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    4GB RAM and Vista

    Discussion in 'Alienware' started by btgman, Oct 8, 2008.

  1. btgman

    btgman Notebook Consultant

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    I have an m15x with Vista Home Premium 32Bit with SP1 and 4GB Kingston RAM. Vista is only registering 3GB of it. I thought it should register 3.5GB.
     
    btgman, Oct 8, 2008
    #1
  2. Tinderbox (UK)

    Tinderbox (UK) BAKED BEAN KING

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    I think 3.2gb is the max with vista32 , but some system report it as 3gb.

    Regards

    John.
     
    Tinderbox (UK), Oct 8, 2008
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  3. btgman

    btgman Notebook Consultant

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    Ok, thanks for the info. I thought it was 3.5.

    Cheers
     
    btgman, Oct 8, 2008
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  4. MrDJ

    MrDJ Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    we wish :D
    as tinderbox mentioned its round about 3.1gb at most unless you are running 64bit and then it will use it all.
     
    MrDJ, Oct 8, 2008
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  5. Napbree

    Napbree Notebook Evangelist

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    Yeah I thought it was 3.5gb as well. Only 3069mb recognised :(

    I might upgrade, I heard there's problems with drivers though?
     
    Napbree, Oct 9, 2008
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  6. ioaniro

    ioaniro Notebook Evangelist

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    Actually if you go to the welcome center Vista should tell you that you have 4Gb of ram in the computer description. If you go to task manager/performance tab however in the otal physical mem section you will only see 2.5-3Gb.
    From these 4 however Vista will only be able to use 3.5 (I think) in total, so if you consider the gpu memory and diffrent guys that take up from this space you end up at 2.5-3Gb.
    On the clevo m8660 vista has access only to about 2.5Gb of ram out of the 4Gb installed.
     
    ioaniro, Oct 9, 2008
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  7. Mystik

    Mystik Notebook Deity

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    The fact is: 32-bit Operating Systems can only address up to a full 4GB of memory. The problem is: this includes video memory, cache, reserved memory, etc.

    In theory you could bump that up by reducing various types of reserved memories (or eliminating them). However, this can't be done on the m15x (no bios configuration options for it)

    with the video card at 512MB (unless you bought the 8600), you pretty much get stuck to 3GB.

    Be grateful, those with the m17x and 4GB of ram, get just over 2GB of memory in 32-bit O/S's.

    If you're really torn up about the missing GB, consider upgrading to 64-bit. there's a guide in the forums. keep in mind there are a lot of pros, AND CONS to doing the procedure.
     
    Mystik, Oct 9, 2008
    #7