM is to install a 64-bit OS. The end.

Brandon, tell us how you *really* feel Smiley

atell02

In reply to TimP

#Feb 11th, 2007 @ 11:04 AM

IT IS NOT A BIOS OR MOTHERBOARD LIMITATION, IT IS A OS LIMITATION, 32 BIT OS MAX RAM 2GIGS; 64 BIT OS MAX RAM ALL OF IT 2,4,6,8 ECT

DCMonkey
Monkey see, monkey do, monkey will destroy you!

In reply to atell02

#Jul 25th @ 10:12 AM

Thread died here ===> fmamjjasondjfmamjj <=== You are here

ManipUni
Proving QQ for 5 years!

In reply to atell02

#Jul 25th @ 10:12 AM

Huh?

A 32 bit OS gives all processes 2 GB max, it doesn't limit your total RAM to that. The real limit is around 3.5 GB but it depends on hardware since things like PCI Cards and other devices can map into your memory address space.

To lose 1.5 GB is a whole lot, I must admit I've never seen that much... But if the bios is able to detect the whole 4 GB then I would look at what devices the system has, like sound cards and or graphics cards.

To read more on the /3GB or IncreaseUserVA options then I suggest you read the MSDN Article on the subject. This will NOT increase the total amount of memory the OS can access, if it was 3.5 GB before, it will continue to be 3.5 GB. All this will do is shift some of the memory above the 2 GB mark from kernel to user address space.

RatherDashing

im having issues with vista reading my ram. i currently have 3 gigs of ram and still have enough for 4gigs of ram. the other sticks are elsewhere. I tried installing 4 gigs of ram and i booted up windows fine. computer ran well with 4 only problem was windows system was only reading 3 gigs of ram. when i tired anything heavy on the computer like video editing or gaming i wud get a bsod saying faulty memory or something or the other. i thought i had a bad stick of ram. so i went thru testing all the sticks of ram mixing it with the 512s that were previously in there and the 1gigs that i bought. doing this i found out that none of them were faulty. if i had exactly 3gigs of ram installed system ran perfectly fine. but once i tried going over that all i would get is bsods. motherboard is fine. ram sticks are fine. just not sure y it wont work well with 4gigs of ram.