I have 4GB installed on a Dell Dimension with XP Home. Windows cannot see or use more than 3.5GB despite the fact that 4GB is physically present. This is a known and published limitation.

Larry

1. What operating system are you using?: 32-Bit Vista Ultimate

2. How much memory do you have installed?: 4GB

3. How much memory does Windows report?: 3.325GB

4. If more than 4 GB is installed, was there a setting that needed to be made in BIOS?: No

5. Is this a custom built or commercially branded computer?: Custom

6. What CPU and chipset?: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600

1. What operating system are you using? 64-bit XP Pro

2. How much memory do you have installed? 4 GB Corsair PC800 DDR2 Dual Channel

3. How much memory does Windows report? 4GB

4. If more than 4 GB is installed, was there a setting that needed to be made in BIOS? No

5. Is this a custom built or commercially branded computer? If branded, what brand and model? Custom

6. What CPU and chipset? AMD 3800+ X2 AM2 (OC to 2.2Ghz) / Gigabyte GA-M55SLI-S4 Mobo with nVidia nForce4 Chipset

Thanks everyone for the answers so far. I'm reviewing something I wrote on the topic for a client a couple of years ago and comparing it to what I'm seeing in this MSKB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605.

This forum is a good group to survey because more people would be running with this much memory than in the world in general.

The 32-bit systems are just as expected. Hopefully I'll hear from more people with 64-bit systems too.

Thanks again,

Rob Mack

Thanks Bluprojekt,
A couple more questions. Basically I'd just like you to (when you get a chance) really scrutinize your BIOS for anything like a setting to remap memory.

Did you build the system or was it built for you?

If you've already looked at the BIOS closely that's fine.

The MSKB article cited in my "thank you" post mentions the BIOS setting, and we have three systems in our office that have this option in BIOS. The way I'm interpreting the mskb article, you'd have more like ~3.2 GB showing if you didn't set the BIOS switch, even with 64-bit XP. I may be interpreting it wrong, or maybe the switch is there but you're missing it. (Most boards have an alternate key combination that gives you more BIOS settings. If your system was built for you that setting could be burried in there, in which case the builder was a smart cookie)

Rob

Bluprojekt,

Thanks for naming the motherboard. I was able to go look up the manual and see what Gigabyte had documented for the BIOS. Of course BIOS options can change but the manual shows no settings to remap memory, just as you said.

So many pages and posts have said to set a BIOS setting to remap memory that it makes me wonder if there are boards that accomplish this automatically (as yours would appear to). Of course if it's handled automatically then you wouldn't post a problem on the web.

Rob

I built my system - along with others as a side line thing.

I didn;'t have to do anything to the bios - One of the reasons I went with this board is that it can handle up to 16GB Ram so I was future proofing when things went full 64 biy on the apps dept - now that Vegas is going 64bit, I'm looking forward to more serious editing and utilizing the full 4GB for editing

Cliff