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RAM question


mr insomniac

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Recently upgraded the RAM in my pc, and spent a significant amount of money to do so. Went from 1 GB (2 512mb sticks) to 4 gb (2 2gb sticks). However, in the system propeties in the control panel, windows (xp sp2) is reporting that i have 3.25 gb.

 

Anyone have any ideas why this is happening, and what i can do to fix it? One person i talked to suggested i test each memory stick by itself and make sure they're not faulty. another suggestd i adjust my virtual memory settings.

I took this job because I thought you were just a legend. Just a story. A story to scare little kids. But you're the real deal. The demon who dares to challenge God.

So what the hell do you want? Don't seem to me like you're out to make this stinkin' world a better place. Why you gotta kill all my men? Why you gotta kill me?

Nothing personal. It's just revenge.

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Recently upgraded the RAM in my pc, and spent a significant amount of money to do so. Went from 1 GB (2 512mb sticks) to 4 gb (2 2gb sticks). However, in the system propeties in the control panel, windows (xp sp2) is reporting that i have 3.25 gb.

Same thing happened to me. 4 Gb ( Corsair DDR ) was kinda pricey although it looks like you probably paid more for yours being two 2Gb sticks as opposed to my four 1 Gb sticks. WinXp doesn't seem to recognise the entire 4Gb. When ( if ) Vista gets all the kinks worked out and becomes a decent product, your system will be able to take full advantage of it.

Ruminations...

 

When a man has no Future, the Present passes too quickly to be assimilated and only the static Past has value.

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Thanks everyone for the replies. :) Not exactly the good news I was hoping for, but the explanation is sensible. As my neighbour jokingly told me; "you know what?? [The heck with] you and your memory problems. You've still got three times the RAM I've got!"

 

Looks like I'm Vista bound in the near future. :mellow:

I took this job because I thought you were just a legend. Just a story. A story to scare little kids. But you're the real deal. The demon who dares to challenge God.

So what the hell do you want? Don't seem to me like you're out to make this stinkin' world a better place. Why you gotta kill all my men? Why you gotta kill me?

Nothing personal. It's just revenge.

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The RAM will most likely be antiquated by then, though, and the newer motherboards will have onboard flash memory disk caching technology to provide ReadyBoost, ReadyDrive, and SuperFetch for Vista.

 

I'd offload it (eBay) and buy something else, or save for later. Or upgrade your XP.

OBSCVRVM PER OBSCVRIVS ET IGNOTVM PER IGNOTIVS

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OPVS ARTIFICEM PROBAT

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So, the difference between 32 bit and 64 bit is only in the xp OS? Meaning... there are no other hardware issues I'll have to deal with?

Edited by mr insomniac

I took this job because I thought you were just a legend. Just a story. A story to scare little kids. But you're the real deal. The demon who dares to challenge God.

So what the hell do you want? Don't seem to me like you're out to make this stinkin' world a better place. Why you gotta kill all my men? Why you gotta kill me?

Nothing personal. It's just revenge.

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I'm wondering if I'll need to upgrade any hardware components as well.

I took this job because I thought you were just a legend. Just a story. A story to scare little kids. But you're the real deal. The demon who dares to challenge God.

So what the hell do you want? Don't seem to me like you're out to make this stinkin' world a better place. Why you gotta kill all my men? Why you gotta kill me?

Nothing personal. It's just revenge.

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Hmm... got an intel core 2 duo @ 2.13 ghz

I took this job because I thought you were just a legend. Just a story. A story to scare little kids. But you're the real deal. The demon who dares to challenge God.

So what the hell do you want? Don't seem to me like you're out to make this stinkin' world a better place. Why you gotta kill all my men? Why you gotta kill me?

Nothing personal. It's just revenge.

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and I am pretty sure you'll be able to run 32 bit applications as that ...

it is referred to as "32-bit emulation mode."

