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Windows reporting incorrect amount of RAM....

I'm having an issue with Windows XP Professional Edition.

Intel DG965SS Motherboard
Core2 Duo

When I put a 1gb kit (2x512) into to the machine, everything runs smoothly. BIOS, OS, everything.

When I add a 4g kit (2x1gb) to the current setup, BIOS reads the ram correctly, but Windows reads 3.25gb of RAM instead of 5gb. Also, the system runs EXTREMELY slow until I remove the 1gb kit. After removal, the system moves normally, but windows still reports 3.25gb.

This is a problem I've had twice now. 2 different DG965SS boards / RAM kits and clean installs.

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LeeTutor

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Mark Poirier

Too much ram,5Gb is not supported in a 32bit OS as LeeTutor has explained, Perhaps you should try the 64bit flavor of XP or Vista. These will support over the 4Gb ceiling that is imposed on the 32bit OS's addressing range.

flscott

ASKER

Is there ANY way I can work around this? Research is now telling me that it's a limit of 32-bit OSes. I just need someone to tell me there's no possible way to circumvent this limitation.

Mark Poirier

Use a 64bit OS, thats the only way to increase the memory address limitation. The 32bit OS is limited in this way mathmatically, not because someone arbitrarily decided so. Any 32-bit processor will be able to access 2^32 memory addresses, which translates into 4.3 billion addresses or 4 GB of random access memory

Sinoj Sebastian

>>Research is now telling me that it's a limit of 32-bit OSes.
Yes that is a limit. :-(