Windows XP and Memory, the 4 GB limit thing

Steviegee

Steviegee

Steviegee

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Joined
22 Sep 2006
Posts
10
First off i'm new, hello everyone. Jus built my first PC from scratch and resolved everything without customer support (flashing bios, updating drives, setting up RAID and X-fire. Everything is fine I just have 1 niggly problem.

In my new fabtastic PC I have 2 Corsair XMS Pro PC6400 matched 1 GB memory pairs = 4 GB. My Bios detects them all, but Windows says I only have 2 GB Ram. It definitely only uses 2GB cos the pretty LEDs only ramp up and down on the Primary slot DIMMs when in use.

I know Windows XP only writes to 4GB and will display 3.12 GB in system information cos of reserving some for itself.

VGA card memory isn't included in the count is it? Cos I have 2 x ASUS X1900 cards in with 512MB each.

Anyway what I really want to know is how can I pursuade windows to use as much of my memory as possible and display the full 3.12GB, I'm sure changing some registry settings would do the trick but don't know where to start.

My full PC Spec is:

Mobo: Asus P5W DH Deluxe Bios Rev. 1305
CPU: Intel Conroe Extreme X6800 (both cores detected and working fully)
RAM: Corsair matched pair DDR2 XMS2 Pro PC6400(800)(2x1GB) X 2 = 4GB
VGA: Asus X1900 X-Fire Edition (512Mb) + X1900XTX (512Mb) X-Fire Enabled
PSU: Thermaltake 520W Powerstation + PCIE 250W Auxiliary Power Module
Case: NZXT Nemesis Extreme Midi Tower
HDDs: 2 x Western Digital Raptor-X 150GB in RAID 0 +
2 x Seagate Barracuda SATA-II (Ver. 10) 500GB in RAID 0
DVD-RWs: 2 x LG H10N
FDD: Mitsumi 7in1 FDD and card reader
Audio: Creative External USB Audigy 2 ZS Video Edition (Mobo Audio disabled)
Cooling: Thermaltake Big Water 350 with CPU and 2 x VGA blocks.
O/S: Windows XP PRO SP2

I have heard about disabling DEP and things but i don't know how to do this (DEP is disabled in my Bios at the moment.

Please help someone so I can begin O/Cing this beastly creation LOL

Thanx, Steviegee
 
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Any showstoppers that would prevent you from changing to Windows XP x64?

P.S. Cool rig, by the way. I bet it is damn fast! :cool:
 
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Well, to be honest I dunno. IS XP 64 gonna be the answer, will everything work and will my software like it. Is it as dodgy as XP was when it first came out LOL. Should I maybe try creating a dual boot machine ??? These are the burning issues. As my new machine seems to be ultra stable and secure I don't wanna rock the boat too much heheh. If XP will let me have available 3.12GB for programs while it keeps the rest for system ops then fine, i'd be happy. Of course IF everyone raves about the virtues of XP 64 then I may well be tempted, but lets see what I can get out of XP 32 first. Still open to any suggestions though, here to learn and sound out the mob for opinions.
 
Try turning your pagefile off as windows sees that as actual mem see if that helps

edit: also reduce your signiture to the faq specs
 
I thought the Pagefile was virtual memory. I have mine set up on a seperate HDD 5GB partition. So I thought Windows would still have to display the Physical memory up to the 3.12GB unreserved limit.
 
For me, Windows x64 has always been rock solid. I have never had any BSOD errors, system hangs or anything like that. It took a while for x64 compatible versions of the software/drivers I use to come out but they are pouring out now. If you can determine what you are likely to be doing with your PC and whether there are 64-bit drivers for your hardware then give it a whirl.

Microsoft still has the 120-day trial of XP x64 available...
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/facts/trial.mspx
 
Xp pro can only address 2Gb of memory, 3Gb for certain applications with special extensions. Using 4GB of memory with windows xp is the same as using 2GB for almost everything.
 
This guy must be Steven Gerrard with a rig like that!

Fancy buying me one mate? :D

I aint scouse, but i hate mancs ;) :cool:
 
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