Anybody owns SZ7 with 4GB RAM?

Does anybody own SZ7 with 4GB RAM? What does it say in the BIOS? I know about 32bit OS not recognizing all 4GB but I want to know if the newest SZ BIOS recognizes all 4GB and hence 64bit OS will be able to use it.

My older SZ with 945GM chipset only recognizes 3GB in the BIOS. That is strange because according to Intel documentation, http://compare.intel.com/pcc/showchart.aspx?mmID=22210&familyID=7&culture=en-US , a laptop with 945GM chipset should be able to recognize all 4GB in the BIOS.

 

Our resources say that you can only see about 3GB period. Check out the first post in the RAM Deals thread and this quote:

 

Vista 32bit will see the 4 gigs w/ the SP1 update, though I'm not sure whether the whole 4 gigs is actually utilized.

 

yep Vista 32bit with sp1 "sees" the 4 gigs of RAM, but only 3 gigs is utilized and the bios only reports 3 gigs as well.

 

OK I just bought an SZ79GN/C and upgraded to 4GB RAM (2 x 2 GB Corsairs) and what the...???? BIOS only sees 3 GB. Vista Business 32-bit, of course, also sees 3 GB.

What I can't understand is, this SZ has Intel 965 chipset, it should recognize 4 GB in BIOS...???

 

Your 965 chipset may be a bit different. Run Intel Chipset Identification Utility from
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/fil...dows+Vista*+32&lang=eng&strOSs=164&submit=Go!
You have to run it as an administrator. Right click on the program and click Run as an Administrator.

What exactly does it say under Detected Chipset, Memory Controller, I/O Controller and Integrated Graphics?

 

Detected Chipset: Intel(R) GM965 Express Chipset
Memory Controller: 82GM965
I/O Controller: Intel(R) 82801HBM/HEM I/O controller hub (ICH8M) SATA Controller found in IDE mode
Integrated Graphics: Intel(R) 965GM Graphics And Memory Controller Hub(GMCH)

I guess 965 is 965, right? What has Sony done to the BIOS so that it still can't recognize the full 4 GB? I tried the same 2 pairs of RAM in a BenQ S41, and the BenQ's BIOS sees all 4 GB. What gives?

 

i think i have the same chipset...
just checked the bios and it recognizes 4096 ram, and so does SP1.

Chipset

Detected Chipset:
Intel(R) GM965 Express Chipset

Chipset Components

Memory Controller:
82GM965

I/O Controller:
Intel(R) 82801HBM/HEM I/O controller hub (ICH8M) SATA Controller found in IDE mode

Integrated Graphics:
Intel(R) 965GM Graphics And Memory Controller Hub(GMCH)

 

Yes but you have a different model (CR)... mine is SZ. Maybe Sony did something to SZ's BIOS so that it can only see max 3 GB.

 

I have an SZ750n and the BIOS only reports 3GB. Vista+SP1 shows 4GB, so I'm not sure why the BIOS only shows 3GB.

UPDATE: I also notice that after I press F2 to go into the BIOS, I see that 4096MB of RAM passes the POST. So the BIOS sees all 4, just doesn't display all 4 in the BIOS screen.

 

Vista SP1 shows how much RAM physically installed in the sytem, rather than how much RAM available to the system. If you take a look at Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL), you will see that Vista 32 bit still can only use 3GB RAM.

Hah that's interesting. Have you installed 64 bit OS with your SZ?

 

No... this is what flashes on the screen between the VAIO splash screen and transitioning to the BIOS. It flashes briefly but it's the first line, along with CPU, HDD, etc checks. This is prior to any OS booting.

I was thinking about venturing into 64bit territory this weekend. lol

I do get about a 12% memory speed gain in benchmarks by having two 2GB SODIMM instead of one 2GB and one 1GB. But it isn't noticeable in everyday use.

 

Ditto as to what Hendra said. Vista SP1 was changed to show installed rather than available ram, probably to cut down on service/help desk calls from folks who wanted to know what happened to part of their 4 Gigs. Talk about cosmetic.

 

My FZ 4000 BIOS that recognizes alll 4 have the same exact output as yours except that my SATA controller is in AHCI mode. Could that be the reason? But SATA is for hard drive right so it shouldn't matter.

 

OK, wait until I try to install Vista 64 on my SZ79 some time next week. If Vista 64 recognizes full 4 GB then the BIOS is wrong.

 

Yes... I just saw that too. Hopefully the hardware can really see 4 GB of RAM. I also plan to install Vista 64 sometime in the near future.

