Only 3 of 4 gig memory reported by Vista

I just installed an additional 2 Gig of memory in my Vista machine.

Before, I had 2 Gig and now Vista only reports 3 Gig ? I swapped the modules
around, and still only get 3 Gig

The bios correctly reports 4096 MB but Vista only 3071 MB

I did a Memory Diag, and Vista reported no memory errors.

How do I address this issue ?

Seriously considering tossing Vista out and going back to XP, the system is
slow. What a waste of money....

Thanks

Andre

Vista Home Premium
Athlon 64 X2 5200+ CPU
MSI K9N SLI Platinum mobo
4 x 1 Gig OCS DDR2, PC 6400 800 MHz memory sticks

I have 4 GBs of RAM in my system, and I'm running a 32-bit version of
Windows Vista, but I don't see 4 GB of RAM in the System Information
Explorer, why?

The system memory that is reported in the System Information dialog box in
Windows Vista is less than you expect if 4 GB of RAM is installed:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us

Understanding Address Spaces and the 4GB Limit - [H]ard|Forum:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1035670
--
Andre
Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
My Vista Quickstart Guide:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog...3DB!9709.entry

"Andre U" <> wrote in message
news:8F3C4C45-8853-4FAD-9BB5-...
>I just installed an additional 2 Gig of memory in my Vista machine.
>
> Before, I had 2 Gig and now Vista only reports 3 Gig ? I swapped the
> modules
> around, and still only get 3 Gig
>
> The bios correctly reports 4096 MB but Vista only 3071 MB
>
> I did a Memory Diag, and Vista reported no memory errors.
>
> How do I address this issue ?
>
> Seriously considering tossing Vista out and going back to XP, the system
> is
> slow. What a waste of money....
>
> Thanks
>
> Andre
>
> Vista Home Premium
> Athlon 64 X2 5200+ CPU
> MSI K9N SLI Platinum mobo
> 4 x 1 Gig OCS DDR2, PC 6400 800 MHz memory sticks
>

"Andre U" <> wrote in message
news:8F3C4C45-8853-4FAD-9BB5-...
>I just installed an additional 2 Gig of memory in my Vista machine.
>
> Before, I had 2 Gig and now Vista only reports 3 Gig ? I swapped the
> modules
> around, and still only get 3 Gig
>
> The bios correctly reports 4096 MB but Vista only 3071 MB

As Andre already mentioned, a 32-bit system is limited to 4GB of address
space. 4GB of RAM would require 4GB of address space to itself. However
that would leave the rest of your computer hardware unusable, as it would
not be addressable.

> How do I address this issue ?

Upgrade to 64-bit.

> Seriously considering tossing Vista out and going back to XP, the system
> is
> slow. What a waste of money....

Windows XP will show the same amount of RAM, as will any 32-bit OS.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.dasmirnov.net/blog/
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*

"Andre U" <> wrote:

>I just installed an additional 2 Gig of memory in my Vista machine.
>
>Before, I had 2 Gig and now Vista only reports 3 Gig ? I swapped the modules
>around, and still only get 3 Gig
>
>The bios correctly reports 4096 MB but Vista only 3071 MB

You're running the 32-bit version of Vista. No 32-bit OS can actually
use 4GB of RAM. It has 4GB of address space, but some of that must be
used to access the BIOS, video memory, etc. See
http://members.cox.net/slatteryt/RAM.html. The title says "XP", but
the discussion applies to 32-bit Vista also.

--
Tim Slattery

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

Tim Slattery wrote:
> "Andre U" <> wrote:
>
>> I just installed an additional 2 Gig of memory in my Vista machine.
>>
>> Before, I had 2 Gig and now Vista only reports 3 Gig ? I swapped the modules
>> around, and still only get 3 Gig
>>
>> The bios correctly reports 4096 MB but Vista only 3071 MB
>
> You're running the 32-bit version of Vista. No 32-bit OS can actually
> use 4GB of RAM. It has 4GB of address space, but some of that must be
> used to access the BIOS, video memory, etc. See
> http://members.cox.net/slatteryt/RAM.html. The title says "XP", but
> the discussion applies to 32-bit Vista also.
>


Occasionally I feel the need to correct this. The 32-bit Intel
processors have a 36-bit address. Windows was architected to make life
easy with a 4GB address space. Hence PAE is an unwieldy add on. The
32-bitness has to do with data path width.

Andre,
Thank you for the information and the links.

I understand this now (although I really do not want too)

Regards

Andre
"Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]" <> wrote in message
news:%...
>I have 4 GBs of RAM in my system, and I'm running a 32-bit version of
>Windows Vista, but I don't see 4 GB of RAM in the System Information
>Explorer, why?
>
> The system memory that is reported in the System Information dialog box in
> Windows Vista is less than you expect if 4 GB of RAM is installed:
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us
>
> Understanding Address Spaces and the 4GB Limit - [H]ard|Forum:
> http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1035670
> --
> Andre
> Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
> My Vista Quickstart Guide:
> http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog...3DB!9709.entry
>
> "Andre U" <> wrote in message
> news:8F3C4C45-8853-4FAD-9BB5-...
>>I just installed an additional 2 Gig of memory in my Vista machine.
>>
>> Before, I had 2 Gig and now Vista only reports 3 Gig ? I swapped the
>> modules
>> around, and still only get 3 Gig
>>
>> The bios correctly reports 4096 MB but Vista only 3071 MB
>>
>> I did a Memory Diag, and Vista reported no memory errors.
>>
>> How do I address this issue ?
>>
>> Seriously considering tossing Vista out and going back to XP, the system
>> is
>> slow. What a waste of money....
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Andre
>>
>> Vista Home Premium
>> Athlon 64 X2 5200+ CPU
>> MSI K9N SLI Platinum mobo
>> 4 x 1 Gig OCS DDR2, PC 6400 800 MHz memory sticks
>>
>
>

You are welcome Andre.
--
Andre
Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
My Vista Quickstart Guide:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog...3DB!9709.entry
"Andre U" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Andre,
> Thank you for the information and the links.
>
> I understand this now (although I really do not want too)
>
> Regards
>
> Andre
> "Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]" <> wrote in message
> news:%...
>>I have 4 GBs of RAM in my system, and I'm running a 32-bit version of
>>Windows Vista, but I don't see 4 GB of RAM in the System Information
>>Explorer, why?
>>
>> The system memory that is reported in the System Information dialog box
>> in Windows Vista is less than you expect if 4 GB of RAM is installed:
>>
>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us
>>
>> Understanding Address Spaces and the 4GB Limit - [H]ard|Forum:
>> http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1035670
>> --
>> Andre
>> Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
>> My Vista Quickstart Guide:
>> http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog...3DB!9709.entry
>>
>> "Andre U" <> wrote in message
>> news:8F3C4C45-8853-4FAD-9BB5-...
>>>I just installed an additional 2 Gig of memory in my Vista machine.
>>>
>>> Before, I had 2 Gig and now Vista only reports 3 Gig ? I swapped the
>>> modules
>>> around, and still only get 3 Gig
>>>
>>> The bios correctly reports 4096 MB but Vista only 3071 MB
>>>
>>> I did a Memory Diag, and Vista reported no memory errors.
>>>
>>> How do I address this issue ?
>>>
>>> Seriously considering tossing Vista out and going back to XP, the system
>>> is
>>> slow. What a waste of money....
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Andre
>>>
>>> Vista Home Premium
>>> Athlon 64 X2 5200+ CPU
>>> MSI K9N SLI Platinum mobo
>>> 4 x 1 Gig OCS DDR2, PC 6400 800 MHz memory sticks
>>>
>>
>>
>