Vista Home Premium sees 3GB BUT support 4GB HOW?

Vista Home Premium sees 3GB BUT support 4GB HOW?

I have Vista Home with 4GB install, but the system only sees 3GB. Is
there a way for Vista Home to see the entire 4GB?

The system uses (95% sure) if on
--> VISTA:Up to 1/4 of your memory, 2 GB of RAM used usually.
--> XP: Up to usually 1/8-1/10

<> wrote in message
news:5024195b-68cc-425f-bcab-...
> Vista Home Premium sees 3GB BUT support 4GB HOW?
>
> I have Vista Home with 4GB install, but the system only sees 3GB. Is
> there a way for Vista Home to see the entire 4GB?


--
Brian Sullivan

<> wrote in message
news:5024195b-68cc-425f-bcab-...
> Vista Home Premium sees 3GB BUT support 4GB HOW?
>
> I have Vista Home with 4GB install, but the system only sees 3GB. Is
> there a way for Vista Home to see the entire 4GB?
No. XP (like many many others) uses memory mapped I/O. XP accesses I/O
controllers as if they were memory locations.
Chaos would insue if both the RAM and the I/O controllers respond to the
same memory addresses. Thus, XP makes that part of the
physical RAM which overlays the contollers unavailable.

The solution would be for MS to use the PAE instruction to move the
controllers well away from the RAM. They might indeed do this in some
future edition of Windows.
But, there is no likelihood that they would implement such a feature in XP.

I do understand that the Server edition does use the PAE instruction in this
manner. But, what is lacking (and precudes implementation) are the physical
address lines in non server CPUs.
Jim

"" wrote:

> Vista Home Premium sees 3GB BUT support 4GB HOW?
>
> I have Vista Home with 4GB install, but the system only sees 3GB. Is
> there a way for Vista Home to see the entire 4GB?
>

You may order and install an x64-enabled Version of Windows Vista if you
have an appropriate CPU.

You can order a DVD in you language for a small fee (about 12 $) on the
official x64-Site

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...ons/64bit.mspx

at the bottom of the page. Be sure to have your product key ready for the
order process.

You should, if you want to switch, be aware of the advantages and
disadvantages (just search the web for "Vista x64") and you should also
download all the drivers for your system in 64-bit versions. If there is no
signed 64-bit driver for one of your hardware components you cannot use it
under Vista x64, 32-bit won't work, unsigned drivers require editing the boot
configuration.

Regards
AS