 

OK... bad news. I read in another forum, someone with SZ791N and 4 GB RAM, the BIOS sees 3 GB, and after installing Vista 64, Vista 64 also sees 3 GB only.

So... I think Sony does cripple SZ BIOS, even for those with 965 chipset. I don't need to try Vista 64 anymore I guess.

 

That is really messed up for an OS which is supposed to be the future OS. In my opinion, even Vista 32 bit should be able to see and utilize the 3 GB RAM.

 

But Vista 32 bit is able to see and utilize 3 GB RAM. What I'm talking about is that Sony cripples Vaio SZ's BIOS so that it can't recognize more than 3 GB of RAM. Even though the physical RAM is 4 GB, there's no way any OS can see more than 3 GB since the BIOS itself only reads 3 GB. Vista 32 or Vista 64, we will only get 3 GB max.

 

I believe that sony just released bios update to fix this. I saw it on esupport.sony.com for 791n/x

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGNSZ791NX&upd_id=3481&os_id=29

 

http://blogs.msdn.com/hiltonl/archive/2007/04/13/the-3gb-not-4gb-ram-problem.aspx

There's why from a technical perspective it's the way it is.

 

Hi nobias, thanks heaps for your info! I just flashed my SZ79GN/C with the new BIOS, and voila! Now the BIOS recognizes the whole 4 GB!

Thanks again!

 

Good for you. If only they update BIOS for SZ3 as well (GM945).

 

IIRC, the 945 chipset for laptop is limited to 3 GB max. At least that's what happens with my ASUS W3J.

 

OK, a quick update: I just installed Vista 64 in the SZ79GN/C with the new BIOS. Vista 64 recognizes the whole 4 GB RAM.

 

But does the BIOS see 4GB?

 

Yes, the BIOS sees the whole 4 GB. See one of my responses above, or here:

By 'recognizes the whole 4 GB' I mean the BIOS sees the full whole 4 GB, after flashing.

 

Nice, seems like users of W3J are moving to SZ. Im thinking of getting one at the end of year...perhaps with 8GB support

 

Haha, yeah I remember you had a W3J also... Right now I'm still typing on W3J. The 2 x 2 GB Corsair memory in my SZ are the ones I installed in my W3J before I bought the SZ.

 

For what this is worth or not worth:

As per Intel, both the Intel GM945 and GM965 chipset can support up to 4GB of memory. But the GM945 has a 32-bit interface to address a maximum of 4GB of memory address space. The GM965 has a 36-bit interface to address a maximum 64 GB of memory address space.

As per Microsoft (KB929605), for Windows Vista x64 to use all 4GB of memory on a computer that has 4 GB of memory installed, the chipset MUST support at least 8 GB of address space. This basically excludes all GM945 based computers from using all 4 GB with Windows Vista x64.

 

Hello just joined today after browsing through the forums for so long before making a final purchase. Excellent forum and people by the way

Anywho, I receive my CTO SZ780 yesterday and it is AWESOME! I use to own a FE-790 CTO and that thing was HEAVY compare to this. Correct me if I'm wrong but I cheap out on the memory because I found out Sony only uses PC2-5300 when the SZ can in fact use PC2-6400. I really want to upgrdae to 4gb of memory but I'll be using 32bit Vista Business, so would the remaining 1gb be reallocated (is that remapped?) to say the video card and other things or would it just be almost nonexistance?

Thanks for the help,
John

[EDIT] PS sorry for kinda swaying away from the discussion but I figure this to be somewhat related

 

The Intel GM965 chipset supports 533/800 MHz FSB for processor, 533/667 MHz for system memory. You wont see much, if any, improved performance by putting in PC2-6400, since it will be running at PC2-5300 speed.

Vista x86 will use about 3 GB of the installed 4 GB memory (out of 4 GB of addressable memory space, the limit of a 32-bit operating system, without resorting to some exotic memory swapping method) with the remaining address space used by video card, network adapter etc etc.

 

What happen when you press ctrl-alt-del, click Task Manager and then click performance tab. Does it say 4096MB for the total physical memory?

 

Sorry, I cannot try it for you now... I just did a clean install of Vista Business 32 bit on the SZ79GN/C. The installation of Vista 64 was just for testing to see whether Vista 64 recognized the whole 4 GB (and besides... my Vista 64 is that "Jack Sparrow" kind, if you know what I mean).

But, my Vista 64 is no SP1, so I think if it shows 4 GB in Welcome Center, then it really sees 4 GB of total physical memory.

 

btw, are there drivers for 64 bit VISTA or XP from sony? Or does 64bit VISTA works by itself?