this is what people get for buying dell!
Only 3.2GB memory showing in Vista..
- Thread starter Street
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this is what people get for buying dell!
Man of Honour
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Actually, I think it is Vista. Last I checked Dell does not sell 64 bit Vista but I could be wrong. However, based on the posts here, the hardware is doing its job.
Soldato
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Have you tried to reseat the RAM, maybe swapping the modules in their slots over?
Man of Honour
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Just curious, why do you think swapping the modules around would make any difference?
Man of Honour
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That's odd. I wonder what changed from when you were able to see 4096mb in the bios? I'd call Dell. They may have some hidden or obscure setting or even another bios for their 4gb setups.
Soldato
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Well as you paid for 4Gb then they gotta give you 4Gb.
Don't take any rubbish from em
Don't take any rubbish from em
spoke to dell and this was the reply:-
"As per your email I understand that you have 4GB RAM on the computer and it
shows less RAM on the computer. It is because on a system configured with 4 GB
of random-access memory (RAM), Microsoft Windows reports 3.0 to 3.8 GB of
available memory. The same behavior is seen in Linux and other operating
systems, as this is a limitation of 32-bit addressing used in IA-32 systems.
This is a limitation of a 32-bit architecture. The system can only address 4 GB
of allocated memory. Allocated memory is made up of physical RAM, and any I/O
space needed by devices. The way memory is allocated is that starting at 4 GB,
the system allocates device I/O addresses working its way down. Normally this is
not a problem, but when systems have 4 GB of physical memory, the addresses
needed to address RAM overlap the space needed for I/O. In this case, the need
for I/O space takes precedence, and the amount of RAM visible to the operating
system and applications is limited to 4 GB minus I/O space. Examples of devices
that consume I/O space are:
1.) System BIOS
2.) PCI Express configuration space and memory for PCI Express device(s)
3.) Memory mappy I/O
4.) Motherboard Resources (I/OxAPIC)
5.) Chipset
6.) PCI Enumeration
For example: If you have 4GB of system memory, an Intel 915g Express chipset,
Windows XP with Service Pack 2, and a PCI Express graphics card the remaining
system memory as reported by System Information would be 3.25GB. The same
configuration but with 2GB of system memory would result in all 2GB being
available. This is due to the limited capability of memory mapping (or limited
amount of addresses) on 32-bit architecture systems.
Server systems are able to extend the address space with physical address
extension (PAE) . This option is not available on desktop and workstation
systems.
For in-depth information regarding this topic, please refer to the Intel
Whitepaper detailing the above.
http://www.polywell.com/us/support/faq/4GB_Rev1.pdf
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to assist you. I hope to have addressed
all your concerns to your satisfaction."
Yer Thanks!
"As per your email I understand that you have 4GB RAM on the computer and it
shows less RAM on the computer. It is because on a system configured with 4 GB
of random-access memory (RAM), Microsoft Windows reports 3.0 to 3.8 GB of
available memory. The same behavior is seen in Linux and other operating
systems, as this is a limitation of 32-bit addressing used in IA-32 systems.
This is a limitation of a 32-bit architecture. The system can only address 4 GB
of allocated memory. Allocated memory is made up of physical RAM, and any I/O
space needed by devices. The way memory is allocated is that starting at 4 GB,
the system allocates device I/O addresses working its way down. Normally this is
not a problem, but when systems have 4 GB of physical memory, the addresses
needed to address RAM overlap the space needed for I/O. In this case, the need
for I/O space takes precedence, and the amount of RAM visible to the operating
system and applications is limited to 4 GB minus I/O space. Examples of devices
that consume I/O space are:
1.) System BIOS
2.) PCI Express configuration space and memory for PCI Express device(s)
3.) Memory mappy I/O
4.) Motherboard Resources (I/OxAPIC)
5.) Chipset
6.) PCI Enumeration
For example: If you have 4GB of system memory, an Intel 915g Express chipset,
Windows XP with Service Pack 2, and a PCI Express graphics card the remaining
system memory as reported by System Information would be 3.25GB. The same
configuration but with 2GB of system memory would result in all 2GB being
available. This is due to the limited capability of memory mapping (or limited
amount of addresses) on 32-bit architecture systems.
Server systems are able to extend the address space with physical address
extension (PAE) . This option is not available on desktop and workstation
systems.
For in-depth information regarding this topic, please refer to the Intel
Whitepaper detailing the above.
http://www.polywell.com/us/support/faq/4GB_Rev1.pdf
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to assist you. I hope to have addressed
all your concerns to your satisfaction."
Yer Thanks!
Man of Honour
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- 2 Nov 2006
- Posts
- 1,386
This explanation from Dell does not explain why you cannot see 4gb in the bios (or in DOS with Memtest, make sure you have the latest version). The OS explanation has nothing to do with the hardware.
} this fact and have to date had no reply...4gb does show up in the BIOS but only 3 does in mem test, when u fiddle around with settings in mem test [cant quite remember what it was??] it then showed 3468mb of RAM and it crashed the test each time i tried...
I'm thinking about flashing the BIOS with the one for the foxconn G33M mb but we are a little unsure though as to wether the BIOS for that will work for my board ,which is OEM by foxconn for dell. Mine however is the cut price version of the G33M, the G33M02??
Can anyone see any problems??
Can anyone see any problems??