--== Vista with 4GB RAM ==--

dreamworks · January 18th, 2008

Hi guys .. can't seem to figure out what is the problem here. I have a notebook that has 2 pieces of 2GB installed in the system. In BIOS, the memory is registered as 4GB but when windows Vista boot, it can only register 3GB. Any idea where is the problem?

**Electronic Punk** · January 18th, 2008

Its a limitation on the 32bit version of windows, you should consider checking out the 64bit version, there really isn't a reason not to these days I don't think. (although check all your laptops hardware for drivers before you do as they can be harder to come by!)

**Dark Atheist** · January 18th, 2008

vista sp1 will semi fix this, it will show what's installed and what's available to the system

**Tuffgong4** · January 18th, 2008

I'm running x64 vista and have had almost 0 problems with it besides a random program here and there. I would check out what programs you use most of the time and see if there are any incompatibilities.

dreamworks · January 18th, 2008

Thanks guys. You mean to say that the problem lies with Vista not being able to identify full 4GB that was installed on the system? Since it is not identifying, would it be right to say it will not make 100% full use of the 4GB memory?

**Dark Atheist** · January 18th, 2008

Don't think any 32bit OS can see more than 4GB, so yes the system will not use the full 4GB, it will only use what it shows in the control panel

**Heeter** · January 18th, 2008

Originally Posted by Carpo

Don't think any 32bit OS can see more than 4GB, so yes the system will not use the full 4GB, it will only use what it shows in the control panel

Your right Carpo,

The 64bit version of vista is the way to go with 4gig RAM. That, and the fact that the CPU can write 64bit extensions as well. I think all cpu's nowadays are capable of that, anyways.

Heeter

**Tuffgong4** · January 18th, 2008

Originally Posted by dreamworks

Thanks guys. You mean to say that the problem lies with Vista not being able to identify full 4GB that was installed on the system? Since it is not identifying, would it be right to say it will not make 100% full use of the 4GB memory?

it's really a problem with almost 32 bit OSes. Not just vista, I can't extend this out past microsoft because I'm not sure how Linux or OS X can handle over 3 gigs of ram in their 32 bit OSes

gillmacca · January 18th, 2008

Out of interest, if you could put unlimited amount of memory in your computer, how much of the memory would a 64 bit pc see? Does it have a limitation like 32 bit does?

**Dark Atheist** · January 18th, 2008

Windows XP x64 can support much more memory; although the theoretical memory limit a 64-bit computer can address is about 16 exbibytes (16 billion Gibibytes), Windows XP x64 is currently limited to 128 GB of physical memory and 16 TiB of virtual memory. Microsoft claims this limit will be increased as hardware capabilities improve.

and vista would still run slow on it

- but would follow the same specs

**kcnychief** · January 19th, 2008

Originally Posted by Carpo

vista sp1 will semi fix this, it will show what's installed and what's available to the system

Wasn't aware of that but seems cool - have a link with more details?

**Dark Atheist** · January 19th, 2008

"With Windows Vista SP1, currently planned for the first quarter of 2008, Microsoft will force the operating system to show the full amount of system memory installed, and not only the memory that Vista has available."

did have a link somewhere, think i posted the sp1 changelog on here somewhere, do a search and see if you can hunt it down

**kcnychief** · January 19th, 2008

That's good enough for me, thanks

Have to wonder if that is somewhat a ploy to get people with higher-ended systems to purchase a x64 license. Like, will they have something such as "Your PC has 4GB but you are only using 3GB, click here for more info" and it will bring them to a page that they can buy a license or something.

**Tuffgong4** · January 19th, 2008

showing 4GB and using 4GB are two different things. These are 3 articles that go into detail of 32 bit addressing and memory usage on 32 bit windows oses. These gave me a lot of info about the problem and I upgraded to x64 vista not long after.

A Messy Transition

A Messy Transition Part 2

A Messy Transition Part 3

Read these and a lot should be answered.

