XP Memory issue

[Jo]

Hi,

I have just bought a new PC running XP and have an issue with memory, I have
4gb or RAM but when I look at the windows system screen it only displays
2.98gb. Are there any settings I need to change?

I understand there are issues with 32 it XP running RAM but my old PC had
4gb and displayed 3.5gb.

Is there any way I can force xp to see the extra RAM?

 

[Daave]

Hi,

I have just bought a new PC running XP and have an issue with memory,
I have 4gb or RAM but when I look at the windows system screen it
only displays
2.98gb. Are there any settings I need to change?

I understand there are issues with 32 it XP running RAM but my old PC
had 4gb and displayed 3.5gb.

Is it possible this new PC is using a chunk of your RAM for onboard
graphics?

 

[Jo]

I don't think so, I have a PCI Express nVidia 512mb card in the PC. I should
no tbe using the on board graphics

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi,

I have just bought a new PC running XP and have an issue with memory, I have
4gb or RAM but when I look at the windows system screen it only displays
2.98gb. Are there any settings I need to change?

No.


I understand there are issues with 32 it XP running RAM but my old PC had
4gb and displayed 3.5gb.

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

But 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.

Your old computer and the new one have different hardware
configurations and each uses a different amount of that address space.
Your 2.98GB and 3.5GB are pretty much the two extremes of the usable
range you might get.

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.

Is there any way I can force xp to see the extra RAM?

No.

Why do you need to, by the way? What apps do you run? Unless you run
particularly memory-hungry apps, very few people will see any
performance gain by having so much available memory in XP.

 

[Jo]

Thanks, for your post Ken that explains why I'm not seeing the memory.

I've just started working on a particularly large AutoCAD drawing and need
to do some 3D modelling on it.

I had problems with my old PC whilst workin gon AutoCAD, the solution I was
quoted on CAD forums was to increase the memory but the PC was old so I
decided to replace it as well.

Thanks,

 

[Gerry]

Jo

I do not use AutoCAD but doesn't it have an undo feature, which creates
the high demands for memory? If you have plenty of disk space save the
file using Save As at intervals. Then close and reopen to reduce what is
held by undo?

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~