vista ultimative 64 not showing ram

Hi guys,

I have just installed vista ultimative 64 danish version
(on my earlier pc I had home premium 32)...

I have 4 blocks a 1 gb pc6600 ddr II ram but the system
only shows 2.75 gb out of the 4 gb installed.
My mainboard is a new asus p5b-v with totally updated bios
and all of my ram has been checked and they work.
The software program "everest" (shows all system info)
shows all the ram ...but no other software does it...
photoshop cs3 only shows 2.75 gb ram available so.......
is there some setting in vista 64 that need to be changed or
is there an error in the operating system? -
please help..

Best regards

Mike

"amarok" <> wrote ...
> I have 4 blocks a 1 gb pc6600 ddr II ram but the system
> only shows 2.75 gb out of the 4 gb installed.
> My mainboard is a new asus p5b-v with totally updated bios
> and all of my ram has been checked and they work.
> The software program "everest" (shows all system info)
> shows all the ram ...but no other software does it...
> photoshop cs3 only shows 2.75 gb ram available so.......
> is there some setting in vista 64 that need to be changed or is there an
> error in the operating system? -

I'm afraid this sounds normal, and "by design". Even if you have 4GB of
physical memory, the operating system can only address between 2.8 and 3.2GB
of RAM.

The remaining 1G or so is reserved for hardware addresses. If you are very
lucky, your motherboard may be able to re-map the unused physical RAM to
higher address pages. Bu this is not yet a common feature in consumer
motherboards.

There's a good explanation here, with a few links to extra technical
details:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000811.html

Basically it's not a problem in Windows, or the your RAM, or even the
hardware, as such. All those hardware addresses needed to go somewhere! The
moral is, don't bother buying 4GB of memory, you probably won't be able to
use it. If your mother board does support page remapping you may be able to
recover some memory by fiddling in the BIOS.

Sorry for the bad news,

--
Andrew McLaren
amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au

"Andrew McLaren" <> wrote in message
news:12E3ACC2-F7C8-457F-8BD0-...
> "amarok" <> wrote ...
>> I have 4 blocks a 1 gb pc6600 ddr II ram but the system
>> only shows 2.75 gb out of the 4 gb installed.
>> My mainboard is a new asus p5b-v with totally updated bios
>> and all of my ram has been checked and they work.
>> The software program "everest" (shows all system info)
>> shows all the ram ...but no other software does it...
>> photoshop cs3 only shows 2.75 gb ram available so.......
>> is there some setting in vista 64 that need to be changed or is there an
>> error in the operating system? -
>
> I'm afraid this sounds normal, and "by design". Even if you have 4GB of
> physical memory, the operating system can only address between 2.8 and
> 3.2GB of RAM.
>
> The remaining 1G or so is reserved for hardware addresses. If you are very
> lucky, your motherboard may be able to re-map the unused physical RAM to
> higher address pages. Bu this is not yet a common feature in consumer
> motherboards.
>
> There's a good explanation here, with a few links to extra technical
> details:
> http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000811.html
>
> Basically it's not a problem in Windows, or the your RAM, or even the
> hardware, as such. All those hardware addresses needed to go somewhere!
> The moral is, don't bother buying 4GB of memory, you probably won't be
> able to use it. If your mother board does support page remapping you may
> be able to recover some memory by fiddling in the BIOS.
>
> Sorry for the bad news,
>
> --
> Andrew McLaren
> amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au
>
Andrew, he's using Vista 64-bit not 32-bit.

--
Michael Solomon
Backup is a PC user's best friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

"amarok" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hi guys,
>
> I have just installed vista ultimative 64 danish version
> (on my earlier pc I had home premium 32)...
>
> I have 4 blocks a 1 gb pc6600 ddr II ram but the system
> only shows 2.75 gb out of the 4 gb installed.
> My mainboard is a new asus p5b-v with totally updated bios
> and all of my ram has been checked and they work.
> The software program "everest" (shows all system info)
> shows all the ram ...but no other software does it...
> photoshop cs3 only shows 2.75 gb ram available so.......
> is there some setting in vista 64 that need to be changed or is there an
> error in the operating system? -
> please help..
>
> Best regards
>
> Mike
>
>
Mike, check out the following Knowledge Base Article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/

--
Michael Solomon
Backup is a PC user's best friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

But he is running Vista X64

My Vista x64 Business recognizes all of my 4GB of memory.

--
I Bleed Blue and Gold
GO BEARS!


