Yes, another 4gb in Vista only showing 3.25gb thread... But I am running x64

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Lime

Gawd
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Dec 3, 2003
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Ok, so I picked up Vostro 400 for reeeeally cheap (800 with a 24inch LCD monitor)

Specs as it sits:

E6750 - 2.66ghz
4gb XMS2 DDR2 800
8800GT 512mb
160gb SATA
320gb SATA
20x DVD lightscribe burner
Vista Business --64 BIT--

when I installed the 4gb of ram first, I added it to the 1gb that I bought the computer with but it didnt see it all (3326mb i think is what vista shows)

I thought i read somewhere that the vostro only will take 4. so i pulled the last gig and there was no change.

So I did some reading, and evidently dell did not enable the memory mapping or something in the BIOS, and that if you pull one of the sticks, run a patch from intel, and put the other 2gb in it will work fine. Same thread i read that SP1 for vista does the same thing, except you don't have to pull the ram.

The chipset can support up to 8gb, bios shows 4096mb installed and 4095mb available, but Vista x64 only shows 3.25gb.

Thoughts?
 
Ok, well, I just installed SP1 for vista and it now shows 4gb.

AS far as the motherboard, I honestly could not tell you. I didn't see a brand when i was poking around in there. I'll check, but the issue is fixed. Service packs ftw.

As for the Memory Hole Remapping, theres no option in the bios. Remember, this is a dell, I didn't expect much from it, haha.

Thanks guys though, I think SP1 did the trick.
 
Keep in mind that all SP1 did was change the way it reports RAM - it will now show the amount installed, that doesn't necessarily mean that you can use all of it. If you could only access 3.25gb before, you can still only access 3.25 gb
 
Yes, any improvements with SP1 will be due to the placebo effect.. it can't see more RAM than it could before.
 
Hmm. I figured it was just an issue with the way Vista was reading what the motherboard was giving it, because the motherboard does show "4095mb available".

After a little bit of googling the numbers on the motherboard I believe the motherboard is a Foxconn DG33M03 Rev.A00.
 
this may or may not solve it for you... But when I built my system last year I had to flash the BIOS for Vista 64 to see all of my RAM. Once I did that everything worked just fine. Here's a direct link to Dell's support page for the Vostro 400. I expect it should fix the issue but I can't guarantee.

http://tinyurl.com/2wj9px

Note: with SP1 vista will now report the amount of installed RAM correctly. That does not mean it has access to all that RAM, It is just reporting the installed amount.
 
So, how do you figure out the amount of RAM Vista actually has access to on a machine now?
 
griffinhart said:
this may or may not solve it for you... But when I built my system last year I had to flash the BIOS for Vista 64 to see all of my RAM. Once I did that everything worked just fine. Here's a direct link to Dell's support page for the Vostro 400. I expect it should fix the issue but I can't guarantee.

http://tinyurl.com/2wj9px

Note: with SP1 vista will now report the amount of installed RAM correctly. That does not mean it has access to all that RAM, It is just reporting the installed amount.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I need a bios flash I do believe, but the BIOS flash on the dell website is the same bios I currently have :(

The chipset and the board can handle more than 4 gb, but the bios doesn't support the memory hole mapping at the moment
 
Since 3.25 is usually the capped memory in 32-bit Windows I am sorry but I have to ask.....Are you sure you are running the 64-bit version of Vista?
 
If he has no support for memory remapping, 3.25 sounds okay. No OS can get to it if it is hidden behind the mmio space
 
LoStMaTt said:
Since 3.25 is usually the capped memory in 32-bit Windows I am sorry but I have to ask.....Are you sure you are running the 64-bit version of Vista?
Click to expand...

100% positive. I installed it myself.

I'm gonna have to deal with it until theres a bios flash or something.
 
LoStMaTt said:
Since 3.25 is usually the capped memory in 32-bit Windows I am sorry but I have to ask.....Are you sure you are running the 64-bit version of Vista?
Click to expand...

This is not uncommon with 64 bit as well. It is definitely a motherboard issue.
 
Well for one your motherboard components takes up some of the ram as well. Pci-express will get a large chuck of the ram and other onboard components add to the list. They keep it for reserve. But if you run a memory program you will see the 4 full gig but it is using some for reserve that is all.

Good Day
 
I'm having a problem with this motherboard as well. DG33M03. I installed Windows Enterprise 64 bit but it only shows me running Windows 32. I'm using a volume license of Win 64 I've installed on all sorts of computer systems with this disc - works on all but this one computer. I have the latest bios from Dell.
 
LoStMaTt said:
Since 3.25 is usually the capped memory in 32-bit Windows I am sorry but I have to ask.....Are you sure you are running the 64-bit version of Vista?
Click to expand...

no man 4GB is the memory cap but IO takes up some of that space thus limiting your available ram.. Memory address space is 4GB- device IO map (that can be up to 1.5GB in certain instances) that's why even with 4GB of physical ram you have usually see a max of around 3.2gb as the IO mapping is taking up the rest
 
boe said:
I installed Windows Enterprise 64 bit but it only shows me running Windows 32.
Click to expand...
I'd guess that this is an unrelated issue. If your system is showing the 32 bit version installed, then you didn't use the x64 media to do your install.
 
Lime said:
Ok, well, I just installed SP1 for vista and it now shows 4gb.
Click to expand...
Hold your horses. Yes, it says '4GB' in the System Properties, but does it show 4096k in the Task Manager under available memory?

SP1 was changed to show people they have 4GB in the system properties for those who don't understand the limitation of a 32 bit OS. At least they know the computer knows it's there and beyond that they are likely ignorant that it's not all actually being used.
 
X64 os will only show all your ram if your PC supports what's called Device or memory IO remapping. What this means is that the chipset or CPU's memory controller will move all of the device io memory above the physical ram in the system thus freeing it up. It ONLY works with an x64 system that supports this feature.....
 
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