Where does my memory go?
Memory Problems In Windows Vista
Yesterday, I got a rude shock, when I saw my computer’s system information. The computer showed me, 3 GB of RAM instead of 4 GB, which I had purchased earlier from my hardware person. I started putting my curse on hardware person, for cheating me. I told the hardware person about the problem. He said he has no idea of it, as he had his job perfectly. He even came and changed RAM in my computer. But, to my surprise, the computer showed me same results. Then, I tried to contact many professionals on this problem. Some replied that, the memory included graphics memory too. But, I was not satisfied by their replies. I started thinking why this problem has occurred. One of my friends said that, he got 4 GB instead of 3 GB in his computer.
One day, a mail from my cousin, contained some interesting links to memory related topics. I copied the link from the mail client of my computer, and pasted on to the web URL of Internet Explorer, and, and very much surprised to see that, the article is related to my problem.
How to access the system information XP
In the article, I found that the problem is due to an unexpected result of certain hardware and software factors. One way to access the system information is by clicking start, type system in the search box, and then clicking system under programs or, by double clicking system in the control panel.
Two different addressing modes
1. The start button in Windows Vista does not include
the word Start. Instead of it, a windows logo got displayed.
The start menu has been revamped. The Start search option
enable one to launch a program directly if found. It
can be used for normal searching also, which searches
for words in files, folders etc. One can enjoy this
new feature very much.
Great 3D graphics
A computer specialist knows that, the computer operates in two different addressing modes. Various devices such as CD-Drive, Display card, etc inside the computer system operates by making use of memory mapped access. For Memory Mapped I/O to be available to the 32-bit operating systems, the address space must be within the first 4 GB of address space. Otherwise, the devices attached to the computer remain non-functioning. For example, suppose, if one has a video card that has 256 MB of on-board memory, the memory gets mapped into total available address space. It will not be get treated as separate address space. Thus, the amount used for memory mapped I/O gets involved in the total system memory itself. Thus, this condition in turn reduces the memory which is available to the operating system. The reduction in system memory depends on the additional devices that are installed in the system. However, in order to avoid the compatibility problems, windows vista limits the available size of memory to 3.12 GB. Thus, it is a fact, that, the total memory gets reduced further, if, there is more number of devices attached to the computer.
Condition for Vista to make use of all 4 GB of RAM
For, vista to make use of all 4 GB of RAM, one should satisfy the following requirements.
1. The chipset must support at least 8 GB of address space. This makes more space for additional device, as the system will no longer use the 4 GB of address space, which was yes in the earlier case of 4 GB address space. The following chipsets has the capabilities of handling 8 GB of address space.
1. Intel 975X
2. Intel P965
3. Intel 955X on Socket 775
4. Chipsets that uses AMD Processor on Socket F, socket 940, Socket 939, or socket AM2.
2. The CPU must be of supporting X-64 architecture as well as instruction set of X-64. Look for Processors such as AMD 64 and Intel EM64T, as they support X-64 instruction set.
3. BIOS also need to have a feature of memory remapping. The memory remapping will rewrite the memory allocation by reallocating the device memory, out side the actual RAM.
4. An X-64 bit version of Windows Vista.
One need not get panic, if he checks the amount of RAM installed in his computer by accessing the system information. As said 32-bit architecture will give us all wrong memory information by leaving out the address space occupied by the devices that were installed in the system, while counting. Otherwise, there is no major problems with the system.
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