"Andrew McLaren" <> wrote in message
news:12E3ACC2-F7C8-457F-8BD0-...
> "amarok" <> wrote ...
>> I have 4 blocks a 1 gb pc6600 ddr II ram but the system
>> only shows 2.75 gb out of the 4 gb installed.
>> My mainboard is a new asus p5b-v with totally updated bios
>> and all of my ram has been checked and they work.
>> The software program "everest" (shows all system info)
>> shows all the ram ...but no other software does it...
>> photoshop cs3 only shows 2.75 gb ram available so.......
>> is there some setting in vista 64 that need to be changed or is there an
>> error in the operating system? -
>
> I'm afraid this sounds normal, and "by design". Even if you have 4GB of
> physical memory, the operating system can only address between 2.8 and 3.2GB
> of RAM.
>
> The remaining 1G or so is reserved for hardware addresses. If you are very
> lucky, your motherboard may be able to re-map the unused physical RAM to
> higher address pages. Bu this is not yet a common feature in consumer
> motherboards.
>
> There's a good explanation here, with a few links to extra technical details:
> http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000811.html
>
> Basically it's not a problem in Windows, or the your RAM, or even the
> hardware, as such. All those hardware addresses needed to go somewhere! The
> moral is, don't bother buying 4GB of memory, you probably won't be able to use
> it. If your mother board does support page remapping you may be able to
> recover some memory by fiddling in the BIOS.
>
> Sorry for the bad news,
>
> --
> Andrew McLaren
> amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au
>

Andrew McLaren;390476 Wrote:
> "amarok" <> wrote ...
> > I have 4 blocks a 1 gb pc6600 ddr II ram but the system
> > only shows 2.75 gb out of the 4 gb installed.
> > My mainboard is a new asus p5b-v with totally updated bios
> > and all of my ram has been checked and they work.
> > The software program "everest" (shows all system info)
> > shows all the ram ...but no other software does it...
> > photoshop cs3 only shows 2.75 gb ram available so.......
> > is there some setting in vista 64 that need to be changed or is there
> an
> > error in the operating system? -
>
> I'm afraid this sounds normal, and "by design". Even if you have 4GB of
>
> physical memory, the operating system can only address between 2.8 and
> 3.2GB
> of RAM.
>
> The remaining 1G or so is reserved for hardware addresses. If you are
> very
> lucky, your motherboard may be able to re-map the unused physical RAM
> to
> higher address pages. Bu this is not yet a common feature in consumer
> motherboards.
>
> There's a good explanation here, with a few links to extra technical
> details:
> http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000811.html
>
> Basically it's not a problem in Windows, or the your RAM, or even the
> hardware, as such. All those hardware addresses needed to go somewhere!
> The
> moral is, don't bother buying 4GB of memory, you probably won't be able
> to
> use it. If your mother board does support page remapping you may be
> able to
> recover some memory by fiddling in the BIOS.
>
> Sorry for the bad news,
>
> --
> Andrew McLaren
> amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au
Yes this a problem with Vista 32. It is not a problem with Vista 64
which the op has installed.
>
> I have just installed vista ultimative 64 danish version
>
There is no setting that has to be changed. I run Vista Ultimate 64
with 4 gigs and it all shows fine.
It could be your motherboard doesn't support 4 gigs. However I doubt
that is the case since it shows more than 2 gigs. I haven't seen a
motherboard yet whith a 3gig limit. Usually it's in multiples of 2.


--
BSchwarz
Posted via http://ms-os.com Forum to Usenet gateway

"Michael Solomon" <user@#notme.com> wrote ...
>>
> Andrew, he's using Vista 64-bit not 32-bit.


Hi Michael,

Correct - and, the "bit-ness" of the Operating System doess not matter. Both
32 bit and 64 bit versions of Windows can be affected by this problem.

The only advantage you get from 64 bit Windows (in this particular regard)
is that the OS can address Terabytes of memory. So with 64 bit Windows there
is the possibility for the hardware to re-map pages of memory from the
reserved hardware range (2.75GB up to 4GB), into the address space somewhere
above 4GB - which is stil visible to the OS. That way, you get to utilise
all your physical RAM, even though there's a big hole in the middle of the
virtual address space.

To "see" a full 4GB of RAM requires a careful alignment of Operating System,
CPU, chipset, BIOS, and physical memory. Whether the OS is 32 bit or 64 bit,
is not the only variable. If (for example) the BIOS is blocking access to
the sub-4GB range, you can't automagically make it available to the
operating system, just by using 64-bit memory addressing (leaving aside
jiggery-pokery like PAE).

If the motherboard was fully populated with 8GB of RAM, then 64 Windows
could certainly see more than 4GB - maybe up to 6.75GB, in Mike's case. So
it's definitely beneficial to be running 64 bit Windows.

Mike's best shot would be to carefully study the Asus motherboard manual
(http://support.asus.com/download/dow...us&model=P5B-V)
to see what options might exist for re-mapping memory pages from the 2.75GB
to 4GB range.

Let me know if you think I'm wrong - happy to discuss further!

Cheers,
--
Andrew McLaren
amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au

"Cal Bear '66" <> wrote in message
news:C9479309-9EEB-437B-9774-...
> But he is running Vista X64
>
> My Vista x64 Business recognizes all of my 4GB of memory.


Hi Cal Bear!

