Comment Feed for Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram (Coffeehouse on Channel 9)

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

RatherDashing — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 22:19:38 GMT

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.

Re: Re: Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

ManipUni — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 19:31:18 GMT

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.

Re: Re: Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

DCMonkey — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 19:05:40 GMT

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

Re: Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

alfredo tello — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:12:55 GMT

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

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

PaoloM — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:00:26 GMT

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 :)

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

Brandon Paddock — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:37:48 GMT

Sven Groot wrote:

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

Yet Vista 32 bit on my machine does see the full 4GB RAM, while XP 32 bit does not.

That is impossible. 32-bit Vista will never address more than 3.12GB of memory. Ever.

In Vista SP1, the System control panel was altered to show the installed RAM, instead of useable RAM. This was done at the behest of OEMs who apparently didn't want their users to know they were paying for memory they couldn't actually use. That is likely what is throwing you off.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

Brandon Paddock — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:33:50 GMT

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.

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

Sven Groot — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:18:05 GMT

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

Yet Vista 32 bit on my machine does see the full 4GB RAM, while XP 32 bit does not.

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

Sven Groot — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 03:08:32 GMT

There is essentially two things you need to get access to the full 4GB RAM.

A motherboard capable of remapping part of memory into the region above 4GB, to reclaim the memory addresses lost because of devices. This is sometimes an option in the BIOS, sometimes it's done automatically.
An OS that can access addresses above 4GB, either because it supports PAE or because it's 64 bit.

In my experience, Vista 32 bit can access all 4GB if the first condition is met. XP 32 bit however cannot. Vista 64 bit certainly can, and so can XP 64 bit.

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

Nohaxx4joo — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:37:45 GMT

idouglas wrote:

if you are having problems with vista 32bit not seeing all the 4GB ram add me to msn at

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

punkouter — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 01:44:38 GMT
take a look at this tomshardware workshop guide. it might help you digest the whole thing more easily. plus it has a guide on what to check , what you have to be careful and when to upgrade to 64 bit.

Vista Workshop: More RAM, More Speed

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

idouglas — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 10:36:18 GMT

if you are having problems with vista 32bit not seeing all the 4GB ram add me to msn at I stand corrected.

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

ScanIAm — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 21:00:56 GMT

evildictaitor wrote:

phreaks wrote:

evildictaitor wrote:

phreaks wrote: What about XP, is there a way for XP to see my 4Gb? it only recognizes 2.99 Gb now.

You are on x64 right?

No, 32 bitter here.

I heard that Vista doesn't give you more than 3GB of RAM on 32bit, and that you needed x64 to use 4GB, although I might be wrong.

That's virtual address space, though.

http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/08/05/208908.aspx

I'm curious as to what application is being run that needs 3 or 4 gb of addressable memory.

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

evildictaitor — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:19:36 GMT

phreaks wrote:

evildictaitor wrote:

phreaks wrote: What about XP, is there a way for XP to see my 4Gb? it only recognizes 2.99 Gb now.

You are on x64 right?

No, 32 bitter here.

I heard that Vista doesn't give you more than 3GB of RAM on 32bit, and that you needed x64 to use 4GB, although I might be wrong.

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

phreaks — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:17:48 GMT

evildictaitor wrote:

phreaks wrote: What about XP, is there a way for XP to see my 4Gb? it only recognizes 2.99 Gb now.

You are on x64 right?

No, 32 bitter here.

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

moransa — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 19:46:16 GMT

The answer I think is not in reallocating address space, which most of us are not willing to do, but instead trying to add the PAE switch to the boot.ini file like we do in S2K3 and XP (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/283037). The sad fact is full release versions of Vista have no boot.ini file (http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/driver/tips/Debug_Vista.mspx) and is instead controlled by the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store (referenced here: http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/85cd5efe-c349-427c-b035-c2719d4af7781033.mspx?mfr=true), accessible only through BCDEdit.exe (word to the wise, run cmd as administrator)

The answer you seek is here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa906211.aspx

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

moransa — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 19:27:13 GMT

Incorrect, here is how:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa906211.aspx

using BCDEdit /set, you can change the DEP and PAE.

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

evildictaitor — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 19:18:29 GMT

phreaks wrote:
What about XP, is there a way for XP to see my 4Gb? it only recognizes 2.99 Gb now.

You are on x64 right?

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

phreaks — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 19:17:36 GMT
What about XP, is there a way for XP to see my 4Gb? it only recognizes 2.99 Gb now.

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

phreaks — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 19:17:36 GMT
What about XP, is there a way for XP to see my 4Gb? it only recognizes 2.99 Gb now.

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

TimP — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 19:15:29 GMT
PAE cannot be used on Vista.

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

moransa — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:47:01 GMT
Same problem here, yada yada.....

"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"

Running this in command prompt (as administrator) I get "cannot open boot.ini file", how do I edit the bdcedit settings?

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

DigitalDud — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 05:13:20 GMT
You guys should read this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us

In a nutshell, you're not going to be able to address 4 gigs of RAM even on a 64-bit system unless your system has the ability to do some hack that remaps PCI to another part of the address space.

Re: Windows Vista Not Seeing My 4GB Ram

gsbell — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 04:28:05 GMT
Same problem here, Vista only sees 2.75 GB.

:@