I have a Dell XPS M1710 Laptop with 4 GBs physical RAM. I am running Vista
Enterprise 64 bit. The bios shows the 4 GB RAM properly, but indicates that
due to other factors, only 3,250 MBs is actually available for use.

I have read the KB 929605 ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us )
examination of this matter which stipulates what you have to have to map the
full 4 GBs. I think I meet the most of the criteria specified in this
article. However, the user configurable dimension is still ambigous.

For example:

"The BIOS must support the memory remapping feature."

With the Dell BIOS, it doesn't appear to me that memory remapping is
configurable via the standard setup interface. That could mean I am SOL, or
it could mean that it takes a more sophisticated approach or hack to get
that done.

I am also unclear as to the relavence of the PAE driver compatability issues
to my challenge.

Any experience people have had (especially successful work arounds) would be
greatly appreciated.

BTW, the reason I seek this additional memory is because I am running VMWare
Workstation 6 and I would like to allocate additional memory to my 2 guest
systems (that extra 750 MBs would make a big difference). If there is
another approach to getting more memory to the guest OSs I would appreciate
any ideas people have.

Hagen Finley
Boulder, CO

Possibly the MOBO does not support addresses over 4GB which would be the
reason it does not support remapping.

"Hagen Finley" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:enc5$(E-Mail Removed)...
>I have a Dell XPS M1710 Laptop with 4 GBs physical RAM. I am running Vista
>Enterprise 64 bit. The bios shows the 4 GB RAM properly, but indicates that
>due to other factors, only 3,250 MBs is actually available for use.
>
> I have read the KB 929605 ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us )
> examination of this matter which stipulates what you have to have to map
> the full 4 GBs. I think I meet the most of the criteria specified in this
> article. However, the user configurable dimension is still ambigous.
>
> For example:
>
> "The BIOS must support the memory remapping feature."
>
> With the Dell BIOS, it doesn't appear to me that memory remapping is
> configurable via the standard setup interface. That could mean I am SOL,
> or it could mean that it takes a more sophisticated approach or hack to
> get that done.
>
> I am also unclear as to the relavence of the PAE driver compatability
> issues to my challenge.
>
> Any experience people have had (especially successful work arounds) would
> be greatly appreciated.
>
> BTW, the reason I seek this additional memory is because I am running
> VMWare Workstation 6 and I would like to allocate additional memory to my
> 2 guest systems (that extra 750 MBs would make a big difference). If there
> is another approach to getting more memory to the guest OSs I would
> appreciate any ideas people have.
>
> Hagen Finley
> Boulder, CO

Curious wrote:
> Possibly the MOBO does not support addresses over 4GB which would be the
> reason it does not support remapping.

To support that idea. From the chipset specs:

http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets...umentation.htm

"Addressing of memory ranges larger than 4 GB is *not* supported."

That means that the BIOS is going to reserve system space in the top 1GB,
probably even on a 64-bit OS.

"jorgen" <na@invalid> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Curious wrote:
>> Possibly the MOBO does not support addresses over 4GB which would be the
>> reason it does not support remapping.
>
> To support that idea. From the chipset specs:
>
> http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets...umentation.htm
>
> "Addressing of memory ranges larger than 4 GB is *not* supported."