system ram

[reviewsix]

I have a gateway 530 qs desktop computer. the mother board supports up to 8
gbs of ram. However, my computer came with 2 gbs of ram and i just increased
it to 6 gbs of ram. However, in the system ram it only shows 3324 mb of ram.
in the bios it does show 6 gbs of ram. my question is how come in the
system dialogue box it only shows 3324 mbs of ram in stead of 6 gbs. i have
placed the additional ram in correctly and have talked to gateway techs and
they say it is microsoft's problem for not reading the correct ram on my
computer. i am running vista (32 bit) ultimate on my computer. any answers
would be appreciated. is microsoft coming out with a patch to resolved this
problem of not reading all the ram in my system correctly. gateway says that
it should and it is microsoft' problem. thank you

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

The standard 32-bit version of Windows Vista will support
up to 4GB of RAM. To utilize more than 4GB of RAM, you
need to install a 64-bit version of Windows Vista.

Please review:

The system memory that is reported in the System Information dialog box
in Windows Vista is less than you expect if 4 GB of RAM is installed:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

---------------------------------------------------------------

:

I have a gateway 530 qs desktop computer. the mother board supports up to 8
gbs of ram. However, my computer came with 2 gbs of ram and i just increased
it to 6 gbs of ram. However, in the system ram it only shows 3324 mb of ram.
in the bios it does show 6 gbs of ram. my question is how come in the
system dialogue box it only shows 3324 mbs of ram in stead of 6 gbs. i have
placed the additional ram in correctly and have talked to gateway techs and
they say it is microsoft's problem for not reading the correct ram on my
computer. i am running vista (32 bit) ultimate on my computer. any answers
would be appreciated. is microsoft coming out with a patch to resolved this
problem of not reading all the ram in my system correctly. gateway says that
it should and it is microsoft' problem. thank you

 

[John Barnett MVP]

As Carey says, you really need the 64 bit version to utilise more that 4GB
of memory.

--
--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

 

[Tom Dacon]

In addition to Carey's comment, every OS takes some of the RAM for its own
use. In particular, the OS reserves in high memory the same amount of RAM
that your video card has (256MB, 512MB, etc.), and in addition there are
other allocations that it reserves for its own processing. So the 3324MB
you're seeing is what's left over after the OS has blocked out what it needs
to use.

Rest assured the whole 4GB is being used, but it's just not all available
for your applications.

To use more than 4GB, you'd need to be running a 64-bit version of Windows.
However, if you were, you'd find that the OS would still be taking a chunk
for itself, and in 64-bit Windows those chunks would be larger than they are
in 32-bit Windows.

Tom Dacon
Dacon Software Consulting

 

[ray]

I have a gateway 530 qs desktop computer. the mother board supports up
to 8 gbs of ram. However, my computer came with 2 gbs of ram and i just
increased it to 6 gbs of ram. However, in the system ram it only shows
3324 mb of ram.
in the bios it does show 6 gbs of ram. my question is how come in the
system dialogue box it only shows 3324 mbs of ram in stead of 6 gbs. i
have placed the additional ram in correctly and have talked to gateway
techs and they say it is microsoft's problem for not reading the correct
ram on my computer. i am running vista (32 bit) ultimate on my
computer. any answers would be appreciated. is microsoft coming out
with a patch to resolved this problem of not reading all the ram in my
system correctly. gateway says that it should and it is microsoft'
problem. thank you

This question has been answered many times. Basically, the 32 bit version
of MS operating systems are only capable of recognizing 4gb of memory and
a chunk of that is taken up mapping devices.

Two options for you to utilize all of your RAM 1) get a 64 bit version of
MS or 2) use Linux - the 32 bit version of Linux will use up to 64gb of
RAM.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have a gateway 530 qs desktop computer. the mother board supports up to 8
gbs of ram. However, my computer came with 2 gbs of ram and i just increased
it to 6 gbs of ram. However, in the system ram it only shows 3324 mb of ram.
in the bios it does show 6 gbs of ram. my question is how come in the
system dialogue box it only shows 3324 mbs of ram in stead of 6 gbs. i have
placed the additional ram in correctly and have talked to gateway techs and
they say it is microsoft's problem for not reading the correct ram on my
computer. i am running vista (32 bit) ultimate on my computer. any answers
would be appreciated. is microsoft coming out with a patch to resolved this
problem of not reading all the ram in my system correctly. gateway says that
it should and it is microsoft' problem. thank you

There are two issues here:

1. All 32-bit versions of Windows have a 4GB address space.
That's the theoretical upper limit beyond which you can not go.

