Vista Sp1 Won't Resolve The 4 Gb Ram Limitation Of 32-bit Windows Vista

[Guest Reimar]

Vista SP1 Won't Resolve the 4 GB RAM Limitation of 32-bit Windows Vista

32-bit Windows operating systems, and Windows Vista makes no exception whatsoever to this rule, are limited in terms of the amount of system memory that can be addressed to no more than 4 GB. But, the fact of the matter is that 32-bit Windows XP or Windows Vista will not use more than 3.2 GB to a maximum of 3.5 GB of RAM, even if the hardware configuration comes with a full 4 GB. This issue does not impact 64-bit  Windows operating systems, and with Vista you can go all out when it comes to RAM, as the Ultimate, aBusiness and Enterprise SKUs can support a maximum of 128 GB of physical system memory, while the Home Premium and Home Basic editions will permit the implementation of 16 GB, and respectively 8 GB of RAM. 

With Windows Vista SP1, currently planned for the first quarter of 2008, Microsoft will force the operating system to show the full amount of system memory installed, and not only the memory that Vista has available. The Redmond company warned that the change will ultimately depend on the integration with the machine's BIOS and, as such, not all Vista users will experience it. But, it does not mean that Vista SP1 will resolve the 4 GB of RAM limitations of the 32-bit Vista operating system. In this context, if you have a 32-bit copy of Vista, there is no point waiting for SP1 to enjoy up to four GB of RAM, the simplest solution is to go 64-bit.

"Due to an architectural decision made long ago, if you have 4GB of physical RAM installed, Windows is only able to report a portion of the physical 4GB of RAM (ranges from ~2.75GB to 3.5GB depending on the devices installed, motherboard's chipset & BIOS). This behavior is due to 'memory mapped IO reservations'. Those reservations overlay the physical address space and mask out those physical addresses so that they cannot be used for working memory. Significant chunks of address space below 4GB (the highest address accessible via 32-bit) get reserved for use by system hardware: BIOS – including ACPI and legacy video support; PCI bus including bridges etc. PCI Express support will reserve at least 256MB, up to 768MB depending on graphics card installed memory", explained Hilton Locke, Microsoft Software Test Engineer.

WSUS 3.0 SP1 can be expected in this time frame too.

Source

[bensonellie]

Futureshop has just put 2GB laptop RAM on sale for $90. I am currently using an HP Pavillion dv9000, AMD 64×2 1.6Ghz dual processor. I am running Vista Home Premium, 32-bit. The HP BIOS is F.3D. When I bought it, I ugraded from 1GB (512×2) to 2GB (1GBx2). The salesman told me it was exapandable to 4GB, but only when 2GB RAM became available. Before rushing out and buying new RAM, I came across several post sites such as this one. I have 2 questions:

1) Although my 32-bit system will never recognize the full 4GB of RAM, I will still need to put in 4GB in order to get the maximum amount, which could range anywhere from 2.5 - 3.5 GB. Obviously, it will not show 3.5GB if I only have 3GB installed? Correct? Curiously, my HP “system” screen show 2GB as a maximum, but I have heard that the latest updates allow for 4GB, even though the system reporting software may not ever show 4GB. It will show up in the BIOS, however.

2) With 2 slots, would I lose efficiency if I only expand 1 slot to 2GB, leaving the other at 1GB? Or, do I have to expand equally for maximum efficiency?

My need to upgrade my RAM comes from my system performance info, which shows that, with only IE operating, I have 1982MB of Physical Memory, with 1424MB Cached and only 50MB Free. Although there is only one “task” listed, there are about 80 “processes” being used. Other than increasing the RAM as suggested in my previous post, is there anything else I can do to free up some RAM???

[Thanh-BKK]

My need to upgrade my RAM comes from my system performance info, which shows that, with only IE operating, I have 1982MB of Physical Memory, with 1424MB Cached and only 50MB Free. Although there is only one “task” listed, there are about 80 “processes” being used. Other than increasing the RAM as suggested in my previous post, is there anything else I can do to free up some RAM???

Hi

When i installed all of 3 GB in my system, my Vista 32bit Ultimate simply refused to boot! Using 2 1-GB sticks and one 512 MB it would work - but it seems that in MY case this was due to some motherboard issue - apparently this mainboard, the manual of which says "up to 3 GB", supports really only 2 GB, and 2.5 if lucky (same issue - address limitation). The board is a Asus K8N4-SE, the type of memory used is DDR-1/400.

