Upgrade from XP Pro 32 to XP Pro 64?

Hi guys,
I just bought a Lenovo laptop T61p, here are the info:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T9300 (2.5GHz 800MHz 6MBL2)
Genuine Windows XP Professional
NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M (256MB Open GL)
4 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)

Problem is that it has Win XP 32 bit on it which only uses up to 3GB RAM, which really piss me off because the lenovo website didn't make any alarm when I customized it. Now I really want to upgrade to Win XP 64 bit, but I heard that it is complicated. (I don't like to upgrade to Vista 64 bit because some of my softwares that I'm using are not compatible with vista).

If any of you have this problem before, could you please show me steps to do to upgrade to Windows XP 64-bit?

Thank you very much, really appriciate it!

 

XP 64-bit has poor driver support. I wouldn't recommend it. I don't think anyone would recommend it unless you're doing barebone basic stuff.

Hopefully, SP3 will address the whole 4GB. SP3 should come out very soon, within the coming weeks.

 

Thanks for the information. Hope the SP3 will solve the problem.

 

Sorry to hear about that. Which Lenovo web site did you use? The one we see here from the US is clear about requiring a 64 bit OS to access 4GB of RAM. When you select 4GB, it says "Note: A 64-bit operating system is required to take full advantage of 4GB or more of installed memory."

 

SP3 doesn't turn XP Pro into a 64 bit OS .

 

Does the poor driver support hold true for 64 bit Vista too?

 

Nope. If you want to go 64-bit, then Vista is the way to go. I'm not truly experience with it but I know the drivers are all there. Fellow posters like Renee knows more about this. She hangs around here a lot. Others as well.

 

A service pack will have no effect on how 32-bit XB handles >3gb RAM. The issue is a hardware architectural limitation - not an OS limitation. If you want to access the full 4gb, you're going to need a full 64-bit OS.

 

Ahh I see. Thank you for informing me about that.

 

For a laptop 64bit might not be the best idea cause lenovo has to make 64bit drivers, but i use XP 64bit on my desktop(which i built myself not a dell hunk-o-junk) and i couldnt give it up for crap. Unless the components are old or the company who made them are lazy and havent made 64bit drivers, you should be good

 

They have made 64-bit drivers for Vista but not XP.

 

I saw that, but they would have notify me when I was customizing the laptop, just like HP's site or Dell's site does when you customize the thing wrong.

Thank you all for the responses. My big question now is: is it possible to change/upgrade it to Win XP 64 bit? is it worth to do it? or I just accept the fact that I have 1 GB useless RAM in my laptop? Arrrgggggg!!

 

Windows XP 64bit is not recommended due to the lack of Lenovo drivers. If you want to address the full 4GB of RAM, you will have to use 64-bit Vista.