Vista only see 3gb

See if this solution works for you by signing up for a 7 day free trial. What do I get with a subscription? With your subscription - you'll gain access to our exclusive IT community of thousands of IT pros. We can't always guarantee that the perfect solution to your specific problem will be waiting for you. If you ask your own question - our Certified Experts will team up with you to help you get the answers you need. Who are the certified experts? How quickly will I get my solution?

We can't guarantee quick solutions - Experts Exchange isn't a help desk. We're a community of IT professionals committed to sharing knowledge. I'm quite sure that the latest gen of laptops can utilize the full 4GB and more. I can post a screen shot if necessary. That means your motherboard is able to physically address over 4GB regardless of the operating system. Canon Gear SilvexPhoto. Approve the Cookies This website uses cookies to improve your user experience.

By using this site, you agree to our use of cookies and our Privacy Policy. Register to forums Log in. Jan 22, 1. So where's the rest? It's still there, but you can't use it all. Heres is what is happening. This total is not only reserved for your actual physical RAM Dimms you install,.

The key word here is "address" In Windows, hardware devices and ROM are mapped to memory space starting at 4G and down. If you installed total 4GB memory, the system will detect less than 4GB of total memory because of address space allocation for other critical functions, such as: - System BIOS including motherboard, add-on cards, etc..

Analogy time: Let's use this word "address" for our analogy. You are the OS, your installed memory are your workers,. It can hold exactly 4, names, no more. Example 1 You have 2, workers 2GB RAM installed You have a bunch of supervisors totaling address book entries system hardware requirements You organize your Address book in a hierarchical fashion, with the Workers starting at the back, but up top, are the Supervisors. With 4, entries available, if you have 2, workers at the bottom of your directory, and supervisor entries up top easier to find, the total addresses is 2, used in the book.

You will be able to write down and contact all 2, workers. Example 2: You have 4, workers! This is the 32bit limit. Modern Machines suck up more resources: As mentioned, the hardware installed will vary the amount of a hit you take on addressable DRAM considerably.

Recently a number of changes in both hardware and Windows has made more ram seem to go missing. Some changes to the OS in SP2 and most Motherboard firmwares since then were written to alleviate some issues with driver conflicts.

These same changes increased the amount of Address space reserved, and thus decreased the amount of RAM you will see in Windows. Motherboards used to have a much more limited number of onboard features as compared to today. In The PCI bus itself took some resources, but you had to stuff those PCI slots with 4 or five cards to equal the amount of hardware that comes soldered on a Motherboard these days. Want to see what's taking the Top end RAM?

We can actuyally have Windows tell us exactly what hardware is sucking up address space and RAM resources,, and we can even find out how much for each though that part will take a computer science degree and a translation effort on par with the Rosetta Stone and the dead sea scrolls! You also now get a real world view of what all this address nonsense means. Those numbers [In - brackets] are actual memory address ranges. With the right tools, you could use those numbers to see how much RAM each of those numbers represents.

Can I get any RAM back? It depends on hardware and software changes. A simple edit and reboot and I went from 2. Hardware: Your Mobo may be taking more resources than required, and there may be ways of adjusting BIOS settings to get some back. Older Mobos had a setting for AGP that could effect things. Certain unused hardware being disabled or removing unused cards should get some memory back.

The most you can usually get is approx 3. Norms are now in the 2. Assuming your hardware will support it, and you are running the right version of an MS 32 bit OS, adding this line to your "boot.

To do this you need to do the following; Go to your Boot drives C: usually root directory. Make sure you can see "hidden and system files" Right click on the semi transparent "boot. LIKES 0. Jan 29, 2. Leicca Leicca Hatchling. In any case, the discussion generated by this question has been extremely informative for me and should act as a great reference material for future searchers.

The original problem has been successfully mitigated through the use of a bit OS, but it still has not been solved. Unfortunately for me , I'll never be truly content until I can pinpoint the exact problem, so if at some point in the future someone manages to think of a solution that hasn't been mentioned, please, please do post it.

Since you mentioned in a comment that Server is only reporting 2 GB, then something is very wrong with your configuration. In addition to the hardware above, I have one mb PCI Express video card and that's it for peripherals. I have removed the 2 mb sticks and I'm down to just the 4 1GB sticks I have flashed the motherboard BIOS to the latest manufacturer revision Another Update I have managed to test this hardware configuration on a bit copy of Ubuntu and the RAM is being fully detected at 4gb installed , but no matter the RAM configuration I am unable to find any bit OS that will read more than 2gb.

After Thoughts I greatly appreciate the input from everyone however, I still do not feel there has been a correct answer to this problem yet despite all of your efforts. Thank you everyone.