Ram not there? Computer Hardware GURU's?

[Ghost]

Ok so I added some RAM to this computer this am. Was at 3gb and added a 2gb chipset and took the 1gb out. Dell Optiplex G280, P4 2.8 ghz processor running Windows XP SP3. WHen I restarted it and went to setup it showed the 2 gb chips in the bios. I think that is where I was. Now in Windows when I right click the properties it only shows the 3gb that was in there. What did I not do or is it a windows issue or is there no issue? Edumicate me pls!

 

[dave92cherokee]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/244742-30-recognizing

By default xp usually will only recognize 3GB of ram. There's a couple of posts in that thread that talk about modifying the boot.ini file to allow xp to recognize the full 4GB.

 

[Ghost]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/244742-30-recognizing

By default xp usually will only recognize 3GB of ram. There's a couple of posts in that thread that talk about modifying the boot.ini file to allow xp to recognize the full 4GB.

Hey thanks. Look at that but that says you can change the boot.ini for xp pro not sure how to do that.

 

[XJLI]

if its a x86 system, you cant have more than 3.5gb of ram. you cant have more without going to 64 bit.

 

[Ghost]

Found a boot file in the c drive. Has this in it.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

[spybotsd]
timeout.old=30

Any idea where I would put the /PAE?

 

[cal]

After the /fastdetect

 

[cal]

I should warn you that running PAE mode windows can be.. less stable.

 

[Ghost]

I should warn you that running PAE mode windows can be.. less stable.

So from what I can gather from a friend here and what you guys are saying the hardware is and see's the memory and uses it but the windows does not. Is it worth the effort to modify that file then? Seems like my best plan is to leave it be and just let it run as is.

 

[TheCaptain]

Let it run as is, or better yet upgrade to windows 7 64 bit. The problem its that 32 bit windows can only handle 4 gig, and I'm guessing you have a 1 gig video card.

 

[cal]

So from what I can gather from a friend here and what you guys are saying the hardware is and see's the memory and uses it but the windows does not. Is it worth the effort to modify that file then? Seems like my best plan is to leave it be and just let it run as is.

I'd go ahead and make the change.

If your stuff starts crashing, change it back. doesnt cost you anything to try.

 

[kastein]

if its a x86 system, you cant have more than 3.5gb of ram. you cant have more without going to 64 bit.

sorta. if it's a 32 bit x86 system you can't have more than 4GB, including I/O mapped memory (video cards, network cards, BIOS, some onboard I/O stuff, sound cards, hard drive adapters... everything has a little memory mapped I/O these days.) Usually it works out to about 3 to 3.5 gigabytes of usable address space for actual memory, sometimes it doesn't. The rest of the memory is there but can't be addressed unless you switch to a 64 bit version of windows (which is actually x86-64, or EM64T, or amd64, or a few other names, depending on whose trademark or nickname you are going to use.)

I should warn you that running PAE mode windows can be.. less stable.

yeah, mostly due to drivers. A lot of drivers aren't really tested with PAE enabled and people keep assuming that a pointer is always 32 bits, so things can get a bit broken.

 

[XJLI]

sorta. if it's a 32 bit x86 system you can't have more than 4GB, including I/O mapped memory (video cards, network cards, BIOS, some onboard I/O stuff, sound cards, hard drive adapters... everything has a little memory mapped I/O these days.) Usually it works out to about 3 to 3.5 gigabytes of usable address space for actual memory, sometimes it doesn't. The rest of the memory is there but can't be addressed unless you switch to a 64 bit version of windows (which is actually x86-64, or EM64T, or amd64, or a few other names, depending on whose trademark or nickname you are going to use.)

I wasn't gonna get too technical lol