Hi all, i just brought 4gb of RAM and installed it, booted up my system but it only shows 2.62gb on %26#039;My Computer%26#039; properties. I%26#039;ve heard you have to change the boot.ini file but don%26#039;t know where it is? Could someone please give me very clear instructions on how to do this?
I am running XP pro SP3 on an Acer Aspire 5100. I ran an online scan and it told me i could support upto 4gb, hence why i brought it, and when i checked some online doc%26#039;s on my laptop that too said i could support 4gb.
Many thanks in advance guys n gals|!!!!!
Hope someone can help?|||XP will reserve some of the addressable space for it%26#039;s own use. You%26#039;ll never see it showing the full 4GB.|||XP can only register 3gb of RAM if you want to use the full 4gb then upgrade to vista.|||Because windows xp is designed on 32 bits it can address only 4G of memory space. This means that if you have swap file on (virtual memory). It will limit the amount of physical memory that it can manage.
So to be able to see all of your physical memory try to disable the swap file and see what happens.
You can do this by going to System proprieties -%26gt; Advanced -%26gt; Performance -%26gt; Advanced -%26gt; Virtual Memory -%26gt; Change|||GO TO BIOS AND CHAK THE RAM.U CAN DO THIS BY HITTING F10/F2/DEL ETC(DEPANDS UPON U R LAPPY) WHAN U R LAPTOP GET STARTED..............
IF IT IS SHOWING THER THAT U HAVE 4 GB RAM THAN DON%26#039;T WORRY.IT MEANS U HAVE 4 GB RAM
NOW U%26#039;LL ASK ME Y THIS HAPPENDS.THIS HAPPENS
BECAUSE
1) U R LAPTOP%26#039;S MOTHER BOARD DOES NOT
SUPPORTS XP
2) U DONT HAVE
GENUINE XP|||You do have 4GB of RAM, but not all of that is available for use by the OS. More than likely your built in video card is a shared memory video card. That is using some of your memory.
You can edit the boot.ini file which is a hidden system file at the root of the c:\ drive. You need to go into your explorer in the folder options turn on see hidden and protected operating files.
You can add the /3GB switch to your boot.ini file, but for XP this may cause your system to become unstable as many drivers are incompatible with this.
See more at:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/鈥?/a>
You could also install the 64-bit version of XP which would recognize all the RAM, but many applications are not compatible with this version and there may not be drivers for your laptop that support 64 bit XP, so I would not recommend it.|||Ok, here is HOW to do it:
Why it%26#039;s happening:
The range of integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4,294,967,295 or 鈭?,147,483,648 through 2,147,483,647 using two%26#039;s complement encoding. Hence, a processor with 32-bit memory addresses can directly access 4 Gigs of byte-addressable memory.
However, it is not a waste, there is a function called PAE (Physical Address Extension) which will, in a nutshell, tell your cpu to use all 4 gigs, while your os will continue to detect that you%26#039;re using say 3.2 gigs of RAM. to enable PAE, you need to edit the boot.ini file with this by adding :
/PAE
How to edit the boot.ini file:
STEP 1, SAVE A BACKUP, this is an IMPORTANT FILE!
Save a Backup Copy of Boot.ini
1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
-or-
Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl, and then click OK.
2. On the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
3. Under System Startup, click Edit. This opens the file in Notepad ready for editing.
4. In Notepad, click File on the Menu bar, and then click Save As.
5. Right click in an empty area of the Save As dialog box, point to New in the context menu, and then click Folder.
6. Type a name for the new folder, for example temp, and then press the ENTER key to create the folder named temp.
7. Double-click the new folder named temp, and then click the Save button to save a backup copy of the Boot.ini file.
STEP 2, Edit the Boot.ini File:
Edit the Boot.ini File
To view and edit the Boot.ini file: 1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
-or-
Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl, and then click OK.
2. On the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
3. Under System Startup, click Edit.
*-------------------------------------鈥?br>
Here is how the boot.ini file looks %26gt;%26gt;BEFORE%26lt;%26lt; you edit it:
*-------------------------------------鈥?br>
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partiti鈥?br>
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WI鈥?Windows XP Professional%26quot; /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer
*-------------------------------------鈥?br>
Here is how the boot.ini file will look %26gt;%26gt;AFTER%26lt;%26lt; you edit it:
*-------------------------------------鈥?br>
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partiti鈥?br>
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WI鈥?Windows XP Professional%26quot; /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer /PAE
Note: That you must be careful NOT to change anything ELSE, just add the /PAE to the last line exactly as I have
shown you.
You will now SAVE this file as boot.ini and reboot your computer.
If anything goes wrong, then be prepared to go into SAFE MODE, by holding down F8 on bootup and then RESTORE the original backup boot.ini file.
for more info on PAE, see the following links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Ad鈥?/a>
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system...A鈥?/a>
http://technet2.microsoft.com/window....鈥?/a>|||I think your motherboard can%26#039;t take it anymore
it must show at least 3.10 GB RAM
