Upgrading memory

gloriahoneybird

Hi,
Just some simple questions, I have 1 Gig, on XP running on a Dell.

1.
Is it possible to tell if I have 1Gig or 2 * 512 without opening up the box? If so how?

2.
Is it possible to tell if my PC is running XP 32 bit or 64 bit? How?

3.
What's the most I can put in XP 32 bit, I believe if I put in 4 I can only get 3 Gig?

RoyalMarine

1.
Is it possible to tell if I have 1Gig or 2 * 512 without opening up the box? If so how?

when you turn your computer on, hit the del button to go into the bios. you will find the info in there if you have 1 stick or 2.
most likely its 2 x 512mb if its a dell. they tend to skimp on every penny possible.
2 x 512mb sticks are cheaper than 1 x 1024mb stick

2.
Is it possible to tell if my PC is running XP 32 bit or 64 bit? How?

click start, highlight mycomputer. right click and click properties.
it will tell you if you have 32bit or 64bit in there.
if its a dell, its 99% sure you have 32bit.

3.
What's the most I can put in XP 32 bit, I believe if I put in 4 I can only get 3 Gig?

you can put in 4gb but win xp 32bit will only show 3gb. afaik it still utilises all 4gb but only shows it as 3.25gb.

sink

An easier way to tell would be to download cpu-z

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

If you have only 1 stick installed you can then find a matched stick easily cause you'll know what make it is and what speed it's running at. 2 ddr sticks are always better than one because then they can run in dual channel mode and get double the speed and the two stick have to be perfectly matched to work best.

RedStarHardkore

By perfectly matched it means they have to be IDENTICAL. You can buy two sticks of the same brand, model and ratings, etc, but still not be identical. The only way to be sure you are buying matched pairs is to buy them packaged together.

As for XP 32 bit. XP 32-bit uses the upper levels of 32-bit memory addressing for other functions such as the BIOS, PCI devices and cards (network connectors, USB, Sound, etc,), gfx cards (you'll see if you use X-Fire or SLI that XP will only report 3.1GB rather than 3.25GB for a single card/integrated), etc. Windows uses this address space whether or not you have memory for the address space or not.

The solution is to add a /PAE switch to your boot.ini. Right click my computer, go to properties, advanced tab, click startup and recovery, click edit.

FROM HERE ON IN BE VERY CAREFULL BECAUSE A MISTAKE COULD MAKE WINDOWS UNBOOTABLE.
It is fixable if you screw it, but it's easier to just be careful!

The last line should read like "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect"

Add /PAE to the end of the line and save. That will force XP to use Physical Address Extension. PAE means that XP will use 36-bit addressing instead of 32, and use addresses outside of your memory range so you should be able to use most, if not all, of your 4GB of memory ;-)

Tim Robbins

RedStarHardkore wrote: »

By perfectly matched it means they have to be IDENTICAL. You can buy two sticks of the same brand, model and ratings, etc, but still not be identical. The only way to be sure you are buying matched pairs is to buy them packaged together.

As for XP 32 bit. XP 32-bit uses the upper levels of 32-bit memory addressing for other functions such as the BIOS, PCI devices and cards (network connectors, USB, Sound, etc,), gfx cards (you'll see if you use X-Fire or SLI that XP will only report 3.1GB rather than 3.25GB for a single card/integrated), etc. Windows uses this address space whether or not you have memory for the address space or not.

The solution is to add a /PAE switch to your boot.ini. Right click my computer, go to properties, advanced tab, click startup and recovery, click edit.

FROM HERE ON IN BE VERY CAREFULL BECAUSE A MISTAKE COULD MAKE WINDOWS UNBOOTABLE.
It is fixable if you screw it, but it's easier to just be careful!

The last line should read like "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect"

Add /PAE to the end of the line and save. That will force XP to use Physical Address Extension. PAE means that XP will use 36-bit addressing instead of 32, and use addresses outside of your memory range so you should be able to use most, if not all, of your 4GB of memory ;-)

Can anybody tell how the maxium memory for a 32 OS is calculated?

2 pow 32 is 429,467,296, so I am wondering how the limit is calculated.

RedStarHardkore

A 32-bit address space means that the address space can hold 32 'bits', ie 32 1's and 0's. To explain it as easily as possible, it means it can hold 4,294,967,296 (you had a missing 9 in your digit) different combinations of 1's and 0's. That means that memory addresses (which need to be uniquely identified) are limited to a number of 4,294,967,296 (0 through to 4,294,967,295) on 32-bit systems. Divide 4,294,967,296 by 1024 to get the KB of RAM, divide that number by 1024 to get the MB (4096MB) and divide that the get the GB of RAM (4GB).

toco123

RoyalMarineComm wrote: »

when you turn your computer on, hit the del button to go into the bios.

I hit delete, but its stopped responding after tat

RedStarHardkore

On some PC's it might not be DEL. It could be ESC or F2 (it's usually one of the three, but could be something else. You computer should tell you which it is during POST.