4 GB of memory

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anders Bengtsson
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A

Anders Bengtsson

Hi

Iam running Vista Ultimate 32-bit.
I have installed 4x1GB RAM that I can see in my BIOS
But in Vista I see only 3071 MB of memory (RAM).

How can I make Vista see all my RAM?

Thanks
 
My video card has its own 512Mb of memory and I have only started Vista, Iam
not doing anything
that should take 1GB of video memory.

--

Regards
Anders Bengtsson [MCSE, MCSA, MCP, CNA] | anders AT contoso.se | Website and
blog: http://www.contoso.se


Gary said:
The rest is being used by your video card.


Anders Bengtsson said:
Hi

Iam running Vista Ultimate 32-bit.
I have installed 4x1GB RAM that I can see in my BIOS
But in Vista I see only 3071 MB of memory (RAM).

How can I make Vista see all my RAM?

Thanks

--

Regards
Anders Bengtsson [MCSE, MCSA, MCP, CNA] | anders AT contoso.se | Website
and blog: http://www.contoso.se
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
What video card?
Some do appropriate system RAM.
You don't have to be "doing anything", other than starting Windows.

| My video card has its own 512Mb of memory and I have only started Vista, Iam
| not doing anything
| that should take 1GB of video memory.
|
| --
|
| Regards
| Anders Bengtsson [MCSE, MCSA, MCP, CNA] | anders AT contoso.se | Website and
| blog: http://www.contoso.se
|
|
| | > The rest is being used by your video card.
| >
| >
| > | >> Hi
| >>
| >> Iam running Vista Ultimate 32-bit.
| >> I have installed 4x1GB RAM that I can see in my BIOS
| >> But in Vista I see only 3071 MB of memory (RAM).
| >>
| >> How can I make Vista see all my RAM?
| >>
| >> Thanks
| >>
| >> --
| >>
| >> Regards
| >> Anders Bengtsson [MCSE, MCSA, MCP, CNA] | anders AT contoso.se | Website
| >> and blog: http://www.contoso.se
| >>
| >>
| >
| >
|
 
Iam running Vista Ultimate 32-bit.
I have installed 4x1GB RAM that I can see in my BIOS
But in Vista I see only 3071 MB of memory (RAM).

How can I make Vista see all my RAM?
Click to expand...

The whole 32-bit address space will not be available to just the OS,
hardware in the machine etc will munch into it too.

The only way to get it all would be to use the 64-bit version.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.windowsresource.net/
Get ready for Windows Vista: http://www.windowsvista.com/getready/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*
 
It is the same deal as in 32 bit Windows XP.
It is actually not the video card taking up the RAM. It is mainly the
PCI-Express bus taking up the I/O adresses from the 4GB (32 bit) address
space that the CPU can address. A few other things also occupy I/O
addresses, but the PCI-E bus is the main factor.
Nothing to do about it except using 64 bit CPU and a 64 bit OS.

Regards,
Frantz Dhin
 
Yes, I believe this is a limitation of all 32-bit OSs (2 to the 32nd power)
I get 3071 with Vista x86 and 4000+ with Vista x64

| |
| > Iam running Vista Ultimate 32-bit.
| > I have installed 4x1GB RAM that I can see in my BIOS
| > But in Vista I see only 3071 MB of memory (RAM).
| >
| > How can I make Vista see all my RAM?
|
| The whole 32-bit address space will not be available to just the OS,
| hardware in the machine etc will munch into it too.
|
| The only way to get it all would be to use the 64-bit version.
|
| --
| Paul Smith,
| Yeovil, UK.
| Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
| http://www.windowsresource.net/
| Get ready for Windows Vista: http://www.windowsvista.com/getready/
|
| *Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*
|
|
 
I thought there was some nice /3Gb settings to do somewhere.
Like BCDEdit with IncreaseUserVA?
 
Iam running Vista Ultimate 32-bit.
I have installed 4x1GB RAM that I can see in my BIOS
But in Vista I see only 3071 MB of memory (RAM).
Click to expand...

AAMOI, does it have either an ASUS motherboard and/or use the Intel 865PE
chipset...?
 
I have a ASUS S939 A8N-SLI Premium motherboard, I thin it is with a nforce
chip.
 
But if you had 4 sticks of 512 DDR400 it would run them at DDR333 speeds,
isn't the nforce 4 chipset/AMD memory controller brilliant.

Colin T
 
I have a ASUS S939 A8N-SLI Premium motherboard
Click to expand...

Thought so. What your seeing is a fairly well-known bug whereby ASUS
motherboards don't correctly report 4GB RAM, although they do actually use
it all - don't worry about it.

AAMOI, if you remove two of the RAM sticks, it will correctly report 2Gb...
:-)
 
4+GB is reported in Vista x64


| |
| >I have a ASUS S939 A8N-SLI Premium motherboard
|
| Thought so. What your seeing is a fairly well-known bug whereby ASUS
| motherboards don't correctly report 4GB RAM, although they do actually use
| it all - don't worry about it.
|
| AAMOI, if you remove two of the RAM sticks, it will correctly report 2Gb...
| :-)
|
|
 
The 32 bit OS is just like the Windows 32 bit OS. You may have more memory
than 3 gig, but it will only register 3 gig. Note: from my understanding, it
doesn't mean that it isn't being used. From what I understand the system
will still use available memory that it doesn't register, but don't quote me
on that. You may want to ask the MVPs.

Hope this helps.
 
Please read some of the other postings in this thread. The allegation
that this should be a "known issue" or a production flaw in any ASUS
motherboard is incorrect.
It is a known limitation to 32 bit architecture, or any CPU forced to
run in 32 bit mode by a 32 bit operating system, that it runs out of I/O
addresses before it can address a full 4GB of RAM. The PCI-E bus usually
takes about 750MB worth of I/O addresses alone.
Since the CPU can only address RAM to the extent that the machine has
available I/O addresses, some of the RAM will not be available to the
operating system. That does not at all mean that the RAM is in use by
these devices, - only the I/O addresses.

So to sum it up: It is not an ASUS issue. The RAM is not being used as
you incorrectly state. It will report 2GB RAM if you take out the two of
the RAM sticks because the machine has sufficient I/O addresses to
address all 2GB RAM.

Regards,
Frantz Dhin
 
Please read some of the other postings in this thread. The allegation that
this should be a "known issue" or a production flaw in any ASUS
motherboard is incorrect.
Click to expand...

So it was just a "lucky guess" that I deduced the OP almost certainly had an
ASUS motherboard...?

:-)
 
What BIOS settings?

| 3071 is not set in stone. It depends on the BIOS settings.
|
| | > Yes, I believe this is a limitation of all 32-bit OSs (2 to the 32nd
| > power)
| > I get 3071 with Vista x86 and 4000+ with Vista x64
| >
|
 
That bug shows up during the post. My Asus board reports 512MB regardless
of the actual ram or whether a 32bit or 64bit OS in installed. The numbers
the OP refers to are the result of BIOS settings.
 

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