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Mark-Fung

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Windows Server 2003 Enterprise recogonizing only 3.75GB of RAM

I have a dell PowerEdge 2650, running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition SP2 and I have installed 8 gigs of RAM.  Windows recogonizes only 3.75 GB of RAM.  I have added the /PAE command in the boot.ini with no affect.  For some reason, windows refuses to recogonize above 3.75 GB of RAM.  Please advise.
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Paul MacDonald
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AndrewDizon

move around the memory modules / swap places
If you have the PowerEdge 2650 configured for spare bank support Windows will not see it (the extra RAM is just being held in reserve). In that case, it would be installed as spare in case of failure. To fix this, disable the redundant memory feature in your bios setup.
The 2650 will support x64 OS, so it has to be 32-bit, but Enterprise should be able to see up to 32GB/64GB for 2003/R2.

Just to be sure ... did you reboot after setting the /PAE switch?

If you boot to the BIOS, does it show all 8GB there?




Displays an option that allows you to enable or disable the redundant memory feature. All banks should have memory modules of the same type and size for this feature to function properly.

disable it
dell.png
Your OS is 32 bit as previously stated. When configuring the machine with dell you have to specify what system you want or else they default to 32 no matter how much RAM you request.

This could be a great opportunity to upgrade to Server 2008 which has a lot more convenient features in it when it comes to group policies.

A copy of Server 08 is approximately 700 - 800 dollars to purchase and can be installed as an upgrade install this way you do not lose your configurations.

If you decide to stay with Server 2003 you need to re-install the OS to a 64-bit install this way you can address more than 3.75 GB of RAM
Except for the PowerEdge 2650 will not support a 64-bit OS.  This is not a new machine.

Enterprise (even 32-bit) should see more than 4GB.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778(VS.85).aspx
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I checked the BIOS and the redundant memory option was in blue text and unselectable.  It was disabled however.  In the BIOS it only recogonizes 4Gigs.  Could be something wrong with the sticks so I will attempt to reseat the memory and see what happens.  However even if this was the case, I believe the system should have still shown me the additional .25Gigs of RAM instead of 3.75Gigs.