RAM not showing

I just pulled out the 2 512 ram cards in my laptop and replaced them with 2 2gb cards. Windows is saying I have 3gb of ram instead of 4 yet when I had the 2 512 cards it showed 1024.

 

http://www.dansdata.com/askdan00015.htm

 

Windows 32 bit operating system can only use 3.25 or so ram by design. The other portion goes to page filing or some windows operating executable. Lame cap if you ask me. I have the same problem. Im sure the post above links to a site which explains this engineering marvel.

 

Ive also heard that when you install sp1 to windows vista it says 4gb, but your still only using 3.2gb. They did this just to curb the complaints....gotta love microsoft.

 

i am running 16 gigs in xp 64, and will continue to use xp64 until its completely dead and unsupported. it works so much better than vista. when my 32 bit motherboard dies, i am building another 64 bit machine with the parts i have set aside. the ram cap is a huge handicap.

 

I bought 4 b/c toshiba(who makes this POS laptop) specs says a little over 4gb is the max.

I am leaving the 4 in there unless I find out its going to hurt something.

 

Yeah, it's called hard math and 32 bit addressing. No conspiracy. The limitation is not there by design, but by a problem presented in CS 101 Vis-à-vis mathematical limitations inherent in a 32 bit OS.

 

Well, it's not MS, it's the limitation of 32-bit architecture. Vista SP1 merely removed redundant remapping of devices in the higher range of memory addresses. Not a problem with MS, but with the innate limitations of 32-bit architecture and addressable memory.

How to solve the problem? Upgrade to Vista 64-bit.

 

It won't hurt anything.

 

Ok, thanks.

The computer has been slow since I got it. Lately its been worse which is why I bought the RAM. Another problem it has had is McAffee has been causing problems. I uninstalled it and now the computer flys. I think it was the problem all along.

 

Likely. McAfee and Norton's Antivirus have in my experience been pretty major resource hogs. What do you have on there now?

 

Nothing at the moment. Don't know what to get. Don't want my computer slow either. I have a desktop that I format every 6 months and re-load windows on. No protection software is on it. I've never had a problem. I will probably do that with the laptop. I have all my files on external drives that I only hook up to save or retrieve files then disconnect.

 

Well FWIW, I like AVG. It's free to download and use and I haven't had any problems with it.