Windows XP Pro SP2 not reporting 4 GB installed RAM correctly

[Guest]

I just built a new system based on the Tyan Thunder K8WE with dual Opteron
(1.6GHz) 242 processors and 4 GB of RAM. The BIOS correctly reports the
amount of RAM as 4 GB total RAM. If I go to the system properties Windows XP
reports 2.75 GB of RAM, Task Manager reports 3 GB and WINMSD reports 4 GB.

I am trying to figure out why WinXP is not seeing all the RAM. I realize
WinMSD reports what it finds in the BIOS. My issue is that if Task manager
and System Properties do not see all the RAM wouldn't that mean it won't be
available for applications to use?

I have read the articles dealing with the /3GB switch for the boot.ini and
the /PAE (physical Address Extension) switch and tried applying those and
there was no change. Besides, the /3GB switch doesn't mean it forces Windows
to see all the RAM, it just means that it pushed the Kernel to run above 3GB
instead of 2 GB. I have updated to the latest BIOS, turned off all shadowing,
cache-ing, etc and the memory size does not report the full 4 GB.

I would greatly appreciate any help some of you MVP's can offer.

Best regards,

 

[Ron Martell]

I just built a new system based on the Tyan Thunder K8WE with dual Opteron
(1.6GHz) 242 processors and 4 GB of RAM. The BIOS correctly reports the
amount of RAM as 4 GB total RAM. If I go to the system properties Windows XP
reports 2.75 GB of RAM, Task Manager reports 3 GB and WINMSD reports 4 GB.

I am trying to figure out why WinXP is not seeing all the RAM. I realize
WinMSD reports what it finds in the BIOS. My issue is that if Task manager
and System Properties do not see all the RAM wouldn't that mean it won't be
available for applications to use?

I have read the articles dealing with the /3GB switch for the boot.ini and
the /PAE (physical Address Extension) switch and tried applying those and
there was no change. Besides, the /3GB switch doesn't mean it forces Windows
to see all the RAM, it just means that it pushed the Kernel to run above 3GB
instead of 2 GB. I have updated to the latest BIOS, turned off all shadowing,
cache-ing, etc and the memory size does not report the full 4 GB.

I would greatly appreciate any help some of you MVP's can offer.

Best regards,

Use Start - Run - MSCONFIG and go to the BOOT.INI tab.
Click on the "Advanced options" button and ensure that the checkbox
for the /MaxMem= line is cleared and that there is no value in the
data box for this line.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

 

[Guest]

Hi Ron,

I appreciate you taking the time to help out. B.C? I need to get up there
and do some Mountain Bikin! well, anyway...

I checked the boot.ini from MSCONFIG and the /MAXMEM option was not checked
and there was no value listed in the field. So, I played with that a bit with
no change to the condition. I am still seeing the same issue and still
researching an answer. In the morning I am going to install Maya and other
applications to see if they see the total physical memory and if it'll use it.

Again, thank you for taking the time to respond!

Regards,

Anthony

 

[Guest]

Hi
I have a same problem.
My pc is installed with WinXP sp2 .
I have used the switch /pae and /3gb . WinXP see only 2.8 GB
With WinMSD i see that have 4.0 physical memory but avaible only 2.8 gb and
on task manager see only 2.8 gb
Please send me a solution
Thanks

 

[Guest]

Sure thing Marco. I am currently working with MS Premier support and they
don't know what the problem is either. I also tried the 64 bit version of
Windows XP and it didn't fix the issue. But MS guarantees a fix when you pay
for the support. So, I'll let you know what I find out.

 

[culapisci]

sorry i have the same problem

could you help me please?

thanks

 

[Guest]

Was there ever a solution found to this problem ????

Thanks,

Jason

 

[nicholas ferguson]

I have have a system with XP pro on it. I have 4GB of ecc memory
installed. I have rebuilt this system many times to test this problem.


XP pre-sp2 sees the 4gb of memory just fine with a /PAE switch.
As soon as SP2 is installed it will no longer see the 4GB of memory
only 3gb.

I know that sp2 added the noexecute bit and have read about how systems
that support hardware based noexecute have /PAE forced on.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/sp2mempr.mspx

My system runs dual Xeons 3.4 and does support hardware based
noexecute.

I have turned off that feature through the bios and put the flag of
AlwaysOff in the boot.ini.
This does not help.

I still can't see the 4gb, it will only see 3gb.

I have tried adding numerous combination of switches in the boot.ini
but nothing gets beyond 3GB when sp2 has been installed.

I have some friends who have sp2 installed and run 4gb of memory just
fine but I know for certain that when sp2 is installed on my
workstation it will only be able to see 3GB in the OS.

I have search the Microsoft's premier support site many times hoping to
find something about this and yet there is nothing listed.

this is obviously an issue with xp and sp2. It is not a matter of
wrong flags in the boot.ini like I have read sooo many posts on
different websites claim is the solution.

I also have the latest bios on my workstation dated 08/30/05.

Nicholas Ferguson

 

[Guest]

Hi, Did anyone find a solution to this problem... I have the same exact issue
on an IBM intellistation.

You can email me at (e-mail address removed)

Thanks

 

[Guest]

I'm also having the same problem with an IBM intellistation.

Did anyone figure this out?

If so please email me at (e-mail address removed)

 

[Guest]

Hello,

I have XP Pro SP2 running on a Dell Dimension XPS Gen4. I just recently
installed 4GB of PC4300 DDR2 RAM. System boots up and runs fine it seems.
Just noticed that only 3GB is reported in the tooltip in System window. In
System Information it reports 4096MB total memory though. Is this just a
display bug? Looks like quite a few people have this problem. Any solutions?
I have tried the /PAE command line option. Didn't change a thing.

Joseph