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Memory Isn't Reporting Correctly
My system was configured with 4MB of memory from Dell, but current it's only reporting 3070MB through the computer information window. The BIOS seems to recognize all the memory, so I'm not certain why Vista is reporting less. Does anyone know why Vista doesn't show all the memory installed?
DELL-Donald K
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Posted February 4th, 2007 12:00
it uses 4GB RAM, it is just reporting that is skewed.
DELL-Donald K
#IWork4Dell- Hi,I also thought that even 32bit Vista would be able to use 4GB of RAM. I thought from the Vista comparison tables... http://blogs.msdn.com/winbr/archive/2006/11/18/windows-vista-tabela-comparativa.aspx that our Vista 32bit would be able to use all the 4GB. I guess not. But I would not have bothered buying 4GB of RAM if I knew this ahead of time. :smileysad:Tom
Message Edited by tittelba on 02-04-2007 08:45 AM - Thanks for the info. Upon further searching I found this: http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=vista&message.id=8001#M8001Regards,Tom
- Windows vista is a 32 bit OS. 32 bit systems can only access 3 - 3.4Gb of physical memory. So even though you have 4Gb of RAM installed, and your system bios will detect that, Windows Vista will only show the 3 or 3.4Gb as the maximum memory. This is also the case for Windows XP. A 64 bit OS will be able to access all the installed RAM, but the problem with 64 bit systems is the inability to run many third party devices and drivers.
SR45
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Posted February 4th, 2007 11:00
Why doesn’t Vista address our 4 gigs of system memory? With Vista Premium or Ultimate x64, you should see the full 4GB, but with the 32 bit version you will not. This has nothing to do with Vista, but is a limitation of the 32bit x86 architecture.
http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/CS-010458.htm From a Server Product Intel site, but should apply to what’s going on now with Vista
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/aa366778.aspx Microsofts explanation of how much ram does the 32 bit and 64 bit OS Vista address
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?s=f07b03827b7f74da1b22123b4258669d&showtopic=525485&pid=588177948&st=0&#entry588177948 This forum link suggest a little higher memory being addressed
That's not a windows issue, but a hardware issue in how hardware access memory and reserved address space for some other things which causes that "missing block" of memory... the only way around this is to use a 64-bit system and a 64-bit OS
Message Edited by SR45 on 02-04-2007 08:27 AM