NZFF

Ok,

so i FINALLY managed to get my broken RAM replaced (after having sent it all the way back to Hong Kong, and having them send back the broken stuff again as the replacement )...

Now as I couldnt wait to get it all sorted, I purchased another Corsair 2Gig Twin2X pack from a shop here in Auckland.

So I now have 4Gigs in total (2x 2Gig DDR2-800 Twin2x). But reading up online, 32bit OS's like WinXP SP2 dont really handle it all that well...

I have Windows XP 64bit, but have read that (stable) drivers can be hard to come by... and I also have access to Vista via work (not sure if this is 64bit tho), but it seems that 32bit Vista suffers from the same problems...

I'm kinda lost... and Windows System Properties is reporting:

Intel® Core™2 CPU
6400 @ 2.13GHz
2.13 GHz, 3.50 GB of RAM
Physical Address Extension

Am I just wasting memory having 4 gigs? Should I just put one of the 2gig packs onto Trademe?

Any ideas?

I think the max a 32-bit system can handle is 4 gigs, I know people who have four gigs no problem.

Alex

yeah 4gig is the 32bit limit. Should work alright- Im currently going fine with 3GB

**** WARNING **** GEEK ALERT **** WARNING ****

do not read this post unless you:
a. have a vague interest in computer hardware, OSes etc.
b. want a migraine headache

**** WARNING **** GEEK ALERT **** WARNING ****

after some serious (and somewhat confusing) reading... I have discovered the following...

32bit OS's can 'address' up to 4gigs of memory... unfortunately, as things like memory mapped video and device drivers (DMA-mode) etc. also require a memory 'address', you get the following situation:

|---1gig---||---2gig---||---3gig---||---4gig----|
|----------3.5gig RAM addresses-------||-HW-|

ie. your hardware uses some of the 4gig memory address space. Its not using your RAM as such, but its occupying an address space, so your RAM cannot be fully used, as XP cannot assign an address to it

Now prior to XP SP1 and SP2, apparently you could throw in a /PAE switch into boot.ini to enable "Physical Address Extenstion" which would then do this:

|---1gig---||---2gig---||---3gig---||---4gig----||----------...
|----------3.5gig RAM addresses-------||-HW-||--RAM--|

ie. it would allow windows to have more than 4gigs of address space, so it could then get access to all your RAM, by extending the address space (not sure exactly how this works ) and pushing the remaining bits of RAM into a higher address space.

Unfortunately, as far as I can gather, sometimes the hardware would actually be pushed into the higher address spaces and there were too many buggy drivers written etc. which did not cope well with this setup and caused too many system crashes and other problems, so M$ removed the functionality to try to ensure system stability.

The upshot of all this is that I am looking into 64bit OS's as they do not have this issue... I already have XP 64bit, which I will try putting into a dual boot tonight... and looking at our MS Volume License Services, our company is allowed Vista Business 64bit, so I will probably nab that on monday

I'm kinda concerned, as I have seen people commenting on lack of 64bit drivers and gaming on a 64bit system does not seem to be too common... I'll let you all know how I get on...

cheers,
HCP

When you have 3GB installed, how do you get it to report it has 3GB as oposed to 2GB?

This should not be a problem... the 32bit version of XP should be able to report 3GB as 3GB without issue.

if its not, then your RAM may be faulty... what is the BIOS reporting during bootup??

Reports 2GB, if I take any two RAM chips out (I have 6) it doesn't change the amount and any two RAM chips in will show the correct 1GB amount. I saw something about a /3GB switch for the boot.ini file or something but that doesn't seem to change what is reported either.

Sounds like your mobo only supports up to 2GB... what make/model of MOBO is this?

If the BIOS is only reporting 2Gigs during startup, then that is all Windows is going to see...

You may need to download a BIOS update or something...

I've got a Gigabyte P4 Titan GA-8IK1100 which according to the manual can handle up to 4GB of RAM.