RAM upgrade problem

L

lewisner

Well-known member
I run a Packard Bell 6810 SLI computer with Windows XP. When I got it, it had 2 Gigs of RAM installed with slots for a further 2. I recently bought 2 x 1GB Kingston sticks and installed them myself.The wires in the PC are slightly tight so I labelled them all and after installing the RAM I reconnected them.
However when I started it up it showed only 3GB instead of 4GB ! I had a look to make sure the RAM was seated correctly and it was. The barman in a local pub is a whizz with computers and he said I should upgrade to Windows Service Pack 3 as SP1 and SP2 can only "see" 3 GB.I did as he said, but still only 3GB.
I then had a stroke of genius - I logged onto Crucial and used their Memory scanner to scan my PC, BUT it shows all 4 RAM slots in use, occupied by 8192 MB of RAM with a total of 32000 MB i.e. just over 3GB.
Does anyone know what I have done wrong?
Thanks in advance. :confused:
 
Really? I have been to several memory upgrade sites and they never mention that! What about this new version of Windows? Thanks anyway !:(
 
The upgrade sites look at your comp to see the only max it will take. Or any improvements that can be made. Vista 's not new, look through the forum and look at comments/problems regarding it.There's pro's and cons, ie some like it some dont. Me I staying with XP, a stable system.
 
Wessex_Electric_Nutter said:
Only if it is the 32bit version, the 64bit version doesn't have this limitation.
Click to expand...

There are so many good games and productivity applications that just plain will not work on XP64 though.

Too bad they decided not to let 32-bit users have more than 3 GB of ram, it kind of puts a damper on my upgrade plans. Although, if I can make Trainz run under WINE on Debian . . .
 
They (who ever they are) did not just decide to limit 32bit to 4gig, its the nature of the beast, and yes I said 4gig, 32bis OS's would see all 4 gig if the different manufacturers did not place their drivers in that mem space, when I was running XP 32bit I had 4gig, but only could use 3.28gig.
Go 64bit and use the lot. Linux has a price that is just right :D

Cheers David, ... who has thrown Windows out of its namesake :hehe: :hehe:
 
Several different opinions here.My friend in the bar says that although Windows XP will only show 3 GB on the screen it will actually use the whole 4 GB ? :eek:
 
As pommie has said, the extra .72GB RAM is used; just not for anything that benefits you. I run XP SP3 with 4GB RAM....works well enough for me!:D
 
The matter is mute really as XP will only allot 2gig max to any single program, so if you only run trainz, and what ever XP is running in the background, you will only be using around 2.5gig anyway.
XP will see the full 4gig but as I said the driver memory is allocated from 4gig down so it can only use what ever is left over, in my case it was 3.28, other systems will return a different figure.

Go Linux/Ubuntu 64bit and run trs through wine :) there are quite a few tutorials on how to do it, just use google.

Cheers David
 
skol587 said:
xp can only run 3 gb witch sucks if want to run 4 you need vista
Click to expand...

Both 64 bit XP and 64 bit Vista can use 4+ gigs of memory. Both 32 bit XP and 32 bit Vista can use 4 gigs but only make use of about 3.5 gigs. Vista normally needs more memory so less is available to the program, Trainz can only use 2 gigs unless you modify it to use 4 gigs. So 2.5 gigs is about the optimum for Trainz, 2gigs for Trainz and 512mb for the operating system.

Cheerio John
 
Hi everyone and if he has got more than 3gig and it is not Window XP the new one is Windows Seven and I don't know if it is out yet. Mario
 
lewisner said:
...snip....My friend in the bar says that although Windows XP will only show 3 GB on the screen it will actually use the whole 4 GB ? :eek:
Click to expand...

I give most of my best advice regarding computers ( IMO ) , in bars around closing time !

--- ,DLR :D
 
johnwhelan said:
Both 64 bit XP and 64 bit Vista can use 4+ gigs of memory. Both 32 bit XP and 32 bit Vista can use 4 gigs but only make use of about 3.5 gigs. Vista normally needs more memory so less is available to the program, Trainz can only use 2 gigs unless you modify it to use 4 gigs. So 2.5 gigs is about the optimum for Trainz, 2gigs for Trainz and 512mb for the operating system.

Cheerio John
Click to expand...

Can you modify trainz to use 4 gig?. if so please inform the how to. I've got 3 gig unemployed at the moment, they'll be going for re training soon!!
 
firemanMRP said:
Hi everyone and if he has got more than 3gig and it is not Window XP the new one is Windows Seven and I don't know if it is out yet. Mario
Click to expand...


Sorry Mario, but what on earth are you rattling on about? I don't understand what you are trying to say.

If you mean the ram issue and 32-bit vista, I have seen the rule where windows will use an entire gig for the driver space. (Yes, an ENTIRE GIG!)
The Acers I recently had, broke this rule, but they came with Vista, so I guess if you have 4GBs of RAM, Vista SP1 might actually work, is there any SP1 users with 4GB of RAM and on 32bits?

Windows 7, I have yet to try, most of my machines now use x64 variants of Vista or 7.
 
Wessex_Electric_Nutter said:
Sorry Mario, but what on earth are you rattling on about? I don't understand what you are trying to say.

If you mean the ram issue and 32-bit vista, I have seen the rule where windows will use an entire gig for the driver space. (Yes, an ENTIRE GIG!)
The Acers I recently had, broke this rule, but they came with Vista, so I guess if you have 4GBs of RAM, Vista SP1 might actually work, is there any SP1 users with 4GB of RAM and on 32bits?

Windows 7, I have yet to try, most of my machines now use x64 variants of Vista or 7.
Click to expand...

Wen if I read what your asking right (does anyone have 32bit vista with sp1 and 4gb ram)?

Yes I did have this it only sees the 4gb after the sp1 update but it does see it.

I however went over to the x64bit version of vista as I've found more stable than the x86bit.

Cheers Rusty
 
Just to show you that you can have 4GB in vista 32 bit after sp1 install.

3gbrambeforesp1.jpg

3GB no sp1 installed

4gbramaftersp1.jpg

4GB after sp1 installed.

The good thing with vista is that you can use the same key for both the 64bit and 32bit.

Cheers Rusty
 
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