Attention Computer gurus--RAM question

[boxofrocks]

My HP 1350n is supposed to support 4 gb of RAM. I recently upgraded from 3 to 4 gb, but when I right click My Computer and select properties, it only shows 3.25 gb.

When I run a diagnostic tool (Fresh Diagnose), it sees 1 gb in each slot. Is there something I can do under XP sp2 to make the computer "recognize" the rest of the RAM? Is it being utilized, but just not shown?

The Windows task manager shows 3406312k of total physical memory--about 3.25 gb, right?

CS2 writes to the disk cache a lot when working on very large photos or posters. Will this extra RAM help? Or did I just waste my money? The motherboard is supposed to support it, according to HP.



Thanks!

[ndsimm]

go to the BIOS and check your video cache. Often by default, it sets aside a certain amount of memory for the Video card. I've had to go in and change that setting a number of times on a few of my HP/Compaq units....

[boxofrocks]

I have an aftermarket 512mb video card installed. Would I still have ram assigned to the built in card?

Once I figure out how to check that in the bios (and remember how to get there), I'll see if I can tell. I think in may require x amount.

[ndsimm]

on most HP models, it should be F10 (it is on my HP laptop) and if you haven't checked the BIOS, then it may have been set by default and never changed...

[boxofrocks]

Actually (haven't tried bios yet), that may not be it--it was showing 3 gb of ram before--why only 3.25 now with 4 gb installed?

[kenw]

the difference may be in that while the motherboard and bios will see it, Windows may not. We ran into a huge issue when upgrading at work. can't remember the fix unfortunately.....

[exposedmedia]

found this....

Unless you get a 64 bit OS and CPU, 4GB RAM wont do you any good even if it were all being detected. XP 32bit cant allocate more then 2GB to any single app. With the /3gb boot.ini switch this gets raised to 3gb but thats the absolute max you can go on XP 32 bit unfortunately.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system...AE/PAEmem.mspx

[boxofrocks]

So I think I have a 64 bit CPU (AMD Athlon 64 X2), I guess I have to wait for Vista?

I wonder what that's gonna cost to upgrade.

[exposedmedia]

are you running windows media center as your OS?

here are the specs from HP for your pc.....
Maximum allowed 4 GB* (4 x 1 GB) requires the replacement of the installed 512 MB DIMMs *Actual available memory may be less

[Bartman01]

Bottom line is that you need a 64 bit OS to take full advantage of that 4GB. If you buy Vista 32, you will likely have the same issues. Problem is, not much is ready for prime time yet in the 64 bit OS space. MS will be REQUIRING signed drivers for Vista 64, so unless your hardware (printers, cameras, scanners, etc) mfgs come out with approved 64 bit drivers you are SOL (in other words older hardware need not apply). Wonder what that will do to many of the 3rd party scanning tools that directly address the hardware to maximize scan results, or for that matter people's 'preferred' but no-longer supported scanners?

[jeffkohn]

This is an issue with Windows XP Service Pack 2 and certain system, seems to be mostly AMD dual-cores from what I've heard. My machine has 4GB but only shows 3GB after upgrading to SP2. It has something to do with the changes they made with the DEP stuff, but even disabling DEP didn't bring back the full 4GB on my machine, nor did any number of BIOS settings or Boot.ini switches. I'm hoping 32-bit Vista fixes this bug, I'll probably be doing a Vista install in the next few weeks.

BTW you don't need a 64-bit OS to take advantage fo 4GB of RAM (although anything more than that would be pointless). The kernel, disk cache, other system components and background application are all going to be using RAM as well, so just because apps can only use 2GB by default doesn't mean that there's 2GB available to apps in a machine with 2GB total RAM. And even with the /3GB switch you really need 4GB of total ram for there to actually be 3GB available to applications.

[exposedmedia]

i've been running vista for at least two months if not longer. while i would recommend it, i wouldn't just yet. there have been way too many little annoyances/problems and I'm just about ready to go back to XP Pro until the final release of Vista.

[Bartman01]

Originally Posted by jeffkohn

BTW you don't need a 64-bit OS to take advantage fo 4GB of RAM

You are right, but you do need 64 bits to take FULL advantage of it :). That extra RAM will come in handy when multitasking in a 32 bit OS. I could use it when I have a VM running and also want to do some heavy photo editing.

[boxofrocks]

Originally Posted by jeffkohn

BTW you don't need a 64-bit OS to take advantage fo 4GB of RAM (although anything more than that would be pointless). The kernel, disk cache, other system components and background application are all going to be using RAM as well, so just because apps can only use 2GB by default doesn't mean that there's 2GB available to apps in a machine with 2GB total RAM. And even with the /3GB switch you really need 4GB of total ram for there to actually be 3GB available to applications.

Jeff,

Are you saying that even though Windows only "shows" 3.25 gb, there may be more available to my apps? I know the memory benchmarks I did with Fresh Diagnose increased significantly after going from 3-4 GB, although I'm not smart enough to know what the numbers mean.

[markfh]

Old problem. Here's a thread mainly about it.

http://www.outbackphoto.com/tforum/v...p?TopicID=2150

Do the usual. Update your BIOS if you haven't already. Understand the settings in your BIOS and find out where you can maximize your memory. Don't worry about it. Your performance with CS or CS2 isn't going to change enough for you to notice. Even with the 64Bit OS.