January 18th, 2008	Top \| #1
dreamworks --== babyface ==-- Joined: January 2003 Posts: 355 Reputation: 20 Power: 87	--== Vista with 4GB RAM ==-- Hi guys .. can't seem to figure out what is the problem here. I have a notebook that has 2 pieces of 2GB installed in the system. In BIOS, the memory is registered as 4GB but when windows Vista boot, it can only register 3GB. Any idea where is the problem?
	---=== Surely I Will Be With You ... ===---

January 18th, 2008	Top \| #2
Electronic Punk The Last High Joined: December 2001 Location: Stonehenge Posts: 18,835 Blog Entries: 49 Reputation: 3591 Power: 321	Re: --== Vista with 4GB RAM ==-- Its a limitation on the 32bit version of windows, you should consider checking out the 64bit version, there really isn't a reason not to these days I don't think. (although check all your laptops hardware for drivers before you do as they can be harder to come by!)

January 18th, 2008	Top \| #3
Dark Atheist I never said I was nice Joined: April 2003 Location: In The Void Posts: 6,411 Blog Entries: 8 Reputation: 1788 Power: 162	Re: --== Vista with 4GB RAM ==-- vista sp1 will semi fix this, it will show what's installed and what's available to the system

January 18th, 2008	Top \| #4
Tuffgong4 The Donger Need Food!!!! Joined: June 2002 Location: Chicago Posts: 2,527 Reputation: 840 Power: 124	Re: --== Vista with 4GB RAM ==-- I'm running x64 vista and have had almost 0 problems with it besides a random program here and there. I would check out what programs you use most of the time and see if there are any incompatibilities.
	Home Intel E6600 \ Abit AB9 Pro \ 4 gig Corsair DDR2-667 \ EVGA 9800GT \ HDD 1 320GB sata + 1 1TB sata \ Samsung S183L SATA DVD-RW \ Vista Business x64 Work Laptop Inspiron 640m \ Intel T5500 C2D \ 2GB Ram \ Intel 950 graphics \ 8x dvdrw \ bluetooth \ 160 GB HD \ 14.1 WS \ Vista Ultimate

January 18th, 2008	Top \| #5
dreamworks --== babyface ==-- Joined: January 2003 Posts: 355 Reputation: 20 Power: 87	Re: --== Vista with 4GB RAM ==-- Thanks guys. You mean to say that the problem lies with Vista not being able to identify full 4GB that was installed on the system? Since it is not identifying, would it be right to say it will not make 100% full use of the 4GB memory?
	---=== Surely I Will Be With You ... ===---

Latest News Posts

Latest Forum Posts

Latest Member Blogs

January 18th, 2008	Top \| #6
Dark Atheist I never said I was nice Joined: April 2003 Location: In The Void Posts: 6,411 Blog Entries: 8 Reputation: 1788 Power: 162	Re: --== Vista with 4GB RAM ==-- Don't think any 32bit OS can see more than 4GB, so yes the system will not use the full 4GB, it will only use what it shows in the control panel

January 18th, 2008	Top \| #7
Heeter Overclocked Like A Mother Joined: July 2002 Location: In front of my computer Posts: 2,588 Reputation: 590 Power: 120	Re: --== Vista with 4GB RAM ==-- Originally Posted by Carpo Don't think any 32bit OS can see more than 4GB, so yes the system will not use the full 4GB, it will only use what it shows in the control panel Your right Carpo, The 64bit version of vista is the way to go with 4gig RAM. That, and the fact that the CPU can write 64bit extensions as well. I think all cpu's nowadays are capable of that, anyways. Heeter

January 18th, 2008	Top \| #8
Tuffgong4 The Donger Need Food!!!! Joined: June 2002 Location: Chicago Posts: 2,527 Reputation: 840 Power: 124	Re: --== Vista with 4GB RAM ==-- Originally Posted by dreamworks Thanks guys. You mean to say that the problem lies with Vista not being able to identify full 4GB that was installed on the system? Since it is not identifying, would it be right to say it will not make 100% full use of the 4GB memory? it's really a problem with almost 32 bit OSes. Not just vista, I can't extend this out past microsoft because I'm not sure how Linux or OS X can handle over 3 gigs of ram in their 32 bit OSes
	Home Intel E6600 \ Abit AB9 Pro \ 4 gig Corsair DDR2-667 \ EVGA 9800GT \ HDD 1 320GB sata + 1 1TB sata \ Samsung S183L SATA DVD-RW \ Vista Business x64 Work Laptop Inspiron 640m \ Intel T5500 C2D \ 2GB Ram \ Intel 950 graphics \ 8x dvdrw \ bluetooth \ 160 GB HD \ 14.1 WS \ Vista Ultimate

January 18th, 2008	Top \| #9
gillmacca Macca Joined: May 2002 Location: Swindon, UK Posts: 96 Reputation: 0 Power: 92	Re: --== Vista with 4GB RAM ==-- Out of interest, if you could put unlimited amount of memory in your computer, how much of the memory would a 64 bit pc see? Does it have a limitation like 32 bit does?

