4 GB RAM and 32bit Vista?

Is it true, as I was told, that 4 GB RAM will only work with 64-bit Vista? Or
can you have 4GB RAM or more with a 32-bit system?

4GB of RAM works fine with a 32-bit operating system.

2 to the 32nd power = 4,294,967,296 (~4 GB), however, less is available to the
OS, since motherboard resources use some of this address space, and Windows
will only report 3.X (mine is 3,405,568 KB ~ 3.4 GB) available for Windows to
use.

Some have reported problems with certain mobos and 4GB RAM and 32-bit Vista.

I have no problems here -- Vista 32-bit flies and I seldom use over 45% of
available RAM.



"bitla50" <bitla50@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5E8D8A95-904F-45DA-93AB-0E7CC3BDB7FF@microsoft.com...
> Is it true, as I was told, that 4 GB RAM will only work with 64-bit Vista? Or
> can you have 4GB RAM or more with a 32-bit system?

Hi

I just installed an additional 2gb of ram into my otherwise perfect Vista
32bit PC. The DIMM's were identical to the original two - and I mean
identical.

Though they were recognized in BIOS, Vista spewed continuously at
CRCDISK.sys (BSOD) and could not/would not even boot from CD until I
eventually thought to remove 1Gb.

Only then did Vista, surprise, surprise, get around to starting again as if
nothing had happened. IMHO, there are severe issues with VISTA and 4Gb of
RAM. Others have written about it and there seems to be no particular
solution at the moment (that I can find anyway). Rather a lot of folks are
sitting looking at a spare memory stick on their desk....

If anyone can help me I would appreciate it.


"bitla50" wrote:

> Is it true, as I was told, that 4 GB RAM will only work with 64-bit Vista? Or
> can you have 4GB RAM or more with a 32-bit system?

I think it depends on many factors honestly. I upped my RAM to 4gb. At
the moment both XP and Vista only see 2.919gb with an ATI Radeon 9550 card,
but if I re-insert my X1650 card then that jumps 3.431gb, plus my Vista
"rating" increases from 3.1 to 4.2.
I never had that BSOD problem with the RAM in Vista, only with the AGP
graphics card and ATI software.

--
Peter
Toronto, Canada
P4 HT @ 3ghz, 4gb DDR, 700gb HDD
Soundblaster Audigy 4
ATI Radeon 9550 AGP Graphics
"Smilerfive" <Smilerfive@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:659FEC26-F362-4883-85DF-7DE0625B0FF3@microsoft.com...
> Hi
>
> I just installed an additional 2gb of ram into my otherwise perfect Vista
> 32bit PC. The DIMM's were identical to the original two - and I mean
> identical.
>
> Though they were recognized in BIOS, Vista spewed continuously at
> CRCDISK.sys (BSOD) and could not/would not even boot from CD until I
> eventually thought to remove 1Gb.
>
> Only then did Vista, surprise, surprise, get around to starting again as
> if
> nothing had happened. IMHO, there are severe issues with VISTA and 4Gb of
> RAM. Others have written about it and there seems to be no particular
> solution at the moment (that I can find anyway). Rather a lot of folks are
> sitting looking at a spare memory stick on their desk....
>
> If anyone can help me I would appreciate it.
>
>
> "bitla50" wrote:
>
>> Is it true, as I was told, that 4 GB RAM will only work with 64-bit
>> Vista? Or
>> can you have 4GB RAM or more with a 32-bit system?

I gotta go with Cal bear on this one...I too run a 32bit Vista Business with
4 gigs of ram....Computer shows 3.5
"Cal Bear '66" <xxx@xxx.org> wrote in message
news:65E050C7-9224-4C64-9032-A3ADF65FC247@microsoft.com...
> 4GB of RAM works fine with a 32-bit operating system.
>
> 2 to the 32nd power = 4,294,967,296 (~4 GB), however, less is available to
> the OS, since motherboard resources use some of this address space, and
> Windows will only report 3.X (mine is 3,405,568 KB ~ 3.4 GB) available
> for Windows to use.
>
> Some have reported problems with certain mobos and 4GB RAM and 32-bit
> Vista.
>
> I have no problems here -- Vista 32-bit flies and I seldom use over 45% of
> available RAM.
>
>
>
> "bitla50" <bitla50@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:5E8D8A95-904F-45DA-93AB-0E7CC3BDB7FF@microsoft.com...
>> Is it true, as I was told, that 4 GB RAM will only work with 64-bit
>> Vista? Or
>> can you have 4GB RAM or more with a 32-bit system?
>
>