However what i am wondering is why YOUR Vista seems to be such a memory hog?? Sure mine is a desktop (i built the system myself - don't like branded machines hehe) but i have a rock-stable system running on 2x 1GB with one slot unused, and right at this moment with 76 processes active (including a shipload mof programs that auto-start, a torrent client hammering away at 8 torrents and 4 open Firefox windows) i have, out of 2.048 MB physical memory installed, 1.147 MB free. And i am running Vista with all the "bells and whistles" on except the sidebar.

I recommend you a tiny little program named "RAMpage", it has been with me since the days of Windows 95 on a 486 DX/4-100 with 32 MB where this tiny helper was really needed - it sist in the taskbar and permanently shows you the amount of RAM that's free, and when you need more, a simple double-click on that icon will free a certain amount (which you can configure) by "paging" it to the, errm, page-file. This teensy program nowadays for me serves purely as a RAM monitor - i like such little gizmos sitting in my taskbar telling me what goes on under the hood of my machine Grab RAMpage from here: http://www.jfitz.com/software/RAMpage/ it is and has always been a freeware.

Also i highly recommend to set your page-file to a fixed size, and large enough - it gives a little performance gain too as Windows does not need to resize it constantly depending on how much is needed at the moment. In my case, i have 2 GB of physical RAM and a fixed-size page-file of 4 GB (4.096 MB).

To do that, get to your control panel (Start -> Control Panel), then "System", then "Advanced System Settings", there the "Advanced" tab and finally, under "Performance", click "Settings". This will open another window with tabs. Go to "Advanced" and there, under "Virtual Memory", click "Change". Set this to "Custom Size" and input "4096" in both "minimum" and "maximum". Click OK and you're done. OF COURSE you will need 4 GB available on drive C:!!

I hope i could help.......

Thanh

[Guest Reimar]

Futureshop has just put 2GB laptop RAM on sale for $90. I am currently using an HP Pavillion dv9000, AMD 64×2 1.6Ghz dual processor. I am running Vista Home Premium, 32-bit. The HP BIOS is F.3D. When I bought it, I ugraded from 1GB (512×2) to 2GB (1GBx2). The salesman told me it was exapandable to 4GB, but only when 2GB RAM became available. Before rushing out and buying new RAM, I came across several post sites such as this one. I have 2 questions:

1) Although my 32-bit system will never recognize the full 4GB of RAM, I will still need to put in 4GB in order to get the maximum amount, which could range anywhere from 2.5 - 3.5 GB. Obviously, it will not show 3.5GB if I only have 3GB installed? Correct? Curiously, my HP "system" screen show 2GB as a maximum, but I have heard that the latest updates allow for 4GB, even though the system reporting software may not ever show 4GB. It will show up in the BIOS, however.

2) With 2 slots, would I lose efficiency if I only expand 1 slot to 2GB, leaving the other at 1GB? Or, do I have to expand equally for maximum efficiency?

My need to upgrade my RAM comes from my system performance info, which shows that, with only IE operating, I have 1982MB of Physical Memory, with 1424MB Cached and only 50MB Free. Although there is only one "task" listed, there are about 80 "processes" being used. Other than increasing the RAM as suggested in my previous post, is there anything else I can do to free up some RAM???

As far as I know HP supports a max of 2 GB for you Model! It's not the BIOS only but the Memory Controller on MB as well which need to support higher capacity of RAM. You'll need to check with the technical Support from HP about the max you'll be able to use. But froget HP Thailand, the service and technican are crap!

If you upgrade to more capacity and you laptop supports Dual Channel memory, you need to use the exact same Memory banks in all slots. Importand is not the MHz speed but the CL (Cas Latency) as well. Last must be as low as possible because more low more fast, for example CL 3 is much better than CL4 or CL5. Best you can get for Laptops are CL 2.5

[bensonellie]

Thanks to All! I will take a closer look at my system before buying more RAM.

[astral]

I am not sure what is the big deal here..............

4Gb is the biggest number you can generate with 32 bits..........

Simple binary arithmetic.

So it is no wonder that 32 bit machines max out at 4Gb

[bensonellie]

Quite obviously by my first post, I understand it just fine. The "big deal" is that the "math" you talk about has hidden variables that don't allow a 32-bit user to ever access the full 4GB, since other process have much of the RAM designated to them. My questions were, do I still install the full 4GB, even though I will only have direct access to maybe 2.5 or 3.5? Also, do I need to install equal RAM if I have a dual channel on my laptop. Your math is simple and easy, but is not the nature of the question.

