# How do I use all of my available ram?



## erisc (Jul 18, 2008)

I’m having an issue with my ram that so many others have had: a large portion of it is unusable.

(For a complete list of my hardware, see the bottom of this post.)

I have 4GB of ram installed, but Windows XP x64 only recognizes 3.12GB. That means nearly a quarter of my ram is unusable (22%). While it is normal for Windows to not allow access to all of the ram, this number (3.12) does seem unusually low (it should be at least 3.3, or 3.5, or hey, how about what I paid for: 4! I would settle for something close to 4 at least). I’ve done a bit of research, and I’ve discovered what might be the next step, but I’m not sure.

Right now I’m running Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. The clues I’ve found say that Windows Vista x64 may allow me to access more of my ram. However, I’ve also heard that Vista uses more ram than XP. I don’t mind getting Vista if it will do what I need it to do faster – money is not an issue. But I’m concerned that although getting Vista might free up more ram and give me something like 3.5GB or higher, the end result will be that my computer will actually run slower than it did when I had less ram with Windows XP, because of the high amounts of ram that the Vista operating system requires.

More info I found regarding the BIOS setup and the motherboard. On the BIOS screen, it says...
installed memory: 4096MB
usable memory: 3199MB

I did a little research on this too, and it looks like a BIOS feature (on some motherboards) called "memory re-mapping" might solve my problem. But I don't see this option in the BIOS on my motherboard. Is this something I can fix by installing a new BIOS? or is this something that can only be fixed if I get a new motherboard?

The reason ram is so important in my case is because I will be using Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter with multiple levels, varying brush effects, and very high ppi for high quality printing. I will also be working with multiple Photoshop and Painter documents simultaneously. The stuff I do is extremely memory intensive and I have a nack for slowing down high end machines. So this is why I want 4GB of ram.

I'm kind of mixed up with all these clues I've been finding while trying to solve my problem. It could be there’s a compatibility problem with my hardware. It could be I just need a new operating system, or new BIOS. It could be there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it. As of right now, I’m sort of clueless as to which one of these things is true. Little help?

Here’s a list of all of my hardware, which I recently purchased from Newegg.com.

LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model DH-20A4P-04 - OEM
Item #: N82E16827106228
$22.99

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
Hard Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822136073
$79.99

Thermaltake TR2 W0070RUC 430W ATX Power Supply - Retail
Item #: N82E16817153023
$10.00 Mail-in Rebate
$40.99

mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual
Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996587 - Retail
Item #: N82E16820146731
$25.00 Mail-in Rebate
$89.99

ASUS P5N-EM HDMI LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7100/nForce 630i HDMI Micro
ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813131229
$74.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core
Processor Model BX80571E7200 - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115052
$129.99


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## magnethead (Mar 18, 2006)

you're using a 64 bit OS, not sure why it's not picking up all 4 GB like it should. As per my understanding, all 64 bit OSes should recognize up to 32GB of RAM (or something like that?). My guess would be updating the BIOS, but not for sure as i havent personaly done it.


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