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My complete 4 GB RAM won't display in Windows [Solved/Closed]

Khan - Apr 25, 2009 at 03:11 PM - Latest reply: xpcman 18839 Posts Wednesday October 8, 2008Registration dateModeratorStatus April 23, 2018 Last seen
- Oct 2, 2009 at 04:25 PM
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Hello Friends, I have one small problem.......can anybody solve my problem?
I have 4GB RAM (2GB X 2) using into two slots......my Operating System is Windows XP SP2, I saw 2.99GB of RAM is displaying instead of 4GB RAM, please help me to using complete 4GB of RAM.
I am eargerly waiting for replies...............
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xpcman 18839 Posts Wednesday October 8, 2008Registration dateContributorStatus April 23, 2018 Last seen - Apr 25, 2009 at 04:51 PM
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If you have a 1GB video card then the max Windows memory is a little less than 3 GB.
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ralph - Sep 9, 2009 at 05:17 AM
even if my 1GB video card has dedictaed memory not shared.... should this generate the same problem?
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xpcman 18839 Posts Wednesday October 8, 2008Registration dateModeratorStatus April 23, 2018 Last seen > ralph - Sep 9, 2009 at 02:13 PM
Yes. This is an addressing limitation not a physical memory limitation. ALL memory (motherboard, cache and Video) must be mapped into the 4 GB limitation that is built into the 32 bit Windows OS.
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Blue - Jun 24, 2009 at 03:47 PM
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32 bit versions of Windows XP and Vista cannot use the total 4 gb RAM as it has to manage the other devices of the PC. It is a limitation of the 32 bit OS.
Switch to 64 bit version of XP or Vista for solution
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Jimmy - Sep 13, 2009 at 09:24 PM
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You have to use Physical Address Extension mode. The system memory only uses 3GB in XP because its 32-bit.

TO enable PAE for systems w/ >3GB of RAM, edit c:\boot.ini with notepad.

Change something like:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

To:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT /PAE

Save and reboot. You should now see 4GB of ram because its now running in a fake 36-bit mode (which let's it address that extra 1GB of ram).
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ToolmakerSteve - Sep 28, 2009 at 12:43 AM
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The /PAE switch won't help. Windows XP can't see memory that is moved above 4 GB boundary, so however much "address space" (from 0.5 GB to 1.25 GB) is needed for peripherals is taken from that 4 GB range, and there is nothing to be done about it (except upgrade to a 64-bit operating system). Your motherboard, BIOS, and installed cards - especially video cards - determine how much of the "address space" is used up. If you see 2.99 GB now, that is all you are going to see. (That's what I see on my Core i5-750 which is running XP Professional, with 4 GB RAM installed.)

Don't sweat it -- you would not notice any difference in performance if you DID get to use all 4 GB.
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kikoanis - Oct 1, 2009 at 06:30 AM
I have got Toshiba A200 TR-6 and Windows 7 64bit installed. In the last few days I upgraded RAM from 2 GB to 4 GB. the problem now is that BIOS reports that there is 4 GB but then during reboot it checks only 2.99 GB(3067 MB) of ram and consequently Windows can see 4 gb installed and it reports 4gb (2.99 used)

Any idea why?? and if there is any work around to get my bios check for the whole thing

thanks
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YaXxE > kikoanis - Oct 2, 2009 at 02:37 AM
1) Go to start menu and search for "msconfig" and hit enter.

2) Go to the "Boot" tab and click on "Advanced Options".

3) Another menu should pop up. From there, you want to uncheck the box that says "Maximum memory"

4) It will ask you to restart your system. Restart it, and when it boots back up, it will use all your memory.
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kikoanis > YaXxE - Oct 2, 2009 at 09:05 AM
YaXxe thanks for your reply. The check box you are talking about is already unchecked. The problem is not here. I think Windows reports what the system is reporting to it. I said that during machine reboot, you know during memory check, the system checks for only 2.99 GB (3067 MB) and I am not sure where the rest is. I don't believe the graphics card would take any thing from memory as it has its own memory and the machine used to work with 2 gb ram with full capacity. my question is why the system checks for only 2.99 gb out of 4?
The latest bios for this specific machine is installed

Any other ideas.

thanks
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xpcman 18839 Posts Wednesday October 8, 2008Registration dateModeratorStatus April 23, 2018 Last seen > kikoanis - Oct 2, 2009 at 04:25 PM
The Graphic Card memory is still mapped into the 4 GB total memory that Windows. Even some memory in the BIOS and i/o memory on the motherboard is re-mapped into that space. If the BIOS stops checking memory at the 3 GB point - it is a BIOS issue and you might want to update it.
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Sharky - Jun 13, 2009 at 02:50 AM
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It's not show all 4 GB RAM because Windows XP not support 4GB RAM. The maximun it support is to 3 GB RAM
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humtum - Sep 10, 2009 at 01:54 AM
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Hello Friends, I have one small problem.......can anybody solve my problem?
I have 4GB RAM (2GB X 2) using into two slots......my Operating System is Windows XP SP2, I saw 2.99GB of RAM is displaying instead of 4GB RAM, please help me to using complete 4GB of RAM.
I am eargerly waiting for replies...............

Configuration: Windows XP SP2
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