Cant Run with 4gb, also cant install KB929777

[Stilldawn]

Hello, I just got a new machine.

I have 4gb of ram (2 dual channel cossair 2gbs).

Whats happen is, my computer wont load up Vista 64bit if I have all 4gb of
ram in. The problem is it works fine with 2gb and Ive downloaded the KB929777
update, but vista wont let me install it with only 2gb Ram (says it doesn
apply to my system) but the thing is I can even get into Vista to install the
update with the whole 4gb installed, it just goes to the blue screen of death
with the dump memory thing then restarts.

I can get into vista in safe mode, which shows all 4gb of ram, but in safe
mode it wont let me run th update either.

Im back to using 2gb again after I tried everything I know.

Any ideas on how to get the update installed and or Vista working properly
with 4gb RAM???

Thanks

 

[JW]

Maybe your computer is not capable of supporting 4GB of memory.

See the following link:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us

 

[Stilldawn]

There is also a lot of faulty ram around, swab the ram over and test.
I'm using 64bit with 128GB of ram with no problems.

No my computer is brand new and fully supports up to 16gb of ram.
Anyother Idea?

 

[JW]

I notice from the KB article that you have to use a special procedure to
update the actual installation files and then apparently reinstall. Did you
follow this special procedure and was it difficult to locate and use?

 

[max]

Dude, u have 128GB ram for real,,,,, can your pc fly? WOW, thats GODLY
power...... I want to feel that

 

[Curious]

caretaker,
What applications are you running that require all that run to run better,
is it video editing?

 

[ato_zee]

But how much does Performance Monitor show as being used?
Most programs take a fixed amount, and when all programs,
plus the OS have what they need, any more is superfluous.
I've got 4GB Vista 64bit, and only rarely see more than
1GB being used, which indicates 2GB is about right,
for most users.
I only opted for 4GB because it was sealed pack Crucial
going cheap on eBay.
You don't get infinite speed with infinite memory. Speed
increases as you add memory, then it gets processor
and bus speed limited.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Let me guess, your mobo uses an nVidia chip set and you are putting 4 1GB
dimms in.

Ignore all the guesses about bad ram and such. It's nothing like that.

It isn't the amount of ram, but the configuration. There is a known issue
with the fourth dimm slot and 64-bit operating systems on boards that have a
memory controller that does 32-bit DMA (as do the nVidia chipsets). MS has
a patch for storport.sys to address that but it is not always sufficient.
Memory voltage adjusments sometimes help but are no panacea either.

3x1GB dimms will work fine. 2x2GB dimms would work just as fine. So would
3x2GB. But 4x1GB and 4x2GB won't. It's that fourth d*mn dimm.

It isn't confined to Vista x64. It happened to me with XP Pro x64 as well.
I could use 4 dimms as long as I was using XP x86 or Vista x86. x64 was no
go. Even if I removed ram in order to do the install, as soon as I
installed the fourth dimm and powered up it would blue screen.

I bought a quad channel (8GB) kit of G.Skill PC 6400 ram (NewEgg, $250) for
one of my machines (Vista Ultimate x64). I am running 3x2GB (6GB) because
Vista x64 will not boot the machine with the fourth 2GB stick in the last
dimm slot. So I have a spare dimm in case one of the other three dimms goes
South. Wish I had known ahead of time. I would have gotten a board with an
Intel P35 or P38 chipset. Oh well.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Be very careful of boards with the nVidia chip sets. They are the ones that
have issues with the fourth dimm slot when running a 64-bit OS. Look at P35
and P38 based boards.

 

[JW]

You will not get any real benefit from a quad unless you are running
applications that can truly run concurrently on more then one CPU. AFAIK
there are only a few video file type conversion programs that can do this in
addition of course to the Database query programs that can split a query
program into multiple segments and then combine the results when they are
done.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

What ram are you using? If pc6400 try reducing the dram speed to 667. If
you are trying to apply a hotfix relating to this, please read the
instructions about removing 2GB of ram before attempting to apply the
hotfix.

 

[Curious]

It is not surprising that KB929777 did not help since according to the KB
the fix is already included in SP1 and this can also be inferred by the
dates of the files described.
Since you have not included any of the past thread posts in your post I can
not offer any other assistance.
However, common programs with 4GB are that the dims are not matched pairs
or if using 4 dims that the voltage is two low to support them or that they
are running at too high a speed.