Yep. You are lucky :-) As per my separate reply to Mike Solomon, 64 bit
Windows is a necessary, but not sufficient, pre-condition to seeing 4GB of
RAM. If you have the right version of Windows, and the right CPU, and the
right chipset, and the right BIOS, and 4+GB of physical RAM, then you can
indeed see 4GB of RAM!

Unfortunately for Mike (the OP, not Mike Solomon) it sounds like he is
missing one of these crucial factors. Thus, he sees somewhat less than the
4GB. Hopefully it can be adjusted by configuring the BIOS on his mother
board.

Best regards,
Andrew

"Andrew McLaren" <> wrote in message
news:06085CFC-CCC9-412B-8451-...
> "Michael Solomon" <user@#notme.com> wrote ...
>>>
>> Andrew, he's using Vista 64-bit not 32-bit.
>
>
> Hi Michael,
>
> Correct - and, the "bit-ness" of the Operating System doess not matter.
> Both 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Windows can be affected by this
> problem.
>
> The only advantage you get from 64 bit Windows (in this particular regard)
> is that the OS can address Terabytes of memory. So with 64 bit Windows
> there is the possibility for the hardware to re-map pages of memory from
> the reserved hardware range (2.75GB up to 4GB), into the address space
> somewhere above 4GB - which is stil visible to the OS. That way, you get
> to utilise all your physical RAM, even though there's a big hole in the
> middle of the virtual address space.
>
> To "see" a full 4GB of RAM requires a careful alignment of Operating
> System, CPU, chipset, BIOS, and physical memory. Whether the OS is 32 bit
> or 64 bit, is not the only variable. If (for example) the BIOS is blocking
> access to the sub-4GB range, you can't automagically make it available to
> the operating system, just by using 64-bit memory addressing (leaving
> aside jiggery-pokery like PAE).
>
> If the motherboard was fully populated with 8GB of RAM, then 64 Windows
> could certainly see more than 4GB - maybe up to 6.75GB, in Mike's case. So
> it's definitely beneficial to be running 64 bit Windows.
>
> Mike's best shot would be to carefully study the Asus motherboard manual
> (http://support.asus.com/download/dow...us&model=P5B-V)
> to see what options might exist for re-mapping memory pages from the
> 2.75GB to 4GB range.
>
> Let me know if you think I'm wrong - happy to discuss further!
>
> Cheers,
> --
> Andrew McLaren
> amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au
>
No, I don't think you're wrong. However, I got the impression from your
initial response you were applying the "limitation" of the 32-bit OS to the
64-bit. As already has been pointed out in this thread, some people never
have to do anything to enable the ability to see all 4GB. It's true, in
some cases, the user might have to enable memory remapping in the BIOS or
various other tweaks to get it done but the impression I got from your
original response was that you were essentially telling the OP to forget it
when, in fact, he had options open to him before giving up.

--
Michael Solomon
Backup is a PC user's best friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

"Michael Solomon" <user@#notme.com> wrote ...
> various other tweaks to get it done but the impression I got from your
> original response was that you were essentially telling the OP to forget
> it when, in fact, he had options open to him before giving up.

Fair comment ... I suppose I did sound prematurely pessimistic, in my first
response!

It looks like the remap function *is* supported in the P5B-V's BIOS, and was
fixed to work correctly in BIOS version 1005, released last month:

From
http://support.asus.com/download/dow...us&model=P5B-V
<quote>
Version 1005 2007/06/07 update

Description P5B-V BIOS 1005
"Support new CPUs. Please refer to our website at:
http://support.asus.com.tw/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx
Fixed plug 4GB memory with remap function enabled will cause fail to install
Windows Vista 64 bit"

File Size 789.51 (KBytes)

</quote>

Just an extra wrinkle in the pudding - OP Mike noticed the memory problem,
while he was running Photoshop CS3. I haven't upgraded CS2 yet, but I think
CS3 is still a purely 32-bit set of applications. If so, Photoshop is
running as a 32-bit process in the WoW64 layer; not as a native 64-bit
process. Hence, it is by no means automatic that Photoshop will take
advantage of the 64 bit memory address range, even if it is running 64 bit
Windows.

The WoW64 layer can make a full 4GB of virtual address space available to 32
bit applications (which is good!). But this only happens if the application
is linked with the IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE flag in the EXE header.
Until lately, very few 32 bit apps had this (SQL Server the only one I
know). Possibly the new Photoshop CS3 has this. An "ordianry" 32 bit
application still only sees 2Gb of user mode memory space, even when running
on the WoW64 on 64 bit Windows.

Of course, it would be nice for Windows itself to exploit the full 4GB of
physical memory. But it may not benefit Photoshop much as an individual
application, if Photoshop can still only use the 2GB of user mode, 32-bit
memory.

Anyway I haven't really thought through all the implications yet, for OP
Mike's problem. I just thought I'd through this into the mix. Still thinking
....

Cheers,
--
Andrew McLaren
amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au