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How much RAM do you have on your PC?

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f0dder:
Cynic, look through the BIOS settings to see if there's some RAM remap options. Also, PCI (and PCI-e and AGP) devices can require memory mapped I/O, which will eat part of the *address space* (even though not the physical RAM) - you need PAE mode, and XP might be braindead about that.

Cynic:
I remapped and now the motherboard sees all 4 GB, but XP only sees 2, instead of 2.93. Should I disable memory remap again?
In the General tab of the System Properties window opened when right-clicking the My Computer icon says "Physical Address Extension". Does this mean PAE mode is already enabled? Why then only 2 GB?

f0dder:
Hm, perhaps it's artificial limitations built into XP - this MS arcticle says XP supports "AWE API and 4 GB of physical address space", instead of 4GB of RAM - bastards.

The BIOS "remap RAM" options, as far as I understand it, remaps your physical RAM to higher-than-4GB in the address space, meaning you can access it in 32bit-PAE or clean 64bit mode, without conflicting with memory mapped hardware. But if MS artificially restricts you to 32 bits of address space, I guess there's nothing to do, except going 64bit or getting a server edition of windows.

Carol Haynes:
Doesn't answer the question why WinXP went from recognising 3Gb to 2Gb ?

Just reading my motherboard manual (ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe) and it says the following:


* If you install four 1Gb memory modules, the system may detect less than 3Gb of total memory because of address space allocationfor other critical functions. This limitation applies to Windows XP 32-bit version operating system since it does not support PAE mode
* If you use Windows XP 32-bit version operating system we recommend that you install less than 3Gb of total memory.
--- End quote ---

Seems to fly in the face of what MS says - but I guess what they are saying is that critical fundtions (such as other mapped memory from graphics cards etc) are removed from the 4Gb space.

Here is another article - this time for VISTA which is a bit clearer and supports that interpretation:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us

f0dder:
Carol, using the "memory remapping" thing maps the additional memory above the 4GB (and thus 32bit) marker. XP probably isn't just limited to "4GB of address space", but "the first 4GB of address space". Lame with artificial limitations, and they could at least have made it physical memory instead of address space. And XP does support PAE, it just imposes artificial limitations...

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