vista recognize 3.25 gigs ram out of 4?

[logitex65]

hey, just got 2 X 2gig of ram for my pc. when i go into the motherboard BIOS it recognize the 4gigs of ram, but when i log in to windows XP, and check system properties it states it only has 3.25gig of ram. So i decided to run CPUZ (software) and it also recognizes the 4 gigs. So then i installed Windows Vista home premium, and it also recognize 3.25 gigs. Can somebody help me with this issue. Thanks

specs

-Windows vista
-motherboard (BIOSTAR TForce TF570SLI AM2)
-cpu (amd athlon 64 x2 5200+ (windsor)
-ram (G.SKILL 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit)
-videocard (nvidia 8800gts 640MB)
-Hard drive ( 500gig sata)

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

32 bit os

 

[taltamir]

it is an inherant issue with 32bit. This is the main reason that we switched ovre to 64bit. You want to see ALL of your ram, upgrade to XP64 or Vista64

 

[LOUISSSSS]

i think there needs to be a sticky in the mem forum about this (even though almost everyone knows already) so people stop asking...

 

[logitex65]

i have heard xp 64bit is alot of hassle, with software compatibility. is it true for you guys? btw i seen LOISSSSS has the same ram as me. is it running good because of sp3 on his xp 32bit?

 

[LOUISSSSS]

i've never run 64-bit, so i cannot comment on that, but my 4gb is fine on 32-bit.

 

[logitex65]

alright thanks for your help guys. I appreciate it.

 

[Twsmit]

I have run XP x64 and currently run Vista x64.

With mainstream hardware and software you shouldn't have many issues with XP x64, literally the only software I ran across that didn't work was iTunes. Apple is basically lazy and opted out supporting XP x64 requiring me to hack/modify the Vista install to get it to work. Everything else pretty much worked fine, however I do not have an exotic configuration with a lot of peripherals or custom software.

Vista x64 seems to work fine as well, very fast and the biggest advantage is that it will have better compatibility moving forward and won't get phased out for many years to come. Running XP x64 would be akin to running Win2k around the year 2003 or 2004well after XP had been released. It would give you a mature OS but put you behind the technology curve using a less than mainstream OS. It's something I would probably try and avoid since Vista will be supported by MS and 3rd parties longer than XP x64.

 

[drebo]

If you enable Physical Address Extension, XP 32-bit will let you SEE all 4gb, but you'll still only have access to ~3.25gb of it. It's an inherent problem with the way 32bit operating systems address system resources.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Originally posted by: drebo
If you enable Physical Address Extension, XP 32-bit will let you SEE all 4gb, but you'll still only have access to ~3.25gb of it. It's an inherent problem with the way 32bit operating systems address system resources.

how do u do that?

 

[tcsenter]

It is already enabled by default if your processor and BIOS supports hardware DEP. If System Properties reports Physical Address Extensions under the RAM, then its already enabled. 32-bit XP SP2 and later will only report RAM that exists in 32-bit space, PAE or no PAE.

 

[logitex65]

Originally posted by: drebo
If you enable Physical Address Extension, XP 32-bit will let you SEE all 4gb, but you'll still only have access to ~3.25gb of it. It's an inherent problem with the way 32bit operating systems address system resources.

yeah i did get to try that. but it did not work out for me. I just bought xp 64bit, and its running great. It recognizes all 6 gig of ram with no problem.🙂

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: logitex65
i have heard xp 64bit is alot of hassle, with software compatibility. is it true for you guys? btw i seen LOISSSSS has the same ram as me. is it running good because of sp3 on his xp 32bit?

XP 64 is actually windows server 2003. Making it by far the least supported of any OS out there.
Vista 64bit is the way to go.

As for software...
iTunes works, but will not burn CDs for you (although people made a 3rd party driver that WILL let itunes do so). It is the only pertinent 64bit issue out there...

As for vista issues...
UPS Worldship is the ONLY program that I know of that does not work on vista. (there is a closed beta that does)
FedEx has an open beta for vista...

The main issue is drivers, but we are now at the point where new hardware comes out with vista (64 and 32bit) support and no windows XP support...
So i would say 98% of hardware supports both 32bit and 64bit. 1% doesn't work with vista64, and 1% doesn't work with XP.

Really, compatibility has stopped being an issue a year ago.

Also, all the major problems with vista (and there were some pretty serious problems there) were solved by SP1