ADO. Inconnu wrote:
Quote:
> I bought my SonyVaio Notebook Computer (VGN-SZ57N, with 1GB of Ram) coming
> with an Vista Business installed, I can't work with its poor
> performance, so
> I bought / installed another new 4GB(2x2GB) Ram to replace the original 1GB
> of Ram(Product Spec. told that it support 4GB of Ram). As a result I
> realized both the Bios and Vista the OS seeing only 3GB(actually 3070MB)
> Physical Memory. I google around and I heard about Hardware's lacking of
> remapping feature and Software's 32 bit OS limitation issues, but I hope I
> still can hear someone here told me that this is an deadend for getting my
> current computer to see and work with 4GB of Ram.
>
> Please let me know whether this is a motherboard limitation or this is a
> matter of 32bit versions of Windows, any explaination... Thanks so much for
> your kindly help, I just felt sick of keeping search on this topic and I
> think I can accept all of this if this is a matter of time (People told me
> SP1 could solve all of this) or money (They told me I should upgrade to
> 64bit Vista Ultimate to work 4GB Ram). Hey, anyway thanks again, have a
> nice
> day. 
>
> A.
>
The most any 32 bit address register can take is 4 GB so the limit is
set by the 32 bit OS and / or 32 bit hardware. Video and other things
take up some of the address space so whatever they use cannot be used by
the OS. There is nothing you or anyone can do about this, including a
service pack. It should not do any harm, just seems a bit wasteful,
however you did the best thing by using all the same RAM, it can be a
problem using mixed versions and you should get the best you are going
to get from it. Make sure you visit the makers' website to get latest
drivers for all chipsets and components, that may improve speed. Some
drivers that ship on new machines are not exactly the greatest.