any tricks to get more than 3GB RAM from 32bit Vista on G1S?

I just installed Vista (32bit) on my Asus G1S with 4Gig RAM in it. I expect it to show less than 4 because it's 32bit, but was hoping for 3.5Gig like my other notebooks (dell lattitudes) show. Any special tricks to make that happen with the G1S?

Otherwise, Smokin Graphics!

 

You just installed Vista 32bit on your G1S with 4Gig RAM? How much RAM does Vista recognize?

 

There are a couple of issues, and I have found a few interesting sites; more are available via google.

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/28817556/-how-much-memory-can-v.aspx

Another issue which may come up, not directly related to Windows and its addressing issues, is the actual physical motherboard and how much memory it supports.

 

Nope. Not more than 3.24GB. Read THIS.

 

Nope, the 3 gig of RAM issue is due to the 32 bit instruction set that both Intel and AMD use so there is absolutely no way around it as long as you're using a 32 bit processor made by either Intel or AMD, or anyone else for that matter.

 

Just to clarify, it has less to do with the instruction set than it has to do with the processor architecture.

The main problem is that the range from 3GB to 4GB is used for memory-mapping to devices. Whether you have that RAM or not, the system will be using it to talk to devices on your computer. The problem lies when you actually DO have RAM that runs into that space. When you have an overlap like that, the devices take priority and you essentially lose the ability to use that RAM unless the system knows how to compensate for it.

It comes down to almost the same thing as the old joke about how the original PC was not designed to take advantage of more than 640k of live memory. And the remainder of memory from 640k to 1 MB was used for memory-mapping and shadowing.

The majority of processors within the last two or three years have no problems with 64-bit capability (Athlon64s have had it for about three years, Intel P4s had it added somewhere when the P4 500 and 600 series were out), it's just that support must exist in the motherboard and chipset as well. The motherboard needs to be able to do memory remapping properly (ie: it makes that memory space usable by making it "outside" of that reserved range), which actually used to be an issue with WinXP 64-bit since some motherboards didn't do it properly during that period.

Then there's the fact that if you want to do 64-bit, you pretty much need to be using a 64-bit OS. 4 GB is the line where 32-bit stops. There are tricks that 32-bit Windows server uses to get around it, but it doesn't work in the non-server versions IIRC.

 

Pretty false : 32 bits linux flavors on a santa-rosa or recent desktop chipset should allow usage of all 4 gb (or more, I run 32 bit machines with 12, 16 gigs) using PAE. The problem we fase here is that windows 32 bit has this limitation.

Regarding notebooks it's also a question of chipset. Before santa rosa the memory controller of intel-based notebook has a pure 32 bits address bus and could not manage more that 4 Gigs all inclusive. It's been improved with santa rosa (desktop chipset already made this step up some times ago).

 

Windows also has PAE. It's actually implemented using a software driver so it slows your computer a little though.