2. You can't use the entire 4GB of address space. Even though you have
a 4GB address space, you can only use *around* 3.1GB of RAM. That's
because some of that space is used by hardware and not available to
the operating system and applications. The amount you can use varies,
depending on what hardware you have installed, but is usually around
3.1GB.

Note that the hardware is using the address *space*, not the actual
RAM itself. The rest of the RAM goes unused because there is no
address space to map it too.

64-bit versions of Windows do not have the same limitation, and can
use the entire 4GB.

However, note that unless you run very memory-hungry applications
(such as photographic editing or video-editing), even 3.1GB under
Windows XP is almost certainly *way* more RAM than you can make
effective use of. That means that from a practical standpoint, none of
what I said above will matter. Why did you buy so much RAM?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In addition to Carey's comment, every OS takes some of the RAM for its own
use. In particular, the OS reserves in high memory the same amount of RAM
that your video card has (256MB, 512MB, etc.), and in addition there are
other allocations that it reserves for its own processing. So the 3324MB
you're seeing is what's left over after the OS has blocked out what it needs
to use.

Rest assured the whole 4GB is being used, but it's just not all available
for your applications.

Sorry, this is *not* correct. Please see the other message I just
posted in this thread. The operating system is *not* taking some of
the RAM for its own use, and the whole 4GB is *not* being used. Only
the 3.324MB being reported is being used. The rest is wasted because
there is no available address space to map it to.

 

[NoStop]

There are two issues here:

1. All 32-bit versions of Windows have a 4GB address space.
That's the theoretical upper limit beyond which you can not go.

2. You can't use the entire 4GB of address space. Even though you have
a 4GB address space, you can only use *around* 3.1GB of RAM. That's
because some of that space is used by hardware and not available to
the operating system and applications. The amount you can use varies,
depending on what hardware you have installed, but is usually around
3.1GB.

Note that the hardware is using the address *space*, not the actual
RAM itself. The rest of the RAM goes unused because there is no
address space to map it too.

64-bit versions of Windows do not have the same limitation, and can
use the entire 4GB.

However, note that unless you run very memory-hungry applications
(such as photographic editing or video-editing), even 3.1GB under
Windows XP is almost certainly *way* more RAM than you can make
effective use of. That means that from a practical standpoint, none of
what I said above will matter. Why did you buy so much RAM?

Because he's your typical Wintard that thinks the more hardware you throw at
a computer the faster Vista will run. Now he knows better.

Cheers.

--
What does Bill Gates use?
http://tinyurl.com/2zxhdl

Proprietary Software: a 20th Century software business model.

Be Afraid ... Be Very Afraid ... of Francis' RELATIVES!

Frank, hard at work on his Vista computer all day:
http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/compost.htm

 

[Lang Murphy]

Because he's your typical Wintard that thinks the more hardware you throw
at
a computer the faster Vista will run. Now he knows better.

That's a specious arguement... then there must be plenty of Mactards and
Linuxtards out there who are inexperienced computer users who might have
been railroaded by some salesperson to purchase more RAM than required. Duh.

Lang

 

[Lang Murphy]

I have a gateway 530 qs desktop computer. the mother board supports up to
8
gbs of ram. However, my computer came with 2 gbs of ram and i just
increased
it to 6 gbs of ram. However, in the system ram it only shows 3324 mb of
ram.
in the bios it does show 6 gbs of ram. my question is how come in the
system dialogue box it only shows 3324 mbs of ram in stead of 6 gbs. i
have
placed the additional ram in correctly and have talked to gateway techs
and
they say it is microsoft's problem for not reading the correct ram on my
computer. i am running vista (32 bit) ultimate on my computer. any
answers
would be appreciated. is microsoft coming out with a patch to resolved
this
problem of not reading all the ram in my system correctly. gateway says
that
it should and it is microsoft' problem. thank you

Gateway is incorrect. As others have pointed out in your thread, any 32 bit
OS is only going to "see" around 3GB's of RAM, no matter how much RAM one
has installed. If Gateway lead you to believe otherwise when you purchased
your system, you may, depending on your personality, want to demand a refund
on the "extra" 2 or 3 GB's RAM they sold you.

How is your RAM configured? (three 2 GB sticks, six 1 GB sticks, two 2GB
sticks and two 1GB sticks? Or some other config?)

Lang