4GB Ram and Vista Ult

J

Juggy

Executive Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2004
Messages
6,012
Reaction score
8
Location
Woking, United Kingdom
Sorry if this has been asked before.

I just received my new desktop, Dell 745 with 4GB ram. Problem is Vista only sees 3GB. What can I do to enable 4GB?
 
Dont you need the 64 bit version of Vista in order to use more than 3gb of ram?
 
If you are running 32-bit Windows, you must live with it. You will not ever see all 4GB of RAM you've paid for.

If you are running 64-bit Windows, you may have to live with it. Depending on your motherboard's chipset, your system may support memory remapping. If so, you will be able to use all 4GB of RAM
 
as far a i know windows 32 bit will see all 4 GB of RAM.
there is a switch in the bios that prevents it from seeing all 4 gb. look for something about memory hole.
it is only abouve 4 gb that you have a problem.
 
The max on any 32-bit system is 4GB, but there are often problems recognising the whole amount.

Upgrading to 64 bit isn't always recommended, but if it can work for you, you might want to give that a try.
 
Ekhaatvensters said:
Interesting that a manufacturer would ship a pre-built PC with 4GB RAM and a 32 bit OS...
Click to expand...
I'm sure they'd be willing to upgrade you to a 64 bit version. ;)

Of course the microsoft site could be wrong and it is, as Tsimo says, just a bios switch.
 
i thought the 4 gig problem was gone with vista

32 or 64 bit

so basically vista is just xp with everthingy placed differently and aero

i mean how can an os claim to have gone forward if it cannot register 4 gig of ram just like its brother who is 6 years old

wow vista FTW shows how far we have come, still cannot use 4 gig still dont have 64 bit support

xp FTW
 
killa, it's a 32 bit problem. Not how the OS is written...

It might be that no 32bit OS could fully recognise 4GB, they could only get close.

64bit support also has nothing to do with it, Microsoft can't do anyhting about that.
 
life is tough killadoob, but you gotta belive this. *any* 32bit os can only address up to 4gb of ram. period, dont matter if it is apple, linus or microsoft. there is a hard upper limit that cannot be overcome.

you can add /pae to your boot options in boot.ini so that the machine will report 4gb of ram as 4gb of ram, but it isnt going to actually use the amount above 3gb or so. sp2 and DEP and PAE make sure of this.

prior to sp2, you would see the whole 4gb of ram, but this caused hassles as drivers would load themselves into space above 3gb which the os may sometimes try use. so with the advent of sp2 for xp, the area above 3gb is kinda reserved for drivers to hang about in, the rest below 3gb or so is yours to use. this increases stability.

here it is from the horses mouth
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888137

if you dont agree i wont lose sleep tonight, promise.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X