 

core 2 duo is a 64-bit processor, mr. insomniac. the problem, as noted by meta, isn't the hardware but the OS. winders just plain does not recognize more than 2GB properly. the 64-bit version does, however. there's an addressing issue with winders xp (oddly, 32 bits of address space is 4GB).

 

taks

comrade taks... just because.

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Okay, thanks again everyone. I'd rather really not downgrade the ram in order for windows to recognize the full amount. upgrading the OS looks like my best bet.

 

Appreciate the help, folks. Was tearing out what little hair i've got left trying to figure this out.

I took this job because I thought you were just a legend. Just a story. A story to scare little kids. But you're the real deal. The demon who dares to challenge God.

So what the hell do you want? Don't seem to me like you're out to make this stinkin' world a better place. Why you gotta kill all my men? Why you gotta kill me?

Nothing personal. It's just revenge.

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Windows Vista will be available for purchase through retail channels beginning January 30, 2007. After that date, you will be able to purchase a new computer with Vista pre-installed or a box copy of Windows Vista that you can install on a computer yourself.

 

Volume license customers will be able to purchase Vista beginning November 30, 2006.

 

Since the Windows Vista release date comes after the 2006 holiday season, Microsoft and its partners are offering upgrade discounts to people who purchase new XP computers before March 15, 2007. Depending on the version of XP that comes with a new computer purchased this holiday season, the cost to upgrade to Vista can be minimal or even free. To learn more, read Before You Buy a XP Computer this Holiday Season.

clickie

OBSCVRVM PER OBSCVRIVS ET IGNOTVM PER IGNOTIVS

ingsoc.gif

OPVS ARTIFICEM PROBAT

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This is the PC Format's assessment and budget recommendation:

Vista             CPU            GPU         MoBo       RAM       HD      extra      Full
Min Spec        800MHz           Any         Any       512MB     Any      None        No
MS Recommend      1GHz            128MB SM2   Any        1GB     40GB     DVD-ROM     Yes
Budget           E6300 1.88GHz   7900GS      Intel 965  2GB    250GB     DVD-ROM     Yes

 

The minimum specification will run Windows Vista Basic (no Aero interface, but still DirectX10).

 

One caveat, though, I read recently (I think it was last month's PC Format) that Vista uses more RAM than XP. In a side-by-side comparison with some games (like WoW and Doom 3, I think) that run happily with XP and 1GB RAM, Vista makes extra trips to the HD, no doubt doing some cacheing legerdemain. This extra admin goes away when it has more than 2GB.

OBSCVRVM PER OBSCVRIVS ET IGNOTVM PER IGNOTIVS

ingsoc.gif

OPVS ARTIFICEM PROBAT

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So, the difference between 32 bit and 64 bit is only in the xp OS? Meaning... there are no other hardware issues I'll have to deal with?

I guy at the computer store that I buy most of my peices/parts at has been running WinXP 64 for over a year. He said that finding drivers for his printer and other periferals ( sp? ) was a monstrous pain in the ass. If you decide that a 64 bit OS looks like the way you want to go, check for the drivers for all your stuff first.

Ruminations...

 

When a man has no Future, the Present passes too quickly to be assimilated and only the static Past has value.

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I found this Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor tool, which tests your pc to see if it's vista ready. Interestingly, the advisor won't work on a 64-bit system.

 

However, the only issues it found were with my printer (which is ok since i was thinking of buying a new one anyway) and three or four older programs, that it suggested I uninstall before upgrading to vista.

 

A third time, thanks for all the info everyone. I think I'm going to wait a while, perhaps until the first service pack, before upgrading.

I took this job because I thought you were just a legend. Just a story. A story to scare little kids. But you're the real deal. The demon who dares to challenge God.

So what the hell do you want? Don't seem to me like you're out to make this stinkin' world a better place. Why you gotta kill all my men? Why you gotta kill me?

Nothing personal. It's just revenge.

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