[bangkokrick]

Hi guys. I just got the windows vista service pack 1 through automatic updates so i hope that this will improve my system. just to say thanks to Reimar for the previous help.

I will keep you posted as to any improvements in Vista. if not i am certainly thinking about downgrading to XP.

Cheers Rick

[bkk_mike]

When i installed all of 3 GB in my system, my Vista 32bit Ultimate simply refused to boot! Using 2 1-GB sticks and one 512 MB it would work - but it seems that in MY case this was due to some motherboard issue - apparently this mainboard, the manual of which says "up to 3 GB", supports really only 2 GB, and 2.5 if lucky (same issue - address limitation). The board is a Asus K8N4-SE, the type of memory used is DDR-1/400.

DDR has timing issues when you attempt to use all 4 slots on most motherboards. So much so, that they generally only work with registered Dimms. (which are slower, cost more, but are more reliable).

DDR2 and DDR3 generally solved this timing issue, so using 4 DIMM slots with them is less likely to be a problem.

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

Yeah i guess that might be true as well... altough i have "experimented around" quite a bit, my board has THREE slots (oddly enough) and at first i was running it with three identical 512 MB sticks and all was perfectly fine - when i then purchased the 3 identical 1 GB sticks, as mentioned it wouldn't boot. Two of the new ones and one of the old would work however..... and later i found out that the old ones were only DDR-266 while the new ones are DDR-400 RAM, maybe that's a point too, someone actually told me that, when using all three 1 GB sticks, i should have set the frequency manually to 266 MHz..... but what's the point, buying 400 MHz RAM to run it at 266? My machine IS a heck of a lot faster with these than it was with the old ones, even tough it's just 512 MB more.

Is it really DDR-3 already available? dam_n. I hate it when new stuff becomes available. Example - bought a brand-spankin-new CPU and three months later when my MoBo died i couldn't find one with such socket anymore! So i bought a second-hand one which required a new type of RAM (DDR-1, before i was using SD) so i got the DDR-1 RAM. MoBo was <deleted>, so i went for a new one which now had to support DDR-1 (i use that one now), for THAT i needed a new CPU! Socket 754. Got me the Sempron. Few months later got spare cash again, want a faster CPU - NARDA, no CPU's for that socket available anymore! AAAAAAARGH! So now if i want a faster CPU i need a new MoBo again for which i then will need new type RAM (DDR-2 or even DDR-3) again! Screw that, i keep using my slow system (which really isn't all that slow). I'll build a new one when 1) mine burns down again or 2) 8-Core 10 GHz CPU's are available for 500 Baht.

Best regards....

Thanh

[Digitalbanana]

Hi guys. I just got the windows vista service pack 1 through automatic updates

How did you manage that? SP1 is still in beta and not released yet is it? My auto updates (last 09Jan08) don't mention SP1.

Edited January 10, 2008 by Digitalbanana

[Guest Reimar]

Hi guys. I just got the windows vista service pack 1 through automatic updates

How did you manage that? SP1 is still in beta and not released yet is it? My auto updates (last 09Jan08) don't mention SP1.

You can download SP1 from MS manually! It's at MS Download Center!

[Digitalbanana]

Hi guys. I just got the windows vista service pack 1 through automatic updates

How did you manage that? SP1 is still in beta and not released yet is it? My auto updates (last 09Jan08) don't mention SP1.

You can download SP1 from MS manually! It's at MS Download Center!

Cannot find any downloads of this myself. Anyone got a link? All the links I find with Google point to beta releases (they call them release candidates). I've not used a Microsoft beta in over 10 years.. too much heartache.

[Guest Reimar]

Hi guys. I just got the windows vista service pack 1 through automatic updates

How did you manage that? SP1 is still in beta and not released yet is it? My auto updates (last 09Jan08) don't mention SP1.

You can download SP1 from MS manually! It's at MS Download Center!

Cannot find any downloads of this myself. Anyone got a link? All the links I find with Google point to beta releases (they call them release candidates). I've not used a Microsoft beta in over 10 years.. too much heartache.

It's a RC (Release Candidat) the final isn't released yet.

If you have read the past Post's related to SP you know that already.

Cheers.