4G memory installed, only 2g shows in XP...

[SWBgHz]

Title is summation but to offer more detail see sig for specs of my new build. Also, while only 2g (have 4 1G modules, prepared for DX10 era) show as RAM in Xp in the BIOS all 4G shows and test out fine. Oddly, in the page file configuration section of XP it is ADDING 2G of RAM to whatever pagefile I define. I allways set my pagefile to a specified and fixed size (on a partiiton on the O/S physical drive created just for it), in this case a small 512 PF simply so XP doesn't complain. The odd thing with this build is that when I have all four modules in (4G total) XP will show 2G of RAM and then 2G + 512 (512 from the pagefile I set) as the total pagefile size.

Now I know XP can only adress 4G of RAm in total and that the MB uses some RAM for its addressing so I don't expect to get all 4g seen/used by XP; btu that being said it should see 3.5 or 3.75 of it (less any pagefile) and should NOT show the toher 2G as a pagefile.

Anyone have a clue on this - it just seems mighty odd. I am new to Intel - been with AMD for quite some time. Is this related to Intel's having memory controller off the CPU on the northbridge still? I read on the ASUS site abotu some 'memory swap' function of the chipset but found no details to explain this instance.

All in all I am more than happy to run with 2G (I just removed the extra 2G for now untill I get some info abotu the issue) but I am curious as to the mechanics of what was happening with the 4G in there.

Thoughts?

p.s. Forgive me if this goes in another section - seems to be as much an O/S issue as a MB issue.

 

[gorbs]

are all four slots on the mobo rated the same ie; ddr2 or ddr. i dont think ddr2 memory will register in a ddr slot. i'm no expert by far just offering a place to start looking if this has not yet been considered.

 

[Peter]

Your twin graphics unit will eat at least half a gig of address space as well, if not an entire one.

Open device manager, switch the view to resources by type, unfold Memory and see for yourself how far down (from FFFFFFFF down to 0) devices are getting mapped. The remaining space is all the RAM you get in 32-bit environment.

 

[SWBgHz]

Yeah - I came to taht realization after reading on the ASUS site that dual GPUs take up about 512 total of adress space, add in the actual 1g of memory the cards have and the other devices and it is easy to see 2g of adresses getting used. Ph well, no biggy, I got the extra 2G for DX10 time anyways and by then I will be on x64 Vista so no worries.

 

[etrin]

you can put 8 gig on some boards but 32 bit microsoft won't see it.

you can check ms site but I believe the most it can see is something like
2.9 gig max.

 

[Peter]

... in 32-bit operating systems. Bigger ones (Linux, or Windows 2003 Server) that do 36-bit PAE will see up to 64, and fully 64-bit operating systems will see everything you've got, regardless of how much it is.

 

[SWBgHz]

Actually, PAE is really only intended for situations of more than 4G, I suppose I just had a hard time believing that 2G of address spaces where used for hardware but seeing on the ASUS site that dual GPUs takes as much as 512M and then adding in the 1G of GPU memory it makes sense.

I am going to go ahead and leave it installed (the extra 2g of RAM - not sure it makes any differance but with a lifetime warranty in the computer is as good a place to stow it until DX10/Vista time as any.