Win xp recognizing RAM

[Jim B.]

I recently installed 4 gig of pc2 5300 RAM on a new hp desktop. Windows xp
will only recognize 3.5 gig of the ram. I read some where that windows xp by
default will only recognize 3.5 gig of ram. Is there a fix for this - where
windows will recognize ALL the ram installed on a pc. Any help in this
matter would be greatly appreciated

 

[Bob Willard]

Jim B. wrote:
> I recently installed 4 gig of pc2 5300 RAM on a new hp desktop. Windows xp
> will only recognize 3.5 gig of the ram. I read some where that windows xp by
> default will only recognize 3.5 gig of ram. Is there a fix for this - where
> windows will recognize ALL the ram installed on a pc. Any help in this
> matter would be greatly appreciated
>
>

No fix, other than replacing XP with a 64-bit OS. XP has a 32-bit address
space (4GB), and some of that address space must be used to address things
other than RAM (I/O registers, etc.).
--
Cheers, Bob

 

[Bob I]

The only problem is that you misunderstand memory addressing. You ARE
recognizing ALL of the "available" RAM. There is 4 GB of address space,
and some of that is needed to address your installed hardware. Those
addresses cannot be used as RAM addresses.

Jim B. wrote:

> I recently installed 4 gig of pc2 5300 RAM on a new hp desktop. Windows xp
> will only recognize 3.5 gig of the ram. I read some where that windows xp by
> default will only recognize 3.5 gig of ram. Is there a fix for this - where
> windows will recognize ALL the ram installed on a pc. Any help in this
> matter would be greatly appreciated
>
>