January 18th, 2008	Last edited by Dark Atheist; January 18th, 2008 at 9:24pm. \| Top \| #10
Dark Atheist I never said I was nice Joined: April 2003 Location: In The Void Posts: 6,411 Blog Entries: 8 Reputation: 1788 Power: 162	Re: --== Vista with 4GB RAM ==-- Windows XP x64 can support much more memory; although the theoretical memory limit a 64-bit computer can address is about 16 exbibytes (16 billion Gibibytes), Windows XP x64 is currently limited to 128 GB of physical memory and 16 TiB of virtual memory. Microsoft claims this limit will be increased as hardware capabilities improve. and vista would still run slow on it - but would follow the same specs

January 19th, 2008	Top \| #11
kcnychief █▄█ ▀█▄ █ Joined: April 2005 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 16,961 Reputation: 4941 Power: 275	Re: --== Vista with 4GB RAM ==-- Originally Posted by Carpo vista sp1 will semi fix this, it will show what's installed and what's available to the system Wasn't aware of that but seems cool - have a link with more details?

January 19th, 2008	Top \| #12
Dark Atheist I never said I was nice Joined: April 2003 Location: In The Void Posts: 6,411 Blog Entries: 8 Reputation: 1788 Power: 162	Re: --== Vista with 4GB RAM ==-- "With Windows Vista SP1, currently planned for the first quarter of 2008, Microsoft will force the operating system to show the full amount of system memory installed, and not only the memory that Vista has available." did have a link somewhere, think i posted the sp1 changelog on here somewhere, do a search and see if you can hunt it down

January 19th, 2008	Top \| #13
kcnychief █▄█ ▀█▄ █ Joined: April 2005 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 16,961 Reputation: 4941 Power: 275	Re: --== Vista with 4GB RAM ==-- That's good enough for me, thanks Have to wonder if that is somewhat a ploy to get people with higher-ended systems to purchase a x64 license. Like, will they have something such as "Your PC has 4GB but you are only using 3GB, click here for more info" and it will bring them to a page that they can buy a license or something.

January 19th, 2008	Top \| #14
Tuffgong4 The Donger Need Food!!!! Joined: June 2002 Location: Chicago Posts: 2,527 Reputation: 840 Power: 124	Re: --== Vista with 4GB RAM ==-- showing 4GB and using 4GB are two different things. These are 3 articles that go into detail of 32 bit addressing and memory usage on 32 bit windows oses. These gave me a lot of info about the problem and I upgraded to x64 vista not long after. A Messy Transition A Messy Transition Part 2 A Messy Transition Part 3 Read these and a lot should be answered.
	Home Intel E6600 \ Abit AB9 Pro \ 4 gig Corsair DDR2-667 \ EVGA 9800GT \ HDD 1 320GB sata + 1 1TB sata \ Samsung S183L SATA DVD-RW \ Vista Business x64 Work Laptop Inspiron 640m \ Intel T5500 C2D \ 2GB Ram \ Intel 950 graphics \ 8x dvdrw \ bluetooth \ 160 GB HD \ 14.1 WS \ Vista Ultimate

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
VISTA THEME: Vista Blue Refresh Theme for Vista Basic Users	Vishal Gupta	Desktop Customisation	8	April 12th, 2008 6:48pm
Issues with Vista media center music library and vista resume from suspend.	Mooz	Windows Desktop Systems	2	March 13th, 2008 5:55pm
[Vista Themes] Vista Blue and Vista Black for Windows Vista	Vishal Gupta	Desktop Customisation	0	March 8th, 2008 8:10pm
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series Vista Driver 2.13.0012 Win Vista 32/ X64	lkyng	Submitted News	6	March 10th, 2007 1:33am
[Vista] December CTP coming; Vista UI changes.	NetRyder	Windows Desktop Systems	42	December 17th, 2005 8:29pm