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Hey guys, is there a way to force Vista 32-bit to use all 4GB of RAM? It's a copy I received for free from work. If I can't, I guess I'll just toss in my money and buy a copy of 64bit Vista... :(
I have already set BCDEdit to forceenable pae.
Thanks in advance,
You need the 64 bit version for 4GB or more of user accessible memory. Vista sees all the memory, but those addresses just under 4GB are assigned for OS uses that makes them invisible to the user.
I'm only getting 2GB. The other two is being ignored. Before I addressed the problem with my motherboard allowing 4GB, I was able to see 3008MB in Vista, now that the motherboard sees all 4GB I only access 2GB.*
*This information is as relayed by System Information.
Dont know if it works in vista but in xp you can alter the boot.ini file on the line of fastdetect for windows and put /3GB afterwards. I'l have a look in my CP or boot up windows at some point. You can search past threads to find the info with instructions on how to do it. Hopefully it will be the same principle in vista like in xp :confused:
http://www.dansdata.com/askdan00015.htm
I'd highly suggest reading the article from dans data, it explains the reason why you never fully get 4 gigs, and why if you have two video cards with 1gb of ram each, you can only access less than 2GB.
A good read.
Don't use the boot.ini switches (from dans data)Quote:
I should add a note about the /3GB, /4GT and /PAE Windows boot.ini switches, too, because they often come up when people are talking about 4Gb-plus Windows PCs.
They are all useless to you. You do not want them.
/3GB and /4GT are config settings for different versions of Windows that tell the operating system to change the partitioning of the 4Gb 32-bit address space so that applications can use 3Gb and the OS kernel only 1Gb, as opposed to the standard 2Gb-each arrangement. They don't help at all with the 3Gb barrier, and most applications don't even notice them, so desktop users lose kernel memory space (and system performance) for no actual gain at all.
The /PAE boot.ini switch, on NT-descended Windows flavours, activates the Physical Address Extension mode that's existed in every PC CPU since the Pentium Pro. That mode cranks the address space up to 64 gigabytes (two to the power of 36), and the computer can then give a 4Gb addressing block within that space - or even more, with extra tricks - to each of several applications.
PAE's no good to the everyday 3Gb-problem-afflicted user, though, for two reasons.
First, it presents 64-bit addresses to drivers, and thus causes exactly the same compatibility problems as a proper 64-bit operating system, except worse, because now you need PAE-aware drivers for 32-bit Windows, instead of just plain 64-bit drivers for a 64-bit OS. From a normal user's point of view, PAE gives you the incompatibility of a 64-bit operating system when you're still running a 32-bit OS.
For this reason, Microsoft changed the behaviour of the /PAE option in all versions of WinXP as of Service Pack 2. They fixed the endless driver problems by, essentially, making /PAE in XP not do anything. All versions of WinXP - even the 64-bit versions - now have a hard 4Gb addressing limit, no matter what hardware you use them on and what configuration you choose.
This isn't a big problem, of course, since XP is not meant to be a server operating system. But it's still mystifying to people who try the /PAE flag and can't figure out why it doesn't work.
Oh, and just in case you for some reason still wanted to try PAE: It eats CPU time, too.
(You can read more about boot.ini switches as they pertain to memory and driver breakage on Microsoft's page for driver developers here.)
The /3 switch is useful if you are using an application that understands it such as SQL. Otherwise it is of no value. The kernel never uses more than 1GB.
guys this is just a microsoft hide me problem!
it is possible to use upto 64gb in vista 32 just like the server editions
you just need to do this
http://www.tipandtrick.net/2008/how-...windows-vista/
guys confirmed it works.
of course if you use any hack the tokens.dat file gets replaced for activation.
you have to use timer stop for this...
windows 2008 iso is readily available so its not illegal!
there are also hyperv images available u can get the files from!