[someblackguy7130]

hi in my BIOS says i have 4096MB of RAM but when i c pc properties it is only coming up with 3.00GB . says only 3GB is usable? why is this?

[TriplexDread]

Maybe one of the sticks is faulty?

Should be around 4096MB

But only showing 3072MB Yes?

Are you sure the Stick is inserted properly?

Can you try in another machine?

Are all the modules the same?


Cant think of anything else at the mo.....

[christopherpostill]

Does windows support 4 gig?

[muckshifter]

Originally Posted by someblackguy7130

hi in my BIOS says i have 4096MB of RAM but when i c pc properties it is only coming up with 3.00GB . says only 3GB is usable? why is this?

You need Windows 64bit or Linux or take out a gig of ram.

Silly init

... oh I think Vista may 'solve' that one.

[TriplexDread]

So windows dont support 4gig then?

[muckshifter]

Originally Posted by TriplexDread

So windows dont support 4gig then?

Yes it does, but ... you got the wrong version Windows.

Windows XP can use the RAM, just not as you expect ... is it a PCI-e 64bit MB? (EDIT, just noticed in your sig you are) ... it's the price you pay for using a 32bit OS ... actually, I'm surprised your MB sees it all, most, despite what they say, fall over too.

Two or four sticks running in dual channel mode is faster than running one or three sticks in single channel mode. Most dual channel capable motherboards will drop into single channel mode when three sticks are in the slots.

The 2 or 3 gig limitation in Xp 32bit refers to the fact that Xp limits the amount of ram it can assign to any one application to 2gigs, 3gigs for any single application with some registry modifications.

As a side note, for most folks, it is very hard to use up 2gigs of free ram capacity, let alone 3gigs or more of useable space.

Like I said, you need Win64bit or Linux or sell a 2gig to me ...



At least you can run Vista ... well, maybe.

[muckshifter]

Most applications today are 32bit and in 64bit Windows these run in a compatibility layer called Windows on Windows (WOW64).

The 64bit advantage is simple. On a 32bit system, there is a natural 4GB limit to the amount of memory an application process can address, since this is the largest number that can be stored in a 32bit pointer. This 4GB limit becomes 2GB once you take account of the shared and operating system addresses also available to each process.

64bit systems lift this limit exponentially, to an arbitrary limit of 16TB (terabytes) on Windows x64. This makes a big difference to server performance, since servers deal with large amounts of data which can be cached and sorted in Ram.

12th Aug 2005 ...

oh, and if you do go get Win64bit, you'll have to do a clean install.

[TriplexDread]

Oh cool cheers m8. I didnt actually realise that XP32 was limited to 3gig thats why I answered the question with all the silly little things first. I knew someone would pipe up with something more sensible eventually. Altho i'm glad you mentioned it now because I was actually thing about buying more ram for this machine.

Starting to slow down a bit now. Its already adjusted the page file automatically. I dont like that as it is thats why I want more Ram. Glad the guy asked the original question now otherwise I would have found out the confused way meself

[someblackguy7130]

oh well that explains it... well the only reason that i have 4gb is cuz my dad is building a new system in a 5 month period (getting parts at different times) so in the mean time he let me put his 2gb in my system otherwise i only got 2gb. so for windows vista u think i shuld get 4gb or u think 2gb is still plentiful?

[muckshifter]

Originally Posted by someblackguy7130

so for windows vista u think i shuld get 4gb or u think 2gb is still plentiful?

2 will do me & Vista ... you need a good GPU to help with the heavy graphics.