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28568
March 18th, 2008 22:00
XP doesn't support 4 GB RAM!
A friend on mine recently ordered -- on my advice -- a Vostro 400 tweaked to its highest settings with Windows XP Home, a quad core processor and 4 GM RAM. Fresh out of the box, it started up with the BSOD. After hours spent with tech support, we finally got a tech to the site with a new hard drive and video card. After installing them, he experienced exactly the same problem. He tried several things and finally called his tech support. I won't go into the gruesome details, but after trying to see if there was a bad memory stick, he discovered the problem only occured when all 4 sticks were in. After discussing this with the phone tech, I heard him say "Oh, I remember reading about that." Then he explained that 32 bit Windows XP will not handle 4GB memory, but that the 64 bit version will. We decided to keep the system with just 3 GB RAM in it.
My question is: Why does someone ordering this configuration not trigger and "incombatibility problem" response??
AWWang
44 Posts
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March 21st, 2008 01:00
bweed6
806 Posts
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March 21st, 2008 11:00
that's why you are getting the "diskette drive seek failure" message - floppy is turned on in the bios, and there is not one present in the system, thus the error message. this is very common and typically occurs when the bios defaults have been reset.
if you do not want to see this error message at start-up, enter the bios, and under drives, turn off the floppy. this issue has been discussed in the forum about 300,000 times. a simple search would have revealed the solution.
http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/search?submitted=true&type=message&sort_by=score&q=drive+seek+failure&page_size=10&index=public
Gina Q
2 Intern
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1.7K Posts
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March 21st, 2008 11:00
Since we're doing so much troubleshooting on this thread I'm moving it to the XP board. You all can continue this troubleshooting there.
davidearnest
71 Posts
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March 21st, 2008 12:00
As an FYI, I have been using XP Home Edition with 4GB of RAM for 15 months. I have had a couple of problems with my SATA drive, but nothing to do with RAM. I am ashamed to admit that I did not know that XP would not recognize/utilize all 4GB of RAM before I purchased it from Dell.
Good luck. Dave
bweed6
806 Posts
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March 21st, 2008 14:00
dufus1028
15 Posts
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March 21st, 2008 14:00
Hal 2001
18 Posts
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March 23rd, 2008 13:00
DELL-Chris B
2 Intern
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1.1K Posts
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March 24th, 2008 15:00
"If you have more than 4 GB of memory in your computer, Windows System Properties will not show all 4 GB. This is normal for 32-bit versions of Windows (the most common versions)."
Systems With 4 GB of Memory Display Less
Hal 2001
18 Posts
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March 24th, 2008 16:00
Dell, Chris B.
Why does someone ordering this configuration not trigger an ALERT from Dell even though this is not a true "incombatibility problem" ? Customers should be made aware of this issue without digging into a Dell or Microsoft data base. Hal 2001
DELL-Chris B
2 Intern
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1.1K Posts
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March 24th, 2008 16:00
Thanks for the response.
The information is also listed at the bottom of each configuration page as well.
*Systems configured with 4GB memory or more: The total amount of available memory will be less than 4GB. The amount less depends on the actual system configuration.
Hal 2001
18 Posts
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March 24th, 2008 17:00
Chris,
I have missed reading it ,something like reading a EULA or watching the grass grow.
No all joking aside I still feel it should be a "pop up" but thanks for the info... Hal 2001
dufus1028
15 Posts
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March 24th, 2008 22:00
How does Dell know you don't intend to upgrade to Vista some time down the road? Or something 64bit?
But yeah, I'm in the same boat and feel kind of cheap after learning this. It's like meeting the girl of your deams only to find out you're 2nd cousins. Or worse yet... she's a hooker.
Hal 2001
18 Posts
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March 25th, 2008 01:00
DELL-Chris B
2 Intern
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1.1K Posts
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March 25th, 2008 11:00
That's a great suggestion.
You may want to post this Idea to our IdeaStorm site:
http://www